Thought on political differences

I had a revelation last night. It was probably from watching The Daily Show, but I noticed that the big thing that Repbulicans used as a weapon against Kerry was flip-flopping (although Neil Young, on Living with War, has a great song about Bush flip-flopping, Let's Impeach the President), especially about his feelings over war and other items. I used to think that was bad, you should hold on to some convictions, but the problem with that is now I realize it is important to think. It seems the right (Republicans and Religous right) are all about convictions or positions regardless of reality. In some places, this faith is good and strong, but not in all cases. Personal beliefs - good, but ruling or leading people who disagree, may not be the best. Thinking based on the situation and the facts might be more important. So changing ones mind is not a bad thing. If they feel that is important based on new facts and situations, it is ok.

Maybe it was just seeing some pundits on The Daily Show spouting off the same ridiculous arguments after the Virginia Tech tragedy a few weeks ago. One idiot was saying that maybe fewer people would have died if some of the other students had been packing heat. The only answer for that is that none of them would have died if the person hadn't been able to buy a gun. Doesn't seem like the pundit was thinking.

The second statement, and sorry for not quoting, but various right wing pundits tried to blame violent hollywood and video games for the person flipping out. Turns out he didn't watch a lot of tv or movies and didn't play video games. Not thinking, just assuming because they want to get rid of them instead of guns. I personally think a lot of the problem is that everyone is taught not to take responsibility for anything, so that makes it easier to blame all your problems and shortcomings on others, and easier to take it out on them.

The third statement, and I think this is what bothered me the most (the others can be defended) was the attempted pre-emptive strike on using this tragedy to move the country forward and get rid of weapons. They, and you hear this all the time, accused liberals of trying to politicize the event, and by saying that, are going to galvanize that thought in people's mind if the liberals, or anyone, trys to do something sensible to stop this kind of thing in the future. The obvious answer to that is everything in Washington is done for political reasons, but where might have agreed to that logic in the past, I can't believe they are trying to politicize this for their own gain, now, after having thought about it for a while, that's how things are done to improve our society. Something bad happens and we take steps to make sure it doesn't happen again. But the republican talking points (again, not thinking) are attempting to stiffle any possible debate on this issue. Not to say that Democrats or liberals don't do similar things, but I think they think about other people more than Republicans, so it isn't as offensive to me. Republicans, to me, seem to think everyone is just like them or should be, whereas Democrats recognize and respect differences. Sometimes too much, but they at least recognize them.

Just my thoughts