As far as I can tell, liberals and conservatives, or Democrats and Republicans, have never been buddies in a lot of cases (I've seen exceptions to this, but they're few and far between). But ever since 9/11, libs and cons seem to be at each other's throats more than ever before. or has it always been like this, and I just never noticed?

The reason this bothers me is that both sides waste so much time playing the blame game with each other and demonizing each other, that they forget to objectively try and find solutions for whatever the problem is. It's especially sickening when it's the people in power who are guilty of petty infighting. These days, we have some very big problems facing us and the world. What's more important, proving the other party is responsible for our problems, or fixing the problems?

After 9/11, this country should have been united like never before. It wasn't an attack on liberals or conservatives, or committed by either side. It was an attack on Americans, with no distinctions between race, religion, age, or political affiliation. And yet, mere months afterwards, I felt like this country was headed towards another civil war. We have the right to be angry, and it's human nature to need a target for our anger, but shouldn't that anger be directed to who was actually responsible for the attack, and not towards our fellow Americans for having different theories about who the bad guys are?

The best part about being an American is that we can debate this kind of thing without worrying about being branded traitors or tyrants. What kind of example are we setting for ourselves by declaring ourselves to be a beacon of Democracy when we call people traitors because we don't agree with their view and allow partisanship to stand in the way of what needs to be done? Wouldn't unity and healthy debate be more inspirational to the world than having Americans say to each other "I'm right and you're wrong, neener neener?" I'm not telling anyone to stop debating or criticizing, but can't we do it without giving into hate or without impeding what needs to be done, whatever it may be?

Washington warned us about dividing ourselves into political parties for this very reason. Lincoln warned us that "a house divided cannot stand against itself."

Sorry to rant like this. I'm just seein all this petty bickering between liberals and consrvatives going on, and all it does is generate more bad feelings between the two groups. It just bothers me when a group of people who should be united wastes their energies fighting amongst themselves. (And don't go 'round saying "it's the other side." Both sides bash the other guys pretty well.)

Again, sorry to rant. I've had to get this off my chest for a long time, and I just couldn't hold it back anymore.

Besides, it's not like anyone reads my posts anyway. [wink]