BLOG IN YOUR FACE

Politics…I have a love/hate relationship with you. Kind of like with John Madden…

Back in high school, my guidance counselor was the president of the League of Women Voters. She sparked my interest in attending caucuses, city council meetings and things of that nature. I spent one summer at Iowa State University my junior year at a camp for future political science majors. I won the Voice of Democracy essay contest at my high school 2 years in a row. I was really crazy about politics. I thought it was my calling. Then I went to college and basically forgot all about it.

Over the last 8 years I have gone through two tough transitions. The first is trying to figure out where I stand with God and my faith. The second is trying to figure out where I stand with my political beliefs. I don’t think I would be the only one in America to say that I don’t really care for either of the major political parties. Frankly, I am pretty fed up with both. It seems as the gap between the two parties widens, American progress slows down more and more. Basically, I have given up with trying to keep up with it all.

Every once in awhile, politics spark my interest again. I went to Wales, UK for my last year of college. While there I met some amazing people from Sweden and I became really, really intrigued by Scandinavian government. Basically, Sweden is a Social Democracy. Somewhere between Socialism and Democracy (hence the name…duh, Andy). They tax their citizens about 50 percent of their income, but here is the kicker: THEY DON’T PAY FOR ANYTHING AND THE GOVERNMENT ACTUALLY TAKES CARE OF THEM. People in Sweden almost NEVER complain about their government. And they don’t have to pay for college, daycare, health-care, insurance, sales tax or retirement. NOTHING…the government basically controls all of those things and the 50 percent of a household income that is left over is theirs to spend as they please. They have high taxation, but also great representation.

Scandinavian countries are pretty self sufficient. You never really hear about any major crisis up there, or here about them getting involved in any offensive military action. Their military budget is next to nothing compared to the rest of the world and they mind their own business. They are so happy and they have so much pride in their country and their culture. And one of the things that I most admire is that they are leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the world in their conscientiousness about the environment.

In America, I feel like the closest political party to the Scandinavians is the Green Party. I think it is to bad that America is so Bi-Partisan. My guess is that most of us have never taken the time to research the political beliefs of other parties outside of the Republicans and Democrats.  It is to bad that most Americans have come to fear government or even HATE government. I used to be so passionate and intrigued by the state of political affairs and I have become so fed up with them by this point that I could really care less anymore. 

Anyway…back to the title of this blog. In the post below I mentioned a website that I stumbled across called Braden’s Corner. I was browsing through its content when I came across a post about environmentalists affecting the price of gasoline. It has been a long time since I have been involved in any kind of political discussion. Jaci could care less about politics and she is basically all I have to talk too. So I decided to leave a comment and put my two cents in to this Braden guy. Little did I know that it would spark a week long OBSESSION in which I completely neglected to run errands and do anything productive with my blog or for Jaci and I’s house plans. I wanted so bad for this Braden character to admit that he was wrong and I was right! I started to take the discussion on his blog VERY seriously and personally and I was actually getting stressed out about it.

At the end of the week I threw in the towel on the political discussion with him because I was exhausted. It was all I was thinking about outside of work and I needed to give it up. I came back to my own blog and I was so stressed out that I wrote the post below in one swift stream of consciousness. There is a valuable lesson that I learned shortly thereafter. There is a HUGE difference between someone firmly believing in something and sticking up for that belief, and that person being a JERK-OFF asshole. Braden is not the latter. I am going to leave the post below on here, but I would like to retract my previous statements about Braden’s character.

I know it has been a good lesson for me and I think it should be a lesson for everyone who may happen to stumble across this blog for some strange reason. Don’t judge other peoples’ overall character because of one specific set of personal beliefs that they have. In fact, I am going to make it a point to reevaluate my opinions of other people in my life. I began this blog to improve myself and here is another classic example of an area in my life where I can use a little self-improvement.

Anyway…I am going to stop being all Dr. Phil on myself and go eat a baked potato. Plus, I think my dog has to take a crap.