The second reason has everything to do with the decision that the court made recently which essentially allows corporations and individuals to give as much money for political purposes as they like. What that means of course is that enormous sums of money are being spent by both sides this time around. Given that there is no legal requirement for all of this spending to promote the truth, we are being barraged by scaremongering and misinformation on behalf of the "establishment" represented by the richest 1% of the population and their representatives. For these people, it is very fortunate that there are at least 40% of the population that are extremely gullible and love to believe in conspiracy theories. There was a hilarious series of interviews at a recent political rally in Ohio where the attendees were asked about their various concerns. One woman was very concerned about possible losses of freedom that might ensue if the incumbent wins. Needless to say, she couldn't actually name or otherwise identify any of these freedoms at risk. Another woman was concerned about Obama's religion (and that of his father, as if that is of any concern to us). He's a follower of the Rev. Wright, he's a muslim and an atheist. When asked which of those she believed he was, she simply said "all of them." The level of ignorance is staggering.
I could go on and on.
But the one thing that I was shocked to hear is split right down the middl, is the belief (or disbelief) in anthropogenic global warming. Ten years ago, largely thanks to Al Gore, a substantial majority of the population believed in AGW. But so much money has been put in on the other side now (money, I should point out that could be better spent trying to figure out what to do about the problem), that approximately half the population now believes that global warming is a hoax. And this despite a devastating series of hurricanes in recent years that surely even the backwoods boys have heard about.
While of course looking at just one aspect of climate doesn't prove anything, I am still convinced that the vast majority of specialist climate scientists, almost all of whom are of the same opinion, are right. These are the people who have the expertise, the data, and the networking to look at every aspect of the issue. Thank goodness there are still such people who are willing to speak up.
I feel strongly that the opponents of the mainstream view, and who are politically or financially motivated (actually those are the same thing), are actually evil. When we should be listening to our scientists and planning for the future of our children and grandchildren. we are instead, like Nero, prevaricating.
Over the years I have come to realize that there are three essential differences between the Democrats and the Republicans:
- long-term view versus short-term;
- distribution of wealth (and correspondingly maximizing GDP) versus concentration of wealth;
- hope (and open information) versus fear (and censorship).
Everything else derives from these three. I dare say that you could make a good case for combining these into just one.
Just think about the way the internet is viewed by democrats and republicans. The former have embraced the new medium, the latter want to control it, by making information companies liable for anything posted on their sites. In this way, the internet is to conservatives as the printing press was to the Catholic church. Another obvious example is the politicizing of evolution. Only countries ruled by religious fanatics are fearful of the theory of evolution.
Heaven help us if the wrong guy gets elected tomorrow. The future of our 236-year-old experiment in democracy will then be in serious jeopardy. And I will probably have to delete this post!
