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How would we know, anyway?

It strikes me as hilarious when I realize just how uninformed the American public is. We complain, we blog, and we have, for the most part, absolutely no idea what we’re talking about. Ask someone you know about health care reform, or the Stimulus package. Other than the same recycled sound bytes and press snippets, you will in all likelihood get nothing. Not that it matters to us; we stand up on our soapboxes, righteous in our ignorance.

What we seem to do, rather than researching the subject and making educated judgements (understandable… after all, information is so hard to come by these days. Where in the world would someone get info on either of those subjects?), we make seemingly all of our decisions along party lines. And therein lies the greatest oxymoron of all, because as a whole, we don’t even know what that means. Think I’m exaggerating? Try to define a republican without using the word ‘conservative’ or citing one of a handful of major issues, or doing likewise with the democratic party avoiding the other L word.

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We truly have turned ourselves into an Orwellian society, and we don’t even realize it. We know virtually nothing about the major events going on in our life, our country, our world. As long as we know enough to pacify our need to think we do, and that we are in some way affecting the world around us, we do as we’re told. How ridiculous the concept of Big Brother once was; we now willingly accept it with open arms.

So how do we know if President Obama is the savior or the apocalypse? How do we move beyond our self imposed blinders? For starters, like an addiction, we admit that there is a problem. Recognize the fact that we really don’t have the slightest idea what’s going on in the world. And then we click off our blogs and start learning! It’s the internet, people. Everything you need is here.

There is little doubt, in retrospect, that George W. Bush did not do much of a job as president. You don’t need to understand why left is left to realize it. But we had a pretty good idea of that in 2004, and we reelected him anyway. Why? Because we are lemmings. Ever heard of Sweetest Day? It’s a holiday concocted by greeting card companies and such as a marketing tool… a random day when they tell our wives and girlfriends that we are jerks if we don’t buy them a gift. (greeting cards tend to work, surprisingly). This two party political system of ours is no different. We are offered two options, and they are marketed. We have conservative radio stations, television channels, and newspapers, and liberal ones to match.

We need, before the next election, to open our collective eyes. I myself am still unsure about Obama, although I did vote for him. I don’t know if his methods will make us or break us. The truth is, no one does. Pundits will tell us that they do, but we are in unprecedented territory here. But if we don’t try to find out the story, we could make that same mistake again. Maybe Obama is doing the best thing possible for the United States, and you vote against him because you’re a republican and you’re supposed to. Maybe, as we did with Bush, he’s making an utter mess and we put him in office for four more years because, hey! We’re Democrats!

Either way, let’s get informed. I’m providing some links… none of them are mine. A starting point, if you will. Some very basic information on the issues that will, in the near future, determine the course of our future. It’s 2009, people. Let’s stop living in 1984.

What is a Republican?

What is a Democrat?

Obama’s Health care plan

Stimulus Package

Obama Campaign Promises

It’s time to educate ourselves; no one is going to do it for us.