Clarity, From a Distance

This is a shot Lili, Szóda, Dió, and me on the island of Brač. That was the last trip of the summer, and it was a good one. Dóra’s got the album up here on Picasa if you’re interested.

We’ve been back for over a week now. School’s started up, and I’m teaching two classes of seventeen. Twelve different countries represented in the classroom, and a theme of inter-cultural exchange in the Writing Skills course. It makes for an interesting day at work.

Dóra’s folks are here in Hungary until the middle of October, and we’ve spent some quality time with them. So things are busy, but there is one thing we can’t escape: The US elections.

I’m fairly certain our exposure is not as overwhelming as it is for those in the States, but it is exhausting none-the-less.

Exhausting for two reasons:

First, people actively seek out my opinion because I’m actually able to vote.

Second, and certainly the more exhausting reason, the European view of American politics is so skewed that I’m often asked to re-explain the issues I'm concerned about. "You mean it about more than just race?"

I’m not saying I live in a vacuum or that I am the only expert over here. I have friends at work who are more up-to-date on this than I am.

Then there’s Dóra, her folks, and the e-news all keeping me humble. But the repeated experience of breaking down my views for people who are unfamiliar with America’s issues has had an effect on me.

Warning! This post will now address politics!

I’ve been politically-minded for years now, and my opinions are important to me. However, I’ve always done my best to hear out and weigh the arguments of those who disagree with me. Not only is this the polite approach, it also allows me to shift my stance if I come across hard evidence that runs counter to my opinions. I don’t think such a maneuver signals weakness, but strength.

You see, I have close friends and family who sharply disagree with my politics. I respect the intelligence and opinions of these people. And in deference to them, I try to keep an open mind on the issues. When they are correct, I’ve learned to swallow my pride and accept their take.

But then yesterday I experienced something for the very first time. I was explaining my choice for president to yet another European who thought a white person was more qualified to be president than a black person (he didn’t seem to care about who the candidates were). I was halfway through my bare-bones explanation of the issues when I experienced – for the first time – absolute certainty and complete clarity.

It was mind-blowing. For the first time in my life, I realized that nothing could change my opinion: The Republican Party as it exists today cannot run the executive branch of the US Federal Government.

I think I reached the tipping point when I started describing the FDA’s inability to contain the Salmonella outbreaks, but it might have been when I got through summarizing the complete lack of oversight on Federally-insured loans.

Whatever it was…

Funding a war with borrowed money,

Failing to maintain basic infrastructure,

Allowing speculation to drive up the cost of oil,

A weak-dollar policy,

Bailing out buddies at a private investment firm with taxpayer dollars (which creates expectations from other firms that want the same kind of treatment) despite the Party’s hard line against government interference in the private sector,

Expanding the powers and size of the central government despite the party’s claim to favor small government…

…I cannot think of any reason someone would vote for the Republicans. The blunders I listed are not Bush blunders. He may have taken us to a war on false intelligence. He may have over-politicized the judicial branch. He may have made more mistakes than that. He’s administration has stumbled, sure. But the Republican Party’s arbitrarily enforced small-government policies are responsible for too many of America’s largest problems today.

I will remain registered an independent and keep an open mind on other matters. But this issue is closed for me. You can like or dislike McCain. You can feel energized or deflated by whoever that disaster of a VP nominee is. You can say Obama is the president we need, or completely un-presidential. But you cannot get me to believe that the Republican Party is capable of wielding executive power at the Federal level in its current state.

Finally, please check out my brother Myles's music store. He's quite good, and by quite good, I mean excellent. But you don't have to take my word for it...