Stand and Be Heard

"When we amplify everything we hear nothing."

Jon Stewart is a smart man.

This message came from the lips of one of the most underestimated political commenters of our time. In a few words, Stewart offered the most concise diagnosis of our political discourse to date. We live in an age of muted conversation, confounding roadblocks, and stifled progress born of a discussion overwhelmed by the volume of a minority of participants.

Today, however, I'd like to take this discussion one step further. The overwhelming din isn't simply a problem endemic of election season or even caused by the Tea Party. Frankly at this point progressives are joining in the chorus, adding their own tune to the disharmony. Yelling, anger, and the unwillingness to compromise, even for the sake of progress, are symptoms of something deeper than television commercials.

At this point I am certainly primed for a rant, aren't I? I could launch into a discussion about corporate spending. I could raise hell about "beltway politics". Frankly, I could even concoct some kind of "state sponsored drug war/chemtrail" scandal that would magically assume the appropriate piece to my puzzle.

However, these stories feel more like cop-outs than explanations. The truth is, most societal problems are the conglomeration of bad behavior sparked by some flaw in human psychology that reaches critical mass due to enabling sociopolitical and economic circumstances.

So the question then becomes, what mental disease, born of our American environment has so crippled our national immune system as to prevent us from even voting in our own best interest? The answer: purity.

Deliberation is dirtied by the purification of contending ideologies. The unwillingness to even consider that your opponent may possess a grain of truth (especially in politics) prevents the bridging of gaps of any kind.

This purity, born of anger and confusion, fear and frustration, has poisoned the conversation entirely, preventing us from tackling even our most basic problems. The Tea Party is the epitome of polictical zealotry, and even  some Progressives hint a move in a similar direciton, thinking it the most effective counterattack to the madness.

I assure you, it is not.

So now we know the problem. Discussing it any further risks running the issue straight into the ground. What people really want are action. But what action is best?

Well friends, despite the smothering wave of attack ads and phone calls, the very season that accentuates our condition presents an opportunity, nay, the opportunity for its cure. You see, voting is the very essence of our fight. Pens replace swords, voices replace violence, and at this time we can be united in a single purpose, fighting not against each other, but against our common demons.

Question your vote. Leave no doubt in your mind that you cast the right vote when you leave your polling place. Will you vote for purity? Will you further the stalemate of contending zealots? Or will you consider pragmatism, the reasonable conglomeration of humble ideas, as your candidate?

Vote not A vs. B, but instead vote C. Vote for progress. Understand what progress means and demand it of the most qualified candidate. Ignore the rhetoric and consider your future, your circumstances, your dreams, and your country. Ultimately, do not perpetuate the stalemate, but instead liberate yourself from it.

Vote and take charge. And when you enter that polling place, consider just once that despite your colors, we all believe in the same thing: progress.

Vote.