A House Divided

by - January 08, 2011

I try to stay away from politics when it comes to my personal life. After all, I work in the media and am constantly inundated with the political happenings of this country and the rest of the world. The views, legal-speak and bipartisanship that I sift through on a daily basis while putting together my shows exposes me to enough spur-of-the-moment debates and finger-pointing to make me uncomfortable enough to last more than a lifetime.

I know that the general opinion of the population at large is that the media is biased one way or the other. I know that, save for FOX, most major networks swing democratic. If you don't believe me, think back to the last election. NBC, CBS, ABC, all of them gave the democratic candidates enough face time they could have justified giving them their own television show. FOX on the other hand was just the opposite, overrun with Republicans spewing venom in the direction of the nearest democrat.

Where I work, though, isn't a major network. It's a small-town, community station that, I believe, is ethical in its treatment of politics. We give both sides the same treatment, regardless of our individual political views.

I will admit that, as a whole, journalists tend to be more liberal in their thinking, but that says nothing of their political leanings. I would like to think that we've been around the block enough times to not take anything at face-value and realize that half of the bills/laws recently passed in Congress were only passed due to bipartisanship. I would like to think that journalists don't cast their votes based on a party but rather on the issues that the candidates stand for.

It doesn't take a particularly-observant person to see that our national leaders are simply fighting amongst themselves. If the Democratic party supports this then the Republican party doesn't and vice-versa. Is that how we want our country run? Do we want all of the decisions that are made regarding us made simply because the party that holds the majority on Capitol Hill supports it?

When did we become a nation divided by a two-party system? What were we, the voters, thinking?

A great man once said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." That man was Abraham Lincoln, and he was right. Until our leaders start to work together instead of fighting against each other, the reforms that our country needs will never be effective and heartbreaking incidents like the one that just happened in Arizona will continue to happen.

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