Reality Check: Is This the Political Atmosphere We Want?

Election season's over!

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  I had a blog all ready to go today. And it had nothing to do with the election or politics. But some thing's been eating at me this election season, and now is as good a time as ever to address it.

  It seems to me that we, as Americans, have a problem. Safe to say, that you've seen it too. I know, because I've seen the fed-up posts on FaceBook; the 'now we can go back to being decent human-beings' posts.

  Really? Why was it acceptable to NOT be decent human-beings? Just because it was election season?

  When did our political atmosphere become so polarizing? When did we become so fragmented? So hateful even?

  How do we expect to move forward and progress? We don't even respect each other's opinions.

  I'm far from a political junkie, and still relatively young in this voting game, but it seems to me that year after year, the gap between the right and the left widens further.

  That's not how it should be. And that's not the atmosphere that will most-benefit our country.

  How was the atmosphere 20, 30, 40 years ago? I know a lot has changed, just in the past few years, with the influx of social media and information being at our fingertips 24/7. But we cannot allow those advancements to change us for the worse.

  We need to demand more from ourselves, and maybe more importantly, more from the media.

The Media Effect
  Like it or not, the media has a great deal of power over us.

Blue vs. Red?

  If we continue to watch it, they'll continue to put the bickering, hateful, argumentative stories on air. Because it sells. In turn, we become hateful, bickering, argumentative people; that get nothing accomplished.

  We voted at the polls yesterday, let's vote with our viewership as well. Every day. 

  Demand better from our mainstream media, or seek out other sources. Simple as that.

Not 'Us" versus 'Them'
  We all know, to accomplish anything in this world, we need cooperation and teamwork. We need both sides in this fight to make our country better. There cannot be a huge crevasse between the left and the right. If we truly have OUR country's best interest at heart, we need both sides to make progress.

  It's not 'us' versus 'them'. We're all Americans, remember? We're in this together. We need to, at the very least, respect each other's opinions. Once we have that, then maybe we can work on compromise.

  Am I naive to expect more from us?

  I watched President Obama's acceptance speech. He talked about this very thing. We're not red and blue states. I hope he's right when he says we're not as divided as the pundits say we are. But as I take a look around me, I'm told otherwise.

  He seems confident that he can lead us closer together. I hope he's right. But there's a lot of work to be done, by US all.

More to be Done
  While we're at it, there are a few more things we should address:

•  Having 100s of millions of dollars (billions???) thrown into campaigning is NOT OK. There is entirely too much money involved in our elections.
• It's not OK that people's right to vote is threatened. Every American deserves the right to cast their vote. And in a timely manner. Four+ hour wait-times at the polls are unacceptable.
• Church and state were separated in our First Amendment for a reason. Religion has no place in our government.
• Campaigning needs a serious overhaul. It's not OK to demonize the opponent, and tear him or her apart. It's not OK to lie and cheat our way to the top.

  No one's going to fix it by themselves. So it's up to us to demand the change, and demand the compromise.

  These are just my two cents, and thank you for being patient through one last political essay (from me). But I doubt I am alone in thinking like this. I just think we need a little wake up call before we go too far. 

  What can we do to make a change for the better, and be 'decent human-beings' no matter the season?