Soap Box

To deny that there are unreasonable people on both sides of the political spectrum would be an out and out lie. Both the right and left have their own collection of zealots, ranging from the self aggrandized pseudo-intellectual who is absolutely positive that he or she has seen the light and that for the nation to take any other path than the one in his vision would lead to sure disaster, to the downright kook who bristles at the very mention of the other party's name and, depending on their persuasion, believes that an �R� or a �D� stands for evil and idiocy.

In my opinion, their biggest mistake is to allow their political feelings to drift into the personal realm, negating any hope of meaningful discourse, their intractable, never give an inch attitudes blinding them to even the remote possibility that a modicum of good could actually come from the despised loyal opposition.

For instance, there are people who are totally convinced that Barack Obama has no claim to the presidency because he was not actually born in the USA, which, even if true, is a colossal waste of time six years after the fact.

There are also those who believe that 9/11 was an inside job, facilitated by the Bush administration for some sinister reason that so far has never come to the light of day.

There is the group that believes Fox News is made up of elaborate lies just because they cover stories the main stream won't touch and expose raw nerves of realism in situations that shine a light on issues that affect the politics and politicians they so fiercely defend.

One of the most radical, unbendable and hard core constituencies is the global warming, climate change - or whatever the tacit and grandiose title du jour currently in use � who, over the last century, have gone back and forth between predicting a global Ice Age and then global warming while they are not really sure what's going to happen, they are absolutely convinced that it's catastrophic and monolithic.

And people who don't ascribe to their theory of doom (by the way, I fall in that category) are classified as Neanderthals and throwbacks often castigated by those who refuse to believe that the universal thermostat is in the hand of the One who created the whole thing and that He is not about to turn such a formidable task over to so frail a creature as mankind.

I believe these people have the right to express their opinions, and would be willing to at least listen to their explanations, were they presented in a civil, logical way, but when the first thing out of their mouth is "stupid" or "ignorant", things just kind of deteriorate from there.

And they're not about to give any validity to what I say, no matter how civilly and logically I approach the subject, so here we are at loggerheads.

Any criticism of President Obama is often met with, �you�re a racist� or, "look at the mess Bush left him with�. If you mention Obama's cold decision to not even attempt to send help to four Americans trapped in a burning building in Benghazi the response is, "well look how many embassies were attacked and how many people were killed on Bush's watch".

The only answers some people have for Fast and Furious, IRS, NSA, Benghazi, trading five of the world's most dangerous terrorists for one soldier of questionable loyalty, the house of cards economy, the insurgency in Iraq, the Russian occupation of Crimea, the firing of battle hardened military officers and the downgrading of our military, the VA mess, an attorney general who selects which laws he will enforce, the refusal to allow the Keystone Pipeline and allow drilling on federal land, the unyielding national debt, the exit of American industry to other countries and a whole plethora of critical policy mistakes by the Obama administration is to harken back to some mistake made by the Bush administration.
The media protects this president like no other who ever held the office, and in doing so, do a very harmful injustice to the people who depend on them for the information to form their opinions.

Getting only one side of a situation makes for uninformed one-sided opinions.

I refuse to have either an �R� or a �D� next to my name, no party owns my vote and to tell the truth I'm pretty disgusted with both of them right now as I feel they have both let us down and care more about their political futures than they do about the country.

They have refused to curb the excesses of the presidential fiat, they fold in the face of adverse publicity and place stiff backed, out of touch political hacks like Harry Reid in positions of great power and pass legislation they haven't even read.

They refuse to do anything meaningful about the border debacle and pander to ethnic and racial pressure groups and political correctness, talk out of both sides of their mouths and stand by docilely while America's individual rights disappear one by one.

They refuse to come forth in defense of our only ally in the Middle East and I would imagine that the Israeli trust level in the president and Congress is about as low as mine.

But folks, politicians are not what make this nation great; it's us. We The People, Joe Six-Pack, Mr. and Mrs. Average Citizen, we drive the trucks, plow the fields, lay the bricks, build the railroads and man the assembly lines.

We pay the taxes, fight the wars and form the soul and conscience of America and except for the power of Almighty God; our collective opinion is the most powerful force in this country.

Brother and Sister Americans, we don't have to agree on everything, but in the rush to disagree with anything we don't consider to be our brand, we are ignoring all the ultra important things we should at least look at from both sides.

Holding a politician accountable is not being disloyal, it's common sense, trying to insure that your children will still have an American dream to live, it means the difference between the land of the free and the home of the brave or some sniveling, has-been burn out afraid of our own shadow.

It means living free or living under a monolithic top heavy and oppressive government not even knowing what our rights really are.

We need to come together, we need to seek the truth, we need to turn back to the God who made this the greatest nation the world has ever know.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels