Tension on the Ropes

Is anyone else tired of Democrats? I am. Don't get me wrong, I'm no Republican, or even a conservative for that matter. I'm just tired of these two political parties trying to pull everything out to the extremities.

Republicans say if you don't vote against healthcare, you aren't a "real" Repbulican. In other words, "come out here with us to the fringe and get off the bridge or we're going to cut the ropes and then you'll be one of them."

Democrats are doing the same thing, by the way. If you don't vote pro-choice or for the public option, you aren't a "real" Democrat. Nevermind that you vote with us on every other issue, this is one of our values that isn't negotiable. That's getting pretty close to saying "If you can't espouse these 5 statements, you're not one of us."

So what's wrong with that? We all want some place to belong, right?

Here's the problem: that's fundamentalism which is extremism. Liberal or conservative, extremists are bad. They make the world black and white, good and evil, with us or against us. We demonize the other side, make everything their fault ("If we didn't have those bourgeois/Jewish/Muslim/evolutionist/et al... then we'd be better off!") Then it's completely understandable when we hop-skip-jump to violent action to do something about it.

I'm feeling something and its larger than politics or even religion. I'm feeling a tautness in the world. The tension of the pull of two extremes is mounting and I'm wondering if a tear isn't coming. I hope that when they cut the ropes, peace isn't what falls into the abyss.