America needs to open eyes to see political faults

Image courtesy of depauliaonline.com

By Charles Pohlson, Staff Writer

Have we lost our morals in politics? From shady back door deals, to politicians that believe in the abolition of basic human rights, our government has gotten increasingly more corrupt as time has gone on.

Both major U.S. political parties have their own moral flaws, respectively. I mean, obviously they do, they’re made up of humans, right? Some, more than others. As both parties radicalize further and further away from each other, they still hold on to certain aspects that either drive them apart or hold them back.

For example, the Democratic Party has recently become more liberal, which is pretty great because liberal values in this country show empathy for the greater good. However, not all Democrats are this far left. There are still Democrats who do not see women as their equals, who are racist, who are homophobic. Recently, a yearbook picture of Gov. Ralph Northam, D-Virginia, surfaced of him in blackface, standing next to someone in a Ku Klux Klan robe. At first, Northam confirmed that he was in the picture, but after other prominent Democrats started urging him to resign over this, he stated that he was “not sure” if he was actually in that photo. At press time, he was still refusing to resign over these claims.

There are also Democrats, like the “Bernie-bros,” who attacked Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during her 2016 campaign, just for being a woman! And then there are other Democrats like Lena Dunham who impose their so-called “white feminist” beliefs, while belittling other races in the process. And so on. Is attacking another sex or race really worth promoting a candidate that you want over another?

And of course, there’s also the Republican Party, famous for its undiverse old, white males and blonde, white women. Everything seems to have been covered about this party, or the president of the United States, concerning their extremist conservative views. Republicans are more open to expressing these views and criticizing anyone who opposes them. However, these criticisms aren’t always backed by fact. About 70 percent of President Trump’s claims have been rated either “Mostly False,” “False,” or “Pants On Fire” on Politifact.com, a Pulitzer prize winning fact-checking website.

The lack of diversity in the Republican Party sends a clear message, the GOP isn’t one for all, it’s all for one. Over the last century, this party has turned into corporations and the elite. People like Howard Schultz, former Starbucks CEO who is considering running for president as an Independent in 2020, believe that they could just buy their way to the presidency and do things that’ll benefit themselves as well as their fellow friends.

So neither party is perfect. But it shouldn’t just be written off like that. These are the parties that are representing us, as in, “we” the people. If we truly want anything to change, we have to take a step back and look at what we really believe is important to us, to everyone. Maybe, if everyone started acting out of compassion instead of their own self interest, we wouldn’t have to worry about the direction of the country or the hidden agendas of those who are meant to represent us.