Paq

Ok, this has been brewing within me for a bit, so bear with me.

For those who know me, you'll know i've been trading stocks for a while, pattern/momo/daytrading with some value investing thrown in for the longterm picture..

Why do i tell you this? simple. A lot of my money comes from judging what the market is doing in general and what a particular stock is doing in general. I keep up to date with what will affect the price and ultimately, my profits...

So, I watch a lot of business news and a lot of people are hounding on a completely deadlocked gov't when the democrats take office. A happy market is one with a stable gov't, basically. It doesn't matter if it's dem or republican, just that it's predictable, stable, etc.

anyway, a lot of talking heads are feaing a completely deadlocked government after the next election. And I started thinking...and listening more..and trying to grasp our current situation in this country...and i've found that we are in a very unique place in time right now.

I cannot recall anytime in history when the govt/people have been so divided that nothing can effectively be accomplished. We have been extremely divided in the past, but there was always room for compromise...and now we are so polarized that ANY form of compromise is rare or nonexistant. I blame the bushco for a lot of this with no help given from the dems.

Bush and co seem to come up with the most divisive issues imagineable to push to the front of the political headlines.

Immigration, for instance, seems to have popped up out of nowhere to the frontlines. We have always dealt with immigration one way or another without it being frontline news for months on end. Everybody knows the system needs to change, but it's the way it's being presented that seems to divide people.

Gay marriage is another. We need to find a way to address the equality issue, but honestly, was it even an issue before it was brought up? If so, was it even close to a federal issue?

Stem cell research...ok, this one is a huge issue, but the way it was presented is wholly biased and religious based, certainly a way to completely divide the public.

Abortion..ok, so this one is dragged out by politicians every election cycle to demonize the other group. Sorry, it's not going to change, stop using it for a rallying call to your base. Every few years, politicians will bring it up, drum up a lot of support pro and con and then what happens? nothing. Republicans fear outlawing abortion as much as democrats, but for obviously different reasons. Besides, would it be political suicide for a dem to be pro-life and a republican to be pro-choice? Apparently most feel that way.

What i'm just saying, in short, is that this country has had its issues, certainly. However we have always found a middle ground and made ourselves better because of it. I just feel that we are currently faced with far too many supremely divisive issues in far too short of a time. That, coupled with 2 parties who are so fundamentally different that they don't even agree to disagree anymore.

republicans have such a hard time passing ANYTHING more than a gallstone and they control both houses...what's going to happen when they lose a majority and have some serious opposition? For that matter, what good is having a democrat majority when everything they propose will get shot down by the remaining repubs or ultimately by the president?

Does anyone see a unifying resolution to abortion, immigration, gay rights, stem cell research, the war in iraq, the war on terrorism, the new torture resolution, any of these? I seriously think they will be quietly swept under the radar when cooler heads prevail. IF cooler heads prevail, that is.

It's so funny/scary to see the insane rise of straight party voters for the past few elections...what's even more hilarious is that the two parties so closely resemble each other in some serious fundamental ways. I'm sure ustwo and matthew330 and dksuddeth can quote numerous examples of which i'm not even touching here.

I'm just worried about the present and future of this country, that's all. I just find it a very tumultuous time that seems to be full of rhetoric and lacking in accomplishments.

I'd love to hear some thoughts on this

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Live.

Chris