Politics and religion

This archived article was written by: Austin Palmer

For as long as the Unites States has been a country there have been many different political groups and various religions. Our country was founded with the idea that each individual should be free to follow whomever he or she wished both politically and religiously.
One thing that was a constant among the early citizens of our country was an active involvement in both. It seemed that everyone had an opinion and was willing to defend their individual position.
It was probably around this time that the phrase “don’t talk about politics or religion” was coined. Though the saying remains popular, today it is used for an entirely different reason; to cover up fear and ignorance.
Our founding fathers, along with the general population, arrived on the North American continent in search of freedom from corrupt politicians and religious persecution. They were in the process of forming a new country and everyone wanted to be involved in the process in order to ensure that their ideas and beliefs were fairly stated.
Their conviction had such deep roots that they were willing to fight and die to ensure that future generations of American citizens would enjoy the freedom to elect government officials who they felt would best represent them and to follow whatever religious leaders that their hearts dictated. Our present generation seems to be doing very little to ensure that in the future, our children will have the same freedoms and desire to play an active role in government.
Our ancestors probably used the term “don’t talk about politics and religion” because everyone already knew what the different issues were and the lines had been clearly drawn.
In our modern society, the issues are vague and the lines that were once clearly drawn are now different shades of gray depending on the week or the month. We don’t keep up with current issues enough to have the ability to form intelligent opinions about what is going on in our country.
The current debates between potential presidential candidates gives a perfect example of how lax we have become in our demand for sound leadership. Instead of demanding innovative techniques to boost our economy or sound methods of solving the raging health care issues from our presidential hopefuls, it seems that all we want to hear is pointless arguments between the political parties.
It should be a healthy indication that the next president of our country is nothing but a loudmouthed moron when all that any of the candidates can do is point fingers at the current president and talk about what a lousy job he is doing. Why can’t any of them offer new ideas without trying to make the other guy look bad? We should demand more.
As an American people, we need to collectively become more involved in what is happening in our country.
That means getting the facts about the current issues and in general being informed about what needs to be done. We focus too much on what has been done that hasn’t worked than on what may be done that may cause positive reforms.
We all have a civic duty to be informed, productive citizens instead of just followers of the masses.