disheartening political imagery

Everyone seems to be uploading random pictures to Facebook these days. Some are humorous. Some factual. Some absurd and/or angering.

This week, I found two that I had to mention. I hate getting into long, drawn-out Facebook battles with political extremists, but I had to make a comment somewhere, hence here.

First, the budget on the right is fascinating. It really is amazing what removing a few zeroes can do. It's impossible for a family to survive on such outlandish spending. I'm a firm believer in fiscal conservatism, meaning limited spending and spending within one's means. I find it amusing that the ones harping on this are Republicans who rarely realize just how much spending Reagan and George W. Bush spent. It's not simply the evil Obama. Now, I'm not one to simply quote a liberal economics blog (in fact, they can be annoying for me to read at times), but this one by Paul Krugman, a New York Times opinion contributor, was particularly relevant. Here, he briefly reminds us where we are indebted to, largely ourselves. While this is still not where anyone should want our government to be, it's less scary than it could be. While I don't support a balanced budget amendment just yet (I don't think our country could survive), I believe we need to do mass scaling back until we can live within our means. Just not all at once.

Second, this picture ANGERS me. My friends posting this are pandering to political extremism. Clinton clapping for the forgotten American? I'm not necessarily a Democrat, but aren't Democrats doing more for forgotten Americans than Republicans? Aren't Republicans arguing solely for corporations? Okay, I exaggerated there, but being a lifelong student of History, I see this as an extremely inaccurate representation. While I instantly loved seeing presidents together, I found it disheartening to see such division. This picture does correctly identify that division. However, it only increases the divide and further damages Republican and Democrat collaboration. It shows flawed and close-minded both parties are. This picture shows me a need for a third party, a party where one isn't forced to worship Obama or find him a Constitution-crushing dictator (which he is not). I really hope people stop giving credence to an artist pandering to reckless political extremism.