Hello, my name is _______ and I am a _______

Before Arlen Specter officially made the jump across the aisle, republicans often referred to him as a RINO (Republican in name only, if you’ve been living under a rock) because he leaned center left on certain issues and voted accordingly. Sen. Specter isn’t the only party defector being picked-on. Earlier this week, Rush Limbaugh spent part of his show discussing Colin Powell and how he too should become a democrat. The bottom line – republicans (especially hardcore righties) love to call out their own, the preferred insults are RINO (when they are very angry) or less offensive names such as neo-con or progressive (which they can easily take back). If I remember correctly (and trust me I have tried to forget…but an elephant never…you know) the Republicans labeled themselves ‘Mavericks’ in the last election (that worked out well…for the Democrats).

We the people have become so critical and irrational when it comes to political disagreements that our country is basically evenly divided. We only believe the polls when they favor our side of the argument. We don’t like investigations or hearings unless we’re holding them. We don’t like the media, unless they are favorable to us. We can’t stand protestors, unless we are the ones protesting. And…we can’t take a joke, period. Each time a new party is in charge we complain about the abuse of power and lack of checks and balances. After losing an election, we have discourse in our own party…insisting on playing the blame game because heads must roll. But…chin up my good people, if history tells us anything, these same courses of action have been ongoing since our young democracy came to be…and if we’re lucky they will continue for all of our time here on earth.