Jerry Lee Lewis.
So to speak.
"...come on over baby / whole lotta "isms" goin on..."
1. Capitalism-
Noun: An economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.
2. Fascism-
Noun: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.
3. Marxism-
Noun- The economic and political theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that hold that human actions and institutions are economically determined and that class struggle is needed to create historical change and that capitalism will ultimately be superseded by communism.
4. Communism-
Noun- A political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.
5. Socialism-
Noun- A political and economic theory of that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
For those who lack the time, inclination and/or patience to dissect the data, here's the the way it shakes out.
Subscription, up to and/or bordering on passionate fervor, to any one, or any combination, of numbers two through five...
Democrat.
Subscription, up to and/or bordering on religious frenzy, to number one...
Republican.
Oh...and pit bull like subscription to number one while plotting swift and punitive retribution on any/every one who even acknowledges the existence of numbers two through five?...
Tea Party.
Okay, pathological smart ass-ness notwithstanding, let's label this for what it is.
Labeling-
Noun-Attach a label to (something),assign to a category, esp. inaccurately or restrictively.
Pay particular attention to those last three words.
Inaccurately or restrictively.
Walking around the house naked doesn't make you a nudist.
Listening to Lady Gaga or Katy Perry doesn't make you a fan (especially since you can rarely even turn a radio on these days without hearing one or the other).
And belief and/or subscription to one "ism" or another doesn't make you Democrat, Republican or Tea Party.
And let's not even get started on "ists".
Or colors.
America is not a blue state country.
America is not a red state country.
If anything, America is a purple state country.
A mixture of red and blue, America is a country made up of 311 million (give or take) people from all races, creeds, colors, religious, sexual and spiritual orientations who, by and large, simply want, if nothing else, to do fulfilling work, worship their God, feed and clothe their families, send their kids to a decent school, live in a safe neighborhood and have enough money left at the end of the week to see "The Lion King 3-D" in theaters, having seen it the minimum kid quota of seventy five times on DVD at home.
One reason "the American people" are so disheartened, discouraged and/or disgusted with politics is that politicians spend too much time labeling.
And, as any purple state housewife can testify, it's hard to see the quality of the peanut butter when the label gets in the way.
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