Red versus Blue

This may be a sound a little confused. If so, I apologize. It's a little difficult to tie this all together.

I always liked this exchange from Star Wars (1977!). I found the last line especially notable:

Governor Tarkin: You don't know how hard I found it, signing the order to terminate your life.
Princess Leia: I'm surprised that you had the courage to take the responsibility yourself.
Governor Tarkin: Princess Leia, before your execution, you will join me at a ceremony that will make this battle station operational. No star system will dare oppose the Emperor now.
Princess Leia: The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

I was reading a story about Paul Krugman (economist and columnist) in The New Yorker and it suddenly came to me why our country is so bitterly divided: the two sides have completely different basis for their view of the situation. The Democrats are looking at the situation rationally and analytically. Working from that basis they are trying to figure out what would benefit the most people. The Republicans are operating on a more emotional, a more human level. What is best for the individual person? How can we have the most freedom for the individual? People should learn to behave themselves, be responsible for their own actions and not be a burden on others.

No wonder they can't agree on anything. They have no common basis for their conversations.

The problem with the Democrats is that want everything to be smooth and orderly, they want everyone to have a place in society and to be happy in their place. The problem is that people are not like that. You go smoothing the rough edges off a person and eventually you are left with nothing. The Republicans subconsciously realize that and that's why they are so opposed to the New World Order.

Okay, maybe I have the Democrats & the Republicans confused, but I think that goes a long way toward explaining why we are so polarized.

Another way to look at it, is that the Democrats want things to be smooth and orderly. On the Republican side we have some serious criminals who are only interested in increasing their own power and fortunes. These lying criminals are playing to the emotions of the disenchanted, encouraging them to make a big obstructionist hullabaloo.

So I have dilemma. On one hand we have the democrats trying to smother everyone with kindness, and on the other we have the Republicans trying to force everyone into rigid little boxes. And they both want obedience. I suspect the only reason I am leaning to the left these days is because I think our modern day Republican robber barons have brought the country to the brink of ruin.