Adventures in Partisanship...

Today I went to the library. At my grandmother's house. My grandmother lives in rural Arkansas. There are roughly ten itty-bitty towns all around her, about half of them with libraries. We went to one of them. The reading material being a bit scarce (at least in the variety I wished), and there being nothing by Ron Paul, etc., I chose a book by Sean Hannity, Deliver Us From Evil.

Now, usually I don't read Hannity. Or listen to Hannity. Frankly, I find the man a boring alarmist who has nothing better to do than spout Republican talking points. (That's the same reason I don't watch say, Keith Olberman either.) But I'd already read Slander (Ann Coulter) and The Obama Nation (Dr. Jerome Corsi), so I got Hannity's book.

Ugh.

I am on the second chapter. Frankly, I can't decide whether President Obama's Audacity of Hope was better or worse. If we're measuring a book by level of partisanship, they rival each other quite nicely. Of course, they do have opposing viewpoints- Obama blames everything on the Republicans; in Hannity's book, everything is the Democrat's fault.

Frankly, both views are nauseating.

I mean, seriously. Is that the whole substance of our political argument? If I don't like it, it's their fault? Sheesh people, can't we defend ourselves with something beyond that? Can't we have an original thought once in our lives?

Apparently not.

So far, Deliver Us From Evil has been nothing but pro-Bush, pro-war, pro-Constitutionality raping on the part of Hannity. I am sure he did not intend it as such- I mean, anyone could have missed that fact that Iraq is a sovereign nation. And I'll grant you that maybe, just maybe someone could have overlooked the fact that when the ability to set foreign policy is granted to Congress, it doesn't mean we're supposed to go in and invade other countries.

Maybe. But perhaps it's just my personality, but I'm not at all willing to let it slide so easily. The idea that someone of Hannity's stature could miss this is rather astounding to me. But then, given his outspoken support in favor of the PATRIOT act, it isn't surprising that he's so pro-war. Oh, and he's a Republican.

No surprise at all.

I don't understand partisanship. Everything is the opposite side's fault, no matter what it is. Eve eating from the tree was the opposite party's fault, apparently! Cain killing Abel, Noah's flood, the origin of wickedness, the capture of the Israelites...all of it was the opposite side's fault.

Perhaps this can be attributed to human nature. Perhaps it is a natural impulse: to blame someone else for all your troubles.

But when you're a nationally-recognized figure, it just doesn't look good.

Is there any responsibility in the house?