Nailing The Triple Lindy

I listened to more than 100 albums this year.  While I liked most of them, these 25 were my favorites from 2015:

1. Sink Tapes – Creases Listen on Spotify
2. Houndmouth – Little Neon Limelight Listen on Spotify
3. Diamond Rugs – Cosmetics Listen on Spotify
4. Saun & Starr – Look Closer Listen on Spotify
5. Oil Boom – Red Metal Listen on Spotify
6. Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think… Listen on Spotify
7. Destroyer – Poison Season Listen on Spotify
8. Young Buffalo – House Listen on Spotify
9. Sick Sad World – Fear and Lies Listen on Spotify
10. Love Axe – South Dakota Listen on Spotify
11. Tuxedo – Tuxedo Listen on Spotify
12. Reno Bo – Lessons from a Shooting Star Listen on Spotify
13. Royal Headache – High Listen on Spotify
14. Rayland Baxter – Imaginary Man Listen on Spotify
15. Phylums – Phylum Phyloid Listen on Spotify
16. Yukon Blonde – On Blonde Listen on Spotify
17. Martin Courtney – Many Moons Listen on Spotify
18. Robert Pollard – Faulty Superheroes Listen on Spotify
19. The Helio Sequence – The Helio Sequence Listen on Spotify
20. Best Friends – Hot. Reckless. Totally Insane. (not yet on Spotify)
21. The Cairo Gang – Goes Missing (not yet on Spotify)
22. Tall Tales & The Silver Lining – Tightropes Listen on Spotify
23. Tommy Keene – Laugh in the Dark Listen on Spotify
24. The Sonics – This is The Sonics Listen on Spotify
25. Kristin Diable – Create Your Own Mythology Listen on Spotify

My wife and I recently had a conversation with two of our teenagers about the dismal state of American politics, which I rarely discuss with anyone these days, even though I majored in Political Science back in college. Not that such a course of study makes me more qualified to have such a discussion — it most certainly doesn’t — but having once been interested enough in the topic to spend four years focused on it (actually five, if I’m being completely honest) would seem to suggest a willingness on my part to more frequently discuss politics.

Alas, this is the social media age, where every word posted on Twitter or Facebook is immediately scrutinized, judged, and — if not completely aligned with that particular reader’s entire viewpoint — attacked. Anyone who dares to disagree in the slightest on even the smallest point is instantly branded a dangerous heretic or an imminent threat. This appears to be a direct byproduct of the intense partisanship that currently permeates Washington, D.C., and which has led to the demise of civil discourse.

The two-party system has been in place for well over a century, yet only over the past two decades has the divide between the Democrats and Republicans become so deep and bitter. With each passing year, the rancor and vitriol becomes increasingly hostile. The chasm is now so great, the middle ground has completely eroded. All that remains on the ideological spectrum is the far left and far right.

Somewhere along the way, independent thought became viewed as weakness. To be truly considered a Democrat, you must be unyieldingly liberal, and to be truly considered a Republican, you must be unflinchingly conservative. Any view held by the other side must be immediately opposed, dismissed, rejected, and repudiated as treasonous heresy. Strength can only come from a complete and total alignment of opinion. Dissent is anathema.

As a result, it has become virtually impossible to engage anyone in a reasoned discussion about anything even remotely political. Every single topic, regardless of significance, is now a hot button issue requiring a stance be immediately and definitively taken on one side or the other. All that exists is black and white. Gray is but a distant memory.

That’s why I typically avoid discussing politics, but when our kids wondered aloud who we thought might be the next President, my wife and I considered it a perfect opportunity to try and start reversing the trend of belligerent political discourse in this country by openly engaging the next generation in a civil and respectful manner.

We talked with them about how the two-party system is antiquated and broken, which has caused a level of government gridlock so impenetrable that it severely handicaps the effectiveness of whoever sits in the office — regardless of whether that person is a Democrat or Republican. Each of the past two Presidents — Barack Obama and George W. Bush — have been criticized to the point of villainy by their opposition in Congress, who uses their power to serve as an obstruction to democracy, rather than the conduit they were elected to be.

But most of all, we emphasized to both our 16-year-old son and our 14-year-old daughter the importance of thinking for themselves, rather than simply falling in lockstep with either extreme of the ideological spectrum. Each man and woman in this great country of ours should be free to make their own informed decisions, without feeling any societal pressure to align with one side or the other. A party platform is not sacrosanct, nor should it be viewed as a guide for living one’s life.

Show respect for others to hold opinions which differ from your own. The fact that someone disagrees with you does not make them wrong. Simply because someone has an opposing viewpoint does not mean they are a bad person. This line of thinking has to stop, or this country is doomed. We are capable of peacefully coexisting, despite our differences. That is the very freedom upon which America was founded. Let’s all please try and remember that the next time we engage with someone whose opinion differs from our own.