Blind Faith in Political Parties is Causing Hate in America

Let me be the first to tell you I am no fan of Claire McCaskill's politics. I think Senator McCaskill and those I have spoken to in her well-run office knows this. This by no means will be an endorsement of Claire McCaskill, but I am hearing a lot of people who label themselves as Republicans attack Claire McCaskill's mom for appearing on a campaign commercial while ignoring the content of the commercial.

Here's an example of this on Facebook.

And a long list of replies and likes show that people aren't paying attention to the content. They hate it simply because someone has a D behind their name. By the way, it works both ways. Democrats hate people for simply having an R behind their name. I used to be one of these people who bought into this belief of Republican good and Democrat bad when the truth is 98% of the people in establishment politics are evil, hateful, vile people that you probably wouldn't want to hang out with or put much trust in.

The commercial discussed in this post happens to outline Senator McCaskill's worthy actions to give family members of veterans lost in war closure as the bodies of the lost were mismanaged in incorrectly laid to rest at Arlington Cemetery. Like her or not, Senator McCaskill's actions helped lead to closure for many of these families.


Allegations of mismanagement at Arlington Cemetery were first raised in 2008. The widow of a United States Army soldier complained that the wrong headstone was on her husband's grave.[5][6] A Pentagon investigation found that two servicemen had been buried in the same grave.[5][6][3][4] Cemetery workers had also buried the cremated remains of a servicemember in a grave which was already in use, but unmarked.[1][3] The cremation error was discovered in May 2008 and the remains buried in an unused grave.[1] However, Arlington National Cemetery officials may not have followed proper procedures in notifying the servicemember's next of kin about the reburial.[1]

In November 2009, having learned of the cremated individual's reburial, United States Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh ordered an investigation by the Inspector General of the Army.[1] An article on Salon.com on July 16, 2009, began a year-long series of articles about problems at Arlington,[7] which may have also prompted McHugh's actions.[4][8]

A later Washington Post investigation found that the cemetery's administration had been subject to numerous US Army investigations over 20 years, but were unable to resolved recurring concerns with the management of the cemetery. One source of the problems appears to have been that overall oversight of the cemetery was shared by too many authorities, including the Military District of Washington, the assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, the assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs, and the cemetery superintendent.[9]

In one case in 2004, the cemetery's budget director, Mr. Smith, questioned the contracts related to digitizing burial records. He warned an official from the Office of Management and Budget, which temporarily halted spending on the contract. Soon after, Smith said he was harassed by his superiors and eventually suspended for three days without pay. Smith successfully appealed the suspension through his employees' union and retired with full benefits in 2007.[10]

In Arlington Cemetery rests some of the bravest Americans who ever lived. They deserve better than this. Thanks to McCaskill, this was exposed and corrected.

In America, have we been conditioned this much to hate an elephant or a donkey that we can't even be respectful when the other party actually does something that is moral and just? I think we need to consider that for a bit. Like I said, I am not a fan of Claire McCaskill. Her office knows this as we have had civil conversations in the past. I don't hate her simply because she holds a different view than I and has a D behind her name. When she does something good, we all should give her praise. This incident at Arlington was a good deed.

Like I said, we are so conditioned to root for these political parties as if it were the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox playing in the American League Championship Series, that we can't even remove the party clouded glasses long enough to realize the peace that came for these soldiers families because someone in Washington cared to say something? I find that sad.

I recently quit the Republican party. I find no virtue in the party. They are big government progressives on a lesser scale who don't represent my Constitutional conservative values. I have found great peace in my awakening where I no longer put party before principle and cheer blindly for candidates simply because they have an R behind their name knowing they go to office and betray my values daily.

It wasn't all the establishment that led me to this awakening. It was the ignorant masses that blindly follow these idiots, who when one good deed does happen on the other side, they would rather attack in hate than stand up and say thanks. When their own party betrays them, they continue to applaud. It happens on both sides of the aisle. This isn't just a Republican thing.

As someone who served in the Army, I know had I died in battle and was one of those soldiers buried in Arlington, my family would be angry had my body been disrespected at this most honorable of American cemeteries. Can't we put politics aside on this and just be grateful this was resolved regardless of political party?