Recent flooding in Louisiana has produced comparisons with Hurricane Katrina. Citizens have called the people in charge to come down, help out, or make a speech. Yet, when Obama arrives, there is contempt for the commander-in-chief. Their reasoning? He should have been right there first thing, to make sure the people were okay and to survey the damage. What the haters (for lack of a better term) are forgetting is the immense security concerns when bringing the President to the hazardous area. When George Bush went, all rescue attempts had to be halted because it was unlawful for any planes or rescue ships to be in the area while Air Force One was above. Despite this, Donald Trump went to donate a large sum of money. Trump was told not to enter the area and let the crews work, but he wanted to use it as a photo-op. Even still – the flooding in 2016 did not need to be a political event.
In this election year, everything each candidate does is heavily analyzed by the mainstream media, including the “Cable News Unholy Trinity” of MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN. If Clinton visits an ex-cabinet member, it instantly becomes ammunition for the Republican party. If Trump decides to hire a new intern, the news is then used to show whatever agenda the reporter/network/Facebook user is trying to push. But this is not limited to just acts of the two candidates. This mindset of “everything must be a political affair” spreads down into our regular, day-to-day lives. Upon the release of Pokemon Go, the augmented reality app, newsgroups would release stories, only to have comment sections go off on “why are they covering this and not real news” or “these kids should be out voting not playing a game.” This hatred for the game is not the point of this article, but the idea that something innocent and fun shouldn't be a concern, and only politics should be on our minds. What is even worse is that no matter what it is, everything becomes a political discussion. This could just be that old Internet saying of “every thread eventually turns to Hitler,” but YouTube comments on “Wonderwall” shouldn't be tearing down Obama.
Why is this? Why is everything becoming some fuel for a political fire? Simply put, I think it's because of the massively connected world in a divisive election year. When there's a story that can spark a debate, it is relatively calm. But when it's a natural disaster or just some information on anything, it becomes a cesspool of anger and hatred towards each other simply because somebody brought up a politician's involvement. Yes, the flooding in Louisiana is something that the government should help with. But at the same time, we cannot call for our leaders to run right down and risk causing a delay in the rescue missions trying to bring people to safety. Yes, we should stay up to date with politics. But we cannot let politics and candidates take over our lives. Important information, yet we also have to remember that not all news stories are political.
I think that what we all need to do is to take these arguments, these opinions, and these sides of a battle with no enemy, and save them for when it really does matter. Arguing over Obama is not going to add to the discussion of the Olympic gold finalists. Instead, save that all for when the article does mention the President. Then, by all means, say what you will. But the more we turn things into political debates, the more we lose sight of just being able to put things out of our minds for a bit and just see the positives. Like I said, it's important but not so important that you have to make everything about your own agenda.
