The Great Divide

jayjacque

You WILL like my work!
This is kind of a rant...



Is anyone like me, getting tired of spending so much energy fighting about politics? (I'm an American, by the way, just living a little farther up north). I'm loosely involved in about 5 forums of diferent sorts, and most of them have some pretty riled up people arguing over political candidates and issues as well as the reasons for the bad economy. Just 6 or 8 months ago these same people were getting along just fine.



I'm just saying I look forward to this election to end, getting more back to normal, whoever gets elected. And I think it will settle down as long as the economy's woes lessen. If not, I guess we'll have to find ways to adapt and keep on blaming for all the good it will do.
 
I was just thinking of this, about how much time I have spent following politics lately, and how polarized everyone is in those other threads.



Politicians in general suck, they are hugely driven by ego and power. Some years ago during one of the Prez campaigns it was noted that anyone who would be good at the job would never seek it (or something like that).



The partisanship in some of those other threads is discouraging; the idea that one party is universally evil while the other is good, or that any single politician can be pigeonholed into some finite set of positions simply based on his party affiliation.



Can't a person have a range of ideas and opinions, and change his/her mind based on new information? I reject the notion that opinions or thought are black/white, liberal/conservative, Republican/Democrat. We should encourage thinking and discussion by our politicians, not litmus tests, and perhaps we will wind up with statesmen rather then political hacks going from soundbite to soundbite.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
I was just thinking of this, about how much time I have spent following politics lately, and how polarized everyone is in those other threads.



Politicians in general suck, they are hugely driven by ego and power. Some years ago during one of the Prez campaigns it was noted that anyone who would be good at the job would never seek it (or something like that).



The partisanship in some of those other threads is discouraging; the idea that one party is universally evil while the other is good, or that any single politician can be pigeonholed into some finite set of positions simply based on his party affiliation.



Can't a person have a range of ideas and opinions, and change his/her mind based on new information? I reject the notion that opinions or thought are black/white, liberal/conservative, Republican/Democrat. We should encourage thinking and discussion by our politicians, not litmus tests, and perhaps we will wind up with statesmen rather then political hacks going from soundbite to soundbite.



Your statements right now Setec are 100% why I have enjoyed your responses in other threads.



We share different views on some issues, but I love reading your reasoning behind your views and respect them.



Case in point...



Both parties suck, IMO. In fact the two party system in general sucks. No party is good and both are some what evil IMO. Both parties slam the others. Both parties contort information about voting history, legislautre, and just plain history to spin it against the opposing party.



The behavior of both parties is seriously what I punish my four year old for...
 
What I found interesting was that an earlier thread about the election was closed because of some negative opinions that were being expressed. The number of liberal opinions expressed in that thread? 0



FWIW I can't remember the last heated discussion I got into about Canadian politics. Generally, discussions are more casual and we're just trying to figure out who to vote for.



OTOH the political ads this election have irked me a little bit. They seem to be 100% attack ads which is not fun to listen to.
 
Holden_C04 said:
OTOH the political ads this election have irked me a little bit. They seem to be 100% attack ads which is not fun to listen to.



In college (in one of my polisci classes) we were shown an old tv campaign ad that showed a little girl holding a flower who was immediately disintegrated by a mushroom cloud from an atomic bomb. Pretty funny.
 
backwoods_lex said:
In college (in one of my polisci classes) we were shown an old tv campaign ad that showed a little girl holding a flower who was immediately disintegrated by a mushroom cloud from an atomic bomb. Pretty funny.



Heh heh, it didn't seem so funny back when that add came out ;) And that ad might've been a big factor in LBJ getting elected. It's not like people were kidding about using nukes in SE Asia (and elsewhere).



And back on-topic, yeah, Accumulatorette and I are both ready to get it over with and live with the outcome.
 
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