This heretofore unpublished blog post was written back on 7/28/14, over three years ago, but I think the ideas are as valid today, maybe more so, as then.
I have to admit, living up to the name of my blog, civildiscourseplease.blogspot.com, is sometimes quite difficult for me, but I'm going to keep trying. What I need to keep telling myself is that it is possible to express disagreement, and even disgust, with other opinions without the name-calling, gross exaggerations and excessive hyperbole that is so prevalent in our political discourse today. If we all did less of that and more rational analysis before we give our opinion we would have a much less divided nation and a better political system by which to solve our problems.
We need to do more communicating with one another and less pigeonholing of issues into the right versus left - conservative versus liberal dichotomy, which is in many ways a false one, at least, to the degree that it is emphasized and promoted by the provocateurs who use it for their own political and economic ends thereby creating a political divide that is often much greater in tone than it actually is in substance. And this is unfortunate because it obfuscates the real issues and causes harmful and unnecessary divisions in our society.
Yes, there is a lot of disagreement about the role of government in our lives and our role as citizens. But that doesn't mean that all opposing opinions are evil and need to be snuffed out by any means possible. Remember the communist witch hunt of Joseph McCarthy. Not a good chapter in our history.
The idea that it's okay to use any tactics possible to stop any contrary public policy or political movement is harmful to our country. And that's the crux of it right there. Too many Americans do too little thinking for themselves and allow themselves to be influenced by people who resort to intellectually dishonest tactics such as gross exaggerations, excessive hyperbole and blatant lies to promote their own political agenda or to fight against other political agendas and this creates distortions and divisions that harm our political process, which depends on a free flow of coherent and rational ideas.
The most prominent voices in politics have been, I believe, purposely and dangerously, through their lies and highly charged rhetoric creating a dangerously high degree of division among us in order to win their political battles. It is very harmful when the desire to achieve political goals sacrifices the unity and well-being of the nation. It's the old divide and conquer strategy and, unfortunately, it has been working.
What often occurs is not a robust debate specifically about the issues but rather histrionics based on which side is more or less virtuous and which side is the culprit for all our nation's ills. So once it is established who is on the "other" side, in other words, the non-virtuous side, any idea that comes out of that side can be automatically rejected. Once the "bad guy" label is pinned on someone or some group it's no longer necessary to listen to their ideas or opinions. This is bad for democracy and it's bad for this country, but it's something that is going on like perhaps never before.
One of the most striking examples of what I'm talking about was a statement I once heard from Rush Limbaugh in an interview on Fox News with Greta Van Susteren. He emphatically said, every problem in this country, without exception, is because of liberalism. This kind of talk doesn't even deserve a rebuttal because it is so extreme that it has no chance of being true. And, by the way, I would be equally as critical if the same statement were made about conservatism. But Limbaugh didn't qualify his statement in any way and he didn't say MANY or SOME of the problems in this country are because of liberalism. Nor was he intellectually honest and earnest enough to define liberalism and explain why he believed it has caused so many problems.
It is obvious he has an agenda, political and financial, and he promotes it in the most self-serving and intellectually lazy way possible. He doesn't bother to engage in rational analysis of issues to support his opinions. Instead he decides what sort of political outcome he wants and makes his arguments in order to achieve that outcome, with little or no regard for facts or logic. Most of his arguments seem to be based on his foregone conclusion that all liberalism is always a bad thing and all conservatism is always a good thing and the only thing there is to argue about is how to promote the good thing and destroy the bad thing, regardless of the harmful side effects these kind of tactics have on the democratic process and the nation as a whole. There is no sense of balance or moderation in anything this man says. In fact, he mocks the whole idea of moderation in the political arena. He is, indeed, proud of being an anti-moderate conservative.
None of this would bother me if it weren't for the fact that people like Limbaugh have such great influence on what people in this country think and how they vote. These extremists are harmful not only because of their political philosophy (not that they really have one), but because of the corruption they bring to the free marketplace of ideas and ultimately the political process.
I don't believe Limbaugh, Hannity or any of the other prominent extremists are going to stop engaging in this type of political discourse any time soon because they are too heavily rewarded by the Republican party as well as their loyal listeners who keep coming back for that mind-numbing drug that constantly vilifies and scapegoats all things liberal and glorifies all things conservative.
In response, there are those on the left who, in order to even the score, do the same thing. Even the ones who try very hard to rely on facts and critical analysis on which to base their opinions, sometimes use excessive hyperbole and exaggeration to counter what comes out of the right wing propaganda machine. And, although it seems like a good way to fight back, they should stop it because it's not necessary. It is clear that Limbaugh and other extreme right wingers are out to destroy all the achievements of liberal public policy since the New Deal and are willing to use any means possible to do so.
Liberals should attack their ideas head on and defend their own achievements without using the handy name-calling, labeling and divide and conquer tactics the extreme right wingers so heavily rely on. I think the very tactics and strategy that has won the so-called conservative movement so much political success over the past several decades will ultimately be their undoing.
