Weekend Open Thread

Where does the polarization come from? How do we get our politics moving again? 

Like most of you, I fondly remember the Republicans of yesteryear, who were in fact the Democrats of the years before the Civil rights movement.  I remember relatives and friends who were fiscal conservatives, war hawks, skeptics of social change, but yet who could sit down to dinner with my liberal parents, work on community projects, and craft compromising, sensible laws in councils.

So what the heck happened? In my opinion, money in politics happened. Citizens United happened. There is now zero incentive to compromise or craft sensible laws, and much incentive to remain polarized and "stuck".  All right, so that's one question. What happened to moderates and where did the polarization come from?

Now let's zoom down to a very narrow, tight focus. A microcosm of a microcosm of political discourse. This board. 

I have to say that I see just as much name calling and ad hominem ( to the person) attacks on this board as I see in the Huff post comments sections, which have now gotten so vicious that Huffpo is going to go to a "no anonymous comments" policy in an effort to shut down the trolls and get back to civil discourse. 

When someone calls Fladen an "asshat" or Moderatus an "idiot" or whatever, or from the other perspective, "libtard",  that would be an ad hominem attack. I've been told that I have no respect for truth, that I'm not trustworthy to teach their children, that I'm a drunk, that I should get my head out of my ass. Those are all from Huffpo comments, not this board.  It's satisfying, I guess, for venting political frustrations, but it's abusive and  just keeps people polarized.

I disagree with Fladen and Moderatus on almost every issue, but there are unexplored areas of agreement. 

I think it's important to keep in mind that there are much more extreme conservatives out there. To refresh your memory, check out the FB comments on Salzman's thread. Hell, just read Salzman's thread.  We have conservative people on this board who are willing to engage without insults, and what we have to do is insist on staying on the issues no matter what little straw men or red herrings or distracting questions they throw, so maybe eventually we can drill down and expose what the real areas of agreement and disagreement are.

I think it's worth doing.  But it may not be as fun in the short term as just calling someone a "libtard" or an "asshat" or a "f**ing troll" or whatever.

I get that part of the charm of this board is the "anything goes" mode. I like that the rabid conservative trolls are intimidated, and  haven't taken over to the extent that they have destroyed discourse, as they have on other boards. I guess that I'd just like people to look for areas of agreement before they trash the person. 

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