Friendly debate: A thing of the past?

Why is it that these days conservatives and liberals can’t seem to discuss their views without bile and sometimes hate? What has changed? I remember once being able to sit down and have lively political debates with people on both sides and the discussions rarely were anything but friendly and often humorous. Now however, there is a clear difference in how the two sides approach debate. In my own personal experience, those on the liberal side are generally willing to discuss not only the flaws of conservatives but those of liberals as well. Conservatives on the other hand are no longer willing to do this. They not only are unwilling to discuss the flaws but will not stand for anyone else pointing them out.

I think this is a symptom of only having one side of the story. I watch both sides of the media. I typically pay attention to MSNBC and Fox News. Getting both sides of the story is the only way to get a clear picture, never more so than in the last few years. While both of these agencies routinely point fingers at each other, only one of them also routinely points out their own mistakes and apologizes for them. Hint: It’s not Fox news. For example the case of Shirley Sherrod. Fox news picked up and aired a clip of a speech she had given, a completely out of context clip that resulted in the White House over-reacting without all the facts and sacking her. Once the entire video of her speech came to light the reactions of Fox vs. MSNBC were very different. MSNBC pointed fingers at Fox and apologized for their own mistake in not fully researching the video. Fox pointed fingers at MSNBC, the guy who released the video and the White House and…well that’s all they did really. If they ever apologized on air for the disastrous results of their failure to fact check, I didn’t see it. I did however see every one of the MSNBC pundits apologize for said failure.

I know quite a few people who only watch one or the other. Some of my friends are Republicans and only watch Fox News. They’ve never turned on MSNBC, have never actually watched for themselves yet loudly condemn the entire liberal news network based solely on what they are told on Fox news. A perfect example of these conservative blinders is Sarah Palin. You cannot honestly look me in the face and tell me that woman is not often comic. She is a very prominent political figure and in some ways expert at manipulating the political machine for herself and her party. She is also, let’s be honest, naïve in many ways and frankly self-absorbed with a victim complex. I was never more disgusted with her than when she released her video after the shootings in Tucson and used it to condemn the liberal media for attacking her over it. She failed to rise above the selfish at a time when she could have set an example. Discussing Palin with a Republican in anything but a favorable light is like waving a red flag to a bull. They rise to her defense whether she’s right or wrong.

By the same token I feel the President failed me in his State of the Union. While I found it a stirring speech for the most part and appreciated his repeated requests for us to look to the future, I am disappointed that he made no mention of how to deal with the escalating gun violence in our country at a time when it is clearly at the forefront of everyone’s thoughts. He missed a step there. Reassuring us that the White House has a plan was what he should have done, rather than avoiding the issue to ensure higher poll ratings on the speech. Oh, and Mrs. Palin, you’re interview after the SOTU on Fox is something you should apologize for in my opinion. Taking the very positive and much needed message of Win the Future and turning it into an internet shorthand joke was frankly ridiculous. Yet another missed opportunity to set an example.

When did this happen? When did people stop wanting all the facts? Are there extremists on MSNBC? Of course there are! Keith Olberman and Ed Schultz come immediately to mind. Ed in particular is the Liberal counterpart to Glenn Beck….without the now constant end of the world, Nazi American invasion paranoia. Ed’s partisan rants, while entertaining, should be taken with a grain of salt that just maybe the people or party he’s trashing do have some redeeming qualities.

It seems as though the current lack of communication between our leading parties in Washington has spread like an infection to all of us around the country. While Democrats and Liberals look for ways to get the Republicans to rejoin the team while simultaneously poking at them for being hide-bound, the conservatives and Republicans are determined to ignore them and play with their own toys while poking at the other side for being spineless. This would be fine but for the fact our government simply doesn’t function unless they all play together. It’s kind of the point, don’t you think? When Republicans are using the Filibuster and even just the threat of one as a favored weapon to stall our government, what message does that send to the rest of us? That discussion is not the answer. That we should simply refuse to speak until we get what we want and pretend we are not part of the problem. Hell of a message to send.

My Dad and I, metaphorically speaking, are standing on opposite sides of the country when it comes to politics. I’m not sure when that happened. Somehow over the years we’ve drifted to opposite sides. We’re no longer able to discuss politics and I’m sorry to say it’s partly because he’s one of the people only listening to one side of the discussion. By his own admission, he’s told me he doesn’t watch the liberal media and so I ask, how can he know they’re biased, waging a war of hate speech or skewing facts while believing the conservative media is honest and bi-partisan? Because they tell him so.  I love you Dad. I respect you Dad. I wish we could once more discuss politics like we used to, without taking sides but seeing the argument as a whole, the flaws and benefits on both sides of the aisle. I was once guilty of only watching one side of the discussion. Only the Liberal media, who incidentally likewise accuse the conservative media of waging a war of hate speech. A friend pointed out to me during one argument that I couldn’t possibly make a point worth making if I wasn’t willing to listen to both sides. He was right and I’ve since made a point of watching both.

I do believe the Liberal media is better about fact checking their stories. The President’s trip to India last year and the furor with which Fox news went after him for it is a good example. One person said she had ‘heard’ he would be spending billions and taking three quarters of the Navy with him and Fox ran with it. Citing “Sources tell us”…but didn’t actually bother to contact the White House and find out for themselves if it was true, which it wasn’t.

Do I prefer the liberal over the conservative? Yes. Do I think the Liberal side is always right? Hell no. Do I only watch the liberal media to get my information? No. I often do research of my own on things I’m told by the media. I’m not a blind supporter of any party or person. Once upon a time I liked McCain…but he’s flip flopped one too many times on campaign promises and his own views for me to take him seriously these days or trust him in office. Don’t ask don’t tell was a defining moment for me in regards to McCain. While running for president he vowed more than once that he would not rest until it was repealed. After losing his run for the White House, he then became a large and vocal roadblock to the repeal. Perhaps he forgot he once promised many Americans that he would fight to end the discrimination against them?

I don’t think there is a ‘right’ side when it comes to politics or a ‘right’ person to back. So much about politics is personal preference and opinion to begin with. I do think we should all try to remember that it’s alright to have a difference of opinion, that not everyone must agree with you or be wrong. I’d like to go back to when I could laugh about Palin’s ever growing list of Tweeted Typos and not be attacked for doing so and called ‘un-American’. Yes, I have been. Just for that. I’d like my husbands’ family and me to be able to discuss politics at the holidays again without having to quickly shush and change the subject when his aunt and uncle arrive because they can NOT discuss it anymore without his Uncle having a fit of temper and slamming out of the house.

These are my opinions, how I feel about things. Maybe I’m right, maybe I’m wrong but this is how I feel and there is nothing wrong with that nor expressing it. If you disagree with me, then disagree with me! Discuss it with me! Try to win me over. It has been done you know. Win me over without resorting to the need to attack and dismiss me for believing differently than you. That is not a discussion. Friendly debate. Let’s try to remember those two words once went together well.

A day without power interlude.

Having just spent a day and a half without the luxury of power, I had nothing better to do than write and will now subject you to my cold-addled lonely ruminations through the course of the day.

***

Warm days. A blue sky dotted with fluffy clouds as the sun ducks behind one and peaks out from another. The chirping of Chickadees in the hedge fills the summery breeze as it ruffles the leaves on the trees. I sit on my kitchen counter, staring out my window, and WISH this was the day I’m having.

Instead, here I sit on my counter using the window for light to write by. Freezing rain knocked the power out the night before and I’m left using the stove to get a bit of heat in our house that has become a meat locker. The cats seem to have had an emergency meeting and have decided to fill the silence with all the noise they can make. At this point our neighbors, I’m sure, think they live next door to a herd of wildebeest. I’m not sure they’re wrong.

The freezing rain has stopped finally, replaced with driving snow in a blustery wind and I wonder if my fingers and toes will ever thaw again. Worse, I’ve discovered finally a reason NOT to bundle cable, internet and phone services. The damn router box only has a six hour battery. Once it dies, so too does the phone.

My husband had an argument with the ice this morning trying to reach a pay phone to call work. He lost. He’ll be nursing a sprained wrist and bruised ego for a while. The bruised ego on account of last night he laughed when I returned from the store and said how hard it was to walk on the ice. He very surely informed me that HE has no problem walking on the ice. I will, of course, file this incident away for future use as any good wife should.

So far today I’ve gone through most of the score of Pirates of Penzance. The cats appreciate my singing or maybe the cuddles were to distract me? Nawwww. I’ve been reduced more than once to chatting up the cats. They’re lousy conversationalists.

Also, it has been far too long since I last sat down with pen and paper rather than a keyboard. My hand is actually cramping! And to think I once used to do this so much I actually have a permanent dent in my middle finger where the pen rests. The computer age is not good for writing skills.

The waiting is the frustrating part. The power could come back in five minutes or five days and with no phone I can’t harass the power company for an estimate. Not to mention that most of the batteries in the house are rechargeable…and in need of recharging. Of course.

For someone as attached to her computer as I am this is tantamount to torture! Note to self: Contact the U.N. and turn in Mother Nature for violating the Geneva Convention. Of course violating said convention doesn’t seem to carry much weight these days. Yes, I’m rolling my eyes at my own government and a former president in particular who happily and publicly admitted to authorizing the use of torture. So much for plausible deniability, eh? Not that anyone seems to mind.

Whoops. Solitary time equals political rant. I’ll file that one away for when I’m warm again. My sister has asked for an article on Glenn Beck as she’s not familiar with him and doesn’t understand my fervent assertion that he’s bat shit crazy. That’s a technical term by the way for someone one fry short of a happy meal and in desperate need of six rolls of rubber wallpaper. Another future article.

***

My brother in law just rolled up for a quick stop to tell me most of the city is without power so who knows when we’ll get ours back. Also a message from himself to go buy a cooler and empty the fridge onto the back patio. Right. A cooler in January, cause stores love to stock those this time of year. Oh and my in-laws still have power. Lucky bastards!

***

I’ve returned from the store a bit the worse for wear. My turn to lose an argument with the ice. A limp is fashionable, right? I was right and coolers it seems are like the Dodo right now, extinct, at least until the spring. I did luck out and find a crappy little AM/FM radio. At least now I’ll have the company of human voices, other than my own, and maybe some news while I’m at it!

Watching a gentle, heavy snowfall is hypnotic really not to mention relaxing. Before you think the power deprivation is getting to me, I watch snowfall’s even when the power is on. I love them. Take a walk in a blizzard sometime. All you hear is the sound of falling snow, like a soft shushing and white is your world. It’s incredibly peaceful.

***

The prospect of returned power gets slimmer by the hour. A news report has just counted over 200,000 power outages across Ohio with 35,000 alone of those here in Columbus. To add insult to injury, evening is falling and the light fading. Time, I suppose, to light the candles and cuddles some cats for warmth.

***

Its night once more and over twenty-four hours since the power went out for good. My husband and I are camped in the kitchen boiling a pot of water to raise the room temperature at least a little. The candles flickering light emphasizes the fact that I’m going to be doing dishes for a day and a half when the power does come back on. Meanwhile, the power has been restored for everyone around us. Only our complex of townhomes remains in the dark. It’s going to be a long night again.

***

As I sat on the counter once more trying to tune the radio and my husband was out to the store finding a couple more things to add to dinner, the lights came back on! I cheered and then cheered again all the louder with a laugh as I heard the muffled happy shouts of all my neighbors as well. My husband came in the door just then and was grinning and laughing. He said he could hear what must have been the entire complex let up a cheer when the lights flashed back on. I tossed my coat on and ran down to the corner where the power crew was working to give them a hearty and happy thank you.

Now we’re cuddled up with the electric blankets while the furnace works to make this place warm again and the prospect of getting a night’s sleep without my toes freezing is almost enough to make me cry with joy.