Modern Political Polarization and what to do about it.

Reagan had 91 percent confirmed
Bush I- 79.3
Bush II- 86.8

What exactly are we avenging? Bork...A guy who thinks Poll Taxes are a O.K?

Wouldn't it have been easier to avenge him during the Clinton admin since it was, you know, a decade timelier?

 

I wish I could rep all your posts.

 

Here's how it works:

"Leftist ideologues" are only perceived by free-marketeers as such because they don't explicitly adhere to "conservative values."

FOX news is a conservative channel because they explicitly adhere to "conservative values."

All other media outlets, from the perspective of right-wingers, are "liberal" NOT because they espouse liberal values, but because they do not explicitly adhere to "conservative values."

Do you see the issue here? Does this make sense to you?

Here's the problem: From the perspective of most so-called "conservatives" there are no other options than conservative or liberal.

This means that if you're not clearly conservative, using established conservative talking points then the only possibility is that you're liberal. There are no shades, this is nothing in between, there is NOTHING other than conservative or liberal from your viewpoint.

It's pure rock logic. Everything is yes/no, black/white, hot/cold. No gradient, no degrees, no nothing but absolutes.

 

Or you can blame those voters who put to much focus too much on wedge issues like gay rights, abortion, gun control etc etc. Although those issues are important to people, I consider them pretty insignificant to the long term health of the country and should be in the domain of individual states. Not much room for debate about anything else when both sides continue to fight about the same issues over and over. The age old strategy of divide and conquer never fails.

 

I've never heard Zacharia advocate any limitation on the state, never heard him say we spend too much or tax too much or regulate to much or control people's lives too much. That's the basis for my characterization.

They do for the most part, but it's not explicit. It should be.

No, the bias is evident in the reporting, and in every opinion survey of mainstream media journalists. Bias is fine and natural, just be open about it.

This might be sometimes right, or not.

 

I'll only respond to the second to last comment. Thadeus hit it right on, to people on the extreme right, anyone who doesn't 100% agree with their viewpoints must be liberal. That's been apparent for quite some time. I've watched Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, and BBC. Fox and namely their viewers seem to group the other 4 as strictly liberal. One thing that comes straight to mind are the stories of 'voter fraud' during the 2008 election. Fox said it was widespread and dogged on the other networks for 'not reporting such a major story' Turns out it wasn't widespread and all instances combined equaled less than .0001% of the total vote count. Even now you see comments like 'mickey mouse voted for Obama' or 'this dead person voted for him 10 times'. MSNBC I feel leans to the left, to me that's apparent, however I see very little bias in CNN's reporting, they're too busy advertising their social networking skills, letting the viewers report the news. ABC from what I've seen shows very little bias, and BBC has been at times to the left, but when reporting foreign news, just seem to give accounts of what's happening, without opinions.

I've only ever heard Fox News as being described as 'an embarrassment' or as an 'absolute pathetic excuse for a news organization' by numerous foreign commentators on radio talk shows, views they say are widespread outside of the US.

 

I repped him for you on that one...

 

Yes, I know. It's precisely because he doesn't explicitly adhere to "conservative" values that you consider him an "extreme leftist."

As if there were no other positions. Black/white.

That's sorta my point there Commodore.

 

If Microsoft killed a million people a year (and was protected from prosecution by the federal government), would it be an issue pretty insignificant to the long term health of the country that didn't merit political focus?

 

I think there is going to be an Anti-Tea Party backlash.

 

Interesting video on the roots of conservative and liberal affinities in people. It may help explain the foundation of the polarization.

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Stupidmoniker's concern for the lesserfolk begins at conception and ends after birth.

Till then, it's the best 9 months of internet posting a fetus could ever have.

 

LINK?

 

Highly recommended video. Blew my mind.