FACEBOOK DEBATES
ON OUR FRACTURED CIVIC DISCOURSE

I recycled yesterday's Real Art post on facebook, and, strangely, it ended up with me losing one of my conservative friends from high school.  I say "strangely" because the post was something of an attack against Obama from the left; generally, conservatives cheer me on when I talk about Nader and his like--obviously, they're all for me "throwing my vote away."  I didn't even engage in any kind of argumentation with this woman.  She just came in and ranted as usual, and sort of talked herself into un-friending me.  It was weird.

But it did give me the opportunity to opine on the extensive political and cultural division now gripping our nation, especially after a much saner conservative friend of mine from high school chimed in it:

Kristin Wow. Ron, you're making all kinds of new friends....or not. Jennifer's response is exactly why I dislike discussing American politics or our political parties. So many people can't simply "discuss" something. It is not a competition and you certainly won't change someone's mind by insulting them. My political views are that..my views, the lens I look through. When we forget that our background and understandings are so diverse, this is when we often stick our foot in our mouth. Helpful for cleaning off that toe cheese, but not much else. I'm sure that Ron and I have extremely differing opinions on many issues, but I also know that he is one of the smartest people I know-my former brother-in-law is first, multilingual, doctorate in high energy nuclear physics and can't match his socks..(I'm sure you're capable of matching your socks, Ron.) And from what I remember, he is also a really decent guy. So we might not agree on certain things? I'm pretty sure we'd agree on things like the Bill of Rights, Civil Rights, oh..and yeah human rights which I'm pretty sure allows people to have differing opinions.

My response:

Ronald Thanks, Kristin. Our country really is divided along ideological lines. I think that the high levels of emotion, from both sides, are coming from a collective sense, again on both sides, that America is on the decline. People feel it from multiple directions. Jobs are scarce, so, even if one is fortunate enough to have a job, one is nervous that he's going to lose it. What happens in Washington seemingly has nothing to do with the everyday concerns of most Americans. It's looking like our best days are behind us, and there is seemingly no hope for reversing the decline. Liberals and conservatives have different ideas about why everything seems so screwed up, and about how to repair it, and even what a better America looks like. But it is certain that everybody is extraordinarily dissatisfied with how things are right now, with how things will probably be in the future.

And everybody is absolutely right to feel that way. This is legitimate, whether you come to this point of view as a conservative or as a liberal. That's why, even though it's enjoyable for me to make fun of the Tea Party people, with their weird tricorner hats and dangling tea bags, I know that their outrage comes from bad things that are actually happening to them. Same with Occupy Wall Street. The nation is broken, and we're all freaking out.

So, yes, I have disagreements with the conservatives. I also, as the essay up top shows, have some big disagreements with my liberal comrades in the Democratic Party. But this is all good. Simply engaging in the public discourse, from whatever point of view, makes you a good American. I do not vilify Americans simply for disagreeing with me. Sure, they piss me off regularly, but that's how the process works.

What deeply saddens me, however, is a cultural strain that I see almost exclusively on the right: many conservatives, but certainly not all of them, strongly believe that if you're liberal, you're somehow less of an American, or not an American at all, that liberals are traitors, opposed to the American way, opposed to the American government. There are some asshole liberals out there, to be sure, but I've never encountered anything similar to this kind of tribalism on the left. I've never seen liberals asserting that conservatives aren't real Americans. Never seen them questioning the legitimacy of conservatives who hold public office, simply because they are conservative.

This is my challenge to conservatives who do not feel like this: constantly call out your ideological allies when they undermine our nation's unity in this way. Liberals are every bit as American as conservatives. What they say matters as much as what conservatives say. That is, I lay the blame for the most egregious tribal behavior on conservatives. We'll never get it together as long as they question their opposition's loyalty. Never.

But actually, Kristin, I think you're kind of already doing what I'm suggesting, which comes as no surprise to me. Gather followers.

'Nuff said. 

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$