Getting Along - A Thoughtful Comment

I had at least two reasons for creating this blog, one was to let off a little of the steam that I accumulate from identifying with the political left while living with the Religious Right. The second was to stimulate some small amount of thoughtful discourse between these two worlds that now seem to be in full collision. With that in mind, "guerrilla dove" did generate yet another thoughtful comment:

"i will agree with frank on one issue: most of my friends who are liberal are contemptuous of the conservative right. we like to label them: quacks, hillbillies, uneducated, unenlightened troglodyte. i have yet to hear one of my friends actually listen to what they have to say. "gay marriage won't destroy the institution of marriage!" we scream and scream it, fists in our ears.

this approach isn't working. bush and kerry failed to get discourse going. they devolved into political platitudes: "he's a flip-flopper", "unfortunately, this president has failed you." they appealed to our basest instincts, our fear of those who think differently than we do, terrified of constructive debate. don't ask americans to articulate their fears clearly. just become the figurehead of those fears, and hope you have more fearful people behind you than they do. guess what, liberal folks? the way the issues are divided right now, they win."

I would encourage you to read the complete comment under the November 5, 2004 post "Getting Along".