Monday, July 8, 2013

POLARIZATION-Evil Blight on the Land or Blight On An Evil Land

PLATITUDE: A remark or statement, one with a moral content that has been used too often to be interesting or thoughtful.
There is no middle ground anymore, no one is a centralist(centrist), everyone is an extremist.
I will never understand how a poor person can vote Republican.
Republicans represent rich old money. Shoot, money in general. Republican policy rarely supports the lower or middle class. It's not opinion, its fact.
These are some quotes pulled from a series of post by some of my Facebook friends this afternoon.
This sharing of opinions in the modern day equivalent of the town square, was engendered by an earnest young woman who complained in a status that-
This polarization of politics--- liberal v conservative, republican v democrat--- is what is wrong with America.
POLARIZATION:  the act of making the differences between groups or ideas ever more clear-cut and extreme, hardening the opposition between them.
In my opinion, politics in America today, is dominated by the competition of ideologies.  Like-minded people band together in political parties to advance their agendas, which they believe will best serve their state or nation.  Competition with other groups, who don't agree with said agenda, results in political discourse.
 During this discourse if - the differences between groups or ideas become ever more clear cut- it is democracy in action. This is a good thing.
 If it causes - hardening of the opposition between them - it is not bad, and not necessarily good, but to paraphrase Shakespeare, 
 “IT IS, WHAT IT IS.” lol
What is wrong with America today is the way this discourse takes place!
In sound bites and shouting matches, and in thirty second ads and bumper sticker platitudes.

Liberal and conservative are political philosophies, and Republican and Democrat are political parties; they are not interchangeable terms.

Sometimes people with no philosophy do not understand people who have one, and resort to denigration rather than debate.