Today is a day of great national import. Today we shall discover the "will of the people", who will perhaps grant the new Republican congressional majority a sweeping mandate to utterly overturn every action President Obama has taken, or instead will send a stern warning to all of congress that they'd better get their act together else they'll find themselves unemployed and reviled, or maybe will meekly allow the Democratic congress another chance to prove themselves, hoping that they will contritely do as the country desires.
What a load of crap.
We are a group of friends who discuss, philosophize, and argue with each other about topics of both great import and little consequence.
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Why I Love Rhetoric
Reading the recent posts of my friends, I find myself in a romantic mood. Though I find little pleasure in politics, I find myself on the cusp of ecstasy as I read, hear, and generally experience the impassioned debates between ideological foes. If I may be poetic for a brief moment, arguments between people are the breeding grounds of creative language. The passions of the opponents may appear hateful, but they become amorous for their munitions of words as the carefully crafted bullet points storm the gates of opposing minds and seduce the ethereal forms of counter points. When one reads the previous titles: "Why I Love Political Partisanship" and "Why I Hate Political Partisanship," one sees the fruit of such an erotic interview, allusion. In these debates, Rhetoric, the core of argumentative language, finds harbor and sows its seed amongst the ready population of ideological concepts, siring the sling-stones and arrows of argument.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Why I Hate Political Partisanship
There is a core belief at work in Erik's criticism of bipartisanship: he seems to think that being partisan means advocating for your constituency. This fallacy colors the entirety of his arguments, and leads him to a multitude of incorrect conclusions. Bipartisanship does not mean, nor imply, that people with opposing political views will decide to compromise their beliefs for political expediency. Rather, the intention is to achieve progress that is in the best interest of the country.
Why I Love Political Partisanship
I mostly use CNN and Newsweek as my sources for the happenings of Washington D.C. One repeating message coming from many commentators is the growing partisanship of all the politicians on both sides of the aisle – how disagreements in the chamber are turning personal. And the subsequent analysis is that government is becoming paralyzed because those Republicans and Democrats just refuse to cooperate.
On the surface, this may sound scary, perhaps even signaling a growing apprehension between people on the Left with people on the Right. Political discourse over dinner may prove awkward, but it doesn't prevent the dishes from getting cleaned. So people apply the same logic to Washington D.C., attempt to identify government as worse now than it was fifteen years ago, and conclude that things are bad because, gosh darnit, those politicians just can’t get along!
I agree with everything asserted above, except that partisanship is actually a good thing for America. Here are five reasons why:
On the surface, this may sound scary, perhaps even signaling a growing apprehension between people on the Left with people on the Right. Political discourse over dinner may prove awkward, but it doesn't prevent the dishes from getting cleaned. So people apply the same logic to Washington D.C., attempt to identify government as worse now than it was fifteen years ago, and conclude that things are bad because, gosh darnit, those politicians just can’t get along!
I agree with everything asserted above, except that partisanship is actually a good thing for America. Here are five reasons why:
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