A bad joke

[fpb]

This article (http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/CalThomas/2008/04/08/civil_tongues?page=full&comments=true) starts by arguing for politeness and substantial dialogue between opponents in the coming American Presidential elections. The zinger, however, is in the last two paragraphs. Look at the ugly, repulsive caricature of Democratic politics it gives - and ask yourselves if the author even understands what being polite to opposing views actually means. Even I, with my temper and all, could do a better job of presenting a picture, rather than an insulting caricature, of an opponent's viewpoint.

Comments

[stigandnasty919.livejournal.com]

This will be the same Cal Thomas who appears, or at least appeared, regularly on the Fox News show, Fox News Watch. He seems to be part of a very disturbing phenomenon in American politics (and in blog-land in general) where opposing points of view are not discussed or debated, but misrepresented and demonised. What is even more distasteful is that the phenomonon gives all the impression of being centrally, however loosely, organised. A very dirty form of politics that, to my mind, threatens the integrity of the democratic system.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

If you want to read a conservative American writer who is both a decent person and a first-rate writer, try Paul Greenberg. What strikes me about Thomas is his lack of understanding even of what he thinks he is standing for. Mind you, the same thing is going on on the left: just check the Daily Kos or the Huffington Papers. (Sir Bernard Levin, Arianna Huffington's late paramour, must be spinning in his grave.)

[stigandnasty919.livejournal.com]

I'll check out Paul Greenberg. You'll have gathered by now that on most issues I would be what an american conservative would consider to be 'of the left' - on some issues I might even qualify as one of Bill O'Reilly's 'Far left loons'. But that does not mean that I think either side behave any better than the other and I am genuinely interested in opposing views - sometimes I even change my mind!

Thomas, by the way may have learnt everything he knows about tolerance while abroad on holiday. It appears he owns a holiday home here in Northern Ireland, that famous bastion of moderation and reasoned debate.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Or maybe he sought out kindred souls.

Oh, rubbish. In fact, balls.

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

Mr Thomas wrote, ‘McCain should say that America's greatness is not its government, but its people who tell government what it is allowed to do. Barack Obama belongs to a party that believes the opposite to be true. He and his fellow Democrats think government should dictate what we are allowed to do, whil[st] simultaneously demanding ever-increasing amounts of money from taxpayers for its program[me]s.’

This may be ugly and repulsive, but it is no caricature.

Or as the Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher, member for Finchley, said when the Callaghan government fell, ‘There has been a failure not only of policies but of the whole philosophy on which they are based - the philosophy which elevates the state, dwarfs the individual and enlarges the bureaucracy.’

That IS the Left – contemptible creatures that they are. One may as well say so.

Re: Oh, rubbish. In fact, balls.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I am afraid one of us is certainly talking rubbish. And as for me, I don't take "There is no such thing as society" as anything but a bad joke.
Incidentally, if you do not understand the concept of not dehumanizing your opponent, you might at least remember that this is my blog and I decide whose words stay or go. A buon intenditor, poche parole.