Standing up for the right to be wishy-washy

[kimberkit]

It's a weird thing, living in a 2-party country. As cosmicbabe says, "moderate" often means "wishy washy." I suspect that's because during election years, we tend to pick issues that really hit people's hot-emotional buttons. Everyone has an opinion on abortion and gun control and taxes, and if you try to see both sides, you're hit by waves of yelling on either side. And it takes some time to try to read multiple points of view, from different newspapers, and lots of effort, so most people lean in one direction and keep quiet when more extreme views come up.

Paul Krugman, in his op-ed today, wrote that Republicans were trying to sway the country through the politics of anger/resentment: "the other side looks down on us." That particular editorial made me cranky, because, well...

The other side does look down on you. Both sides look down on each other, in fact.

A few emails ago, I got a note from the Obama website going, "why would Republicans spend their whole night attacking ordinary people?"

That's just as irritating as when the Republicans say, "the Democrats are sexist hypocrites who claim the working class only clings to religion and guns because it's easy."

The politics of resentment is part of the way politics in this country work year-round, day-in, day-out. Two parties mean that you end up with polarizing opinions. It would be nice if there were more articulate wishy-washy people who pointed out, "well, that's sort of right, but not really."

If you only want to see an angry right or an angry left, that's what you'll get. If instead you try to focus on the moderate right and moderate left, and stay focused on issues that can actually be compromised on, you'll end up with a much happier middle. And most of America is in the middle; we're just quieter about it.

Comments

[sir-graeme.livejournal.com]

There are not enough "y"s in all of the Northern Hemisphere to write a "yyyyyyyyyep" that adequately expresses my reaction to your entry, especially the last lines...

[drlynch.livejournal.com]

On a side note, I find it funny that Obama got attacked for having read E.P. Thompson. Actually, I think it would be fine if he'd read, agreed, and kept it to himself.

[neurosophy.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I find it...really remarkable...that people fail to see the parallels between the reprehensible behavior they chastise in one party and the reprehensible behavior of the party they support. They are substantive differences in tactic and style as well as substance, but the frightening thing, to me, is the number of people who think that "political faction x" is composed of "bad people", and that that explains their "bad behavior". Or hold to the Lycan theory, than Republicanism is a mental illness. I was actually thinking about all this last night. Having been on both sides of most political issues at one point or another, I get *why* someone would take position x as opposed to y, and why and how the position-x'ers get led to believe that position-y'ers are just stupid or bad. I thought about making some sort "translations for liberals and conservatives" thing.

My personal problem is that, in crowd-like situations, I tend to keep quiet until I disagree (constant nodding in assent isn't terribly productive...or maybe I'm just inherently belligerent), and in a political setting, that makes a person some kind of horrible traitorous turncoat troll blah blah blah...

[nescio17.livejournal.com]

I would only add that the non-angry ones are sometimes still in the political fringes. I don't mind a political climate with some extremes--but I wish people wouldn't try so hard to get them to fight each other.

(And, as I usually ad a disclaimer to these things, I would say that one of the reasons I'm attracted to Obama is that I really think he is better than most at listening to the opposite side.)