Hate Is Such an Ugly Word

The Town Hall blog featured an article entitled I'm A Conservative And They Lied When They Said I Hate You. The article highlights the tendency for the opposition to engage in ad hominem attacks, instead of debating the issues. In fact, marginalizing the opposition really is the objective in all too many cases. 

The article begins,

Are you Hispanic, black, Asian, Jewish, gay, young, old, poor, or a woman? Well, then you may have heard that conservatives like me hate you. In fact, I'm sure you've probably heard some version of it a hundred times since it seems to be the standard rap for liberals these days. "Those conservatives are racists! They hate Hispanics! They're homophobes! They're Nazis! They're engaged in a war on women!"

Yeah, sure. As if WE have time for that. If you are a liberal or a conservative who is concerned that things are drifting away from your ideals, are you really going to burn processor cycles hating people? Where exactly does that get you? WE thought so. There are too many truly important things going on, to get all bigoted on someone's hiney. As if WE wanted to. Which WE don't. 

Sliming the opposition is an effective strategy to win over the low-information voter. If you can paint the opposition as an evil person, the weak-minded will automatically dismiss any argument, candidacy or policy proposal the opposition may present. WE think this is a horrible state of affairs, and sadly, it seems to have permeated the dialog in good ol' Whatcom County. 

WE could go on, but the article pretty much says it all. Continue reading...