Keeping the (Civil) Discussion Going
I just gotta say, in case the point wasn't made before, that I appreciated the civility of the discussion on this blog regarding politics. It's a rare occurrence -- either the pundits are screaming past each other or people just avoid the topic.
Are there ideas out there for how to keep the civil discussion going, not just on here, but in our own communities?
Neither party can claim a mandate: I think I heard one analysis that essentially 77,000 votes across America would have changed the Senate outcome. In some races even in the House, the margin was not wide. We have to move more into talking to each other and working together if any of the important issues facing Congress are going to get done.
And there's no reason why, as friends and neighbors, we can't talk and agree to disgree when we must. Don't we each have a obligation to society to do so? But what can we do to encourage more?
I don't have any answers, I'm just putting the question out there as a pregnant, relatively new mom and knitter who is concerned about what each of us individually can do to put our country on the right track.
Are there ideas out there for how to keep the civil discussion going, not just on here, but in our own communities?
Neither party can claim a mandate: I think I heard one analysis that essentially 77,000 votes across America would have changed the Senate outcome. In some races even in the House, the margin was not wide. We have to move more into talking to each other and working together if any of the important issues facing Congress are going to get done.
And there's no reason why, as friends and neighbors, we can't talk and agree to disgree when we must. Don't we each have a obligation to society to do so? But what can we do to encourage more?
I don't have any answers, I'm just putting the question out there as a pregnant, relatively new mom and knitter who is concerned about what each of us individually can do to put our country on the right track.
posted by Ginny at 8:22 AM
4 Comments:
I think one of the biggest things we can do is get out there and vote. Also encourage others to vote. The more people that get out and vote the better we are all represented.
I think what worked on the blog is we all came into it with the "be nice" rule in place. For some reason, a lot of people in this world don't intrinsically have that rule for themselves or others. So, even though you're going into the conversation on fair footing, they may not be. Sad, isn't it? And I'm afraid I don't have a solution for that. :(
I'm already disheartened by the squabble over John Murtha. It doesn't show that the Democrats are going to change poltics --
I agree on the "be nice" assumption. Our downstairs neighbor works for a Republican congressman and campaigned for several others. We disagree, but we also have dinner together a lot and she dogsits for us. I think we have to treat everyone, even those we don't know, as if we lived next door.
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