There is an issue of partisan politics that dead-locks the political process, as well as disable rational argument.

I'm talking about the same partisan lines dividing liberals and conservatives. Does our fundamental way of political thinking work?

Isn't the way to move forward politically is to work together in a united interest? Anyway, what are your thoughts on the partisan political system / political discussion (or lack there of)?

The reason I ask is that I've seen a lot of discussions (most) dissolve into hate banter about or between die-hard liberals or conservatives.

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If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
-Albert Einstein

I talk to Dems and Repubs and I aske questions more often than not they want the same basic things , they just seem to think thier way is the better way to get there, everyone knows my way is best!!

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Aint but three things in this world thats worth a solitary dime,
But old dogs and children and watermelon wine.
Tom T. Hall
http://www.politicalforum.com/group.php?groupid=43

Well if we take a look at the current situation, Republicans readily admit McCain is not perfect and most do not believe in everything McCain does, but Democrats (at least the ones on this board) seem to think Obama is dead on perfection in a candidate.

It is hard to find meaningful compare and contrast discussions with people who are so infatuated with a candidate that they cannot see obvious flaws. McCain is far from the ideal Republican candidate, why is it that so many Democrats refuse to admit that Obama is not the messiah?

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I'm not sure what causes the divide, or what makes it such a zealous and angry abyss.

Maybe when it comes to any issue the loudest people are going to be the nutjobs?

Logically, any long-term successful policy is going to have to make both liberals and conservatives happy. It will have to live up to the expectations and desires of both groups. Nothing else can last very long, by design.

I've had the thought that maybe the way to achieve this is for both sides to swap issues. This sounds silly, but just bear with me -- imagine if liberals wrote down all the things that bother them, and then conservatives wrote down all the things that bother them. The liberals try to come up with solutions for the conservative list, and the conservatives try to come up with solutions for the liberal list.

Hmmm. Maybe I'll start a thread.

Anyway, I think the division is somewhat artificial. As long as we're divided, we have less power, and there are people who can take advantage of that.

you know you have a very good point there!!

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Aint but three things in this world thats worth a solitary dime,
But old dogs and children and watermelon wine.
Tom T. Hall
http://www.politicalforum.com/group.php?groupid=43

Well, Obama isn't perfect. He's just a human being with all the normal flaws.

A lot of Dems / Liberals have said so. It's just that compared to president Bush, Obama looks like a dream come true. There is war fatigue, the economy and other issues that explain why.

But I guess my point was that it's irrational to "hate" the other political party. I don't hate republicans because of Bush, I just disagree with some of their ideology.

As a whole, the political system is kind of broken.

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If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
-Albert Einstein

When Republicans started comparing Bush to the Marlboro Man, Arnold Swarchzenegger, God and freakin' Batman, it looked like fun and now we want to try.

I don't think anybody thinks Obama is perfect. I think liberals just look at Obama and see a guy who isn't bought and paid for to the same degree that most politicians are, and we look at McCain and see a guy who talks tough but kowtows to Bush. For a liberal, that's an easy call. We want a candidate who isn't beholden to the same interests as Bush (which we'd have with either McCain or Hilary to a lesser degree), because those interests really aren't the interests of the American people or human life in general.

I agree. This was along my same lines of thinking.

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If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
-Albert Einstein

You can blame the media for a lot of it. Think about it. There are many other political parties out there. You don't hear about them at all because there's no equality there. They don't have the cash. Corporations do a lot of sponsoring on both the Republican and Democratic side. So you're only ever going to hear about one side or the other. Maybe if these other parties were given the light of day?

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Youth Politics

Email: crowtche@juniorpolitics.com

I think these points hit the nail on the head, although I would substitute the term zealot for "nut-job". Political races are primarily a struggle between corporate and other special interests to get people elected that will do their bidding. They know that the people most likely to vote are people that are obsessed with particular issues, so they use their massive donations of cash to make sure that these issues are the ones that the candidates they give money to stress. This is why abortion is such a huge issue and really important things like our mounting national debt are only addressed in passing. The sad part is that most corporate donors give money to both parties just to hedge their bet.

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