Letters to the Editor
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Pot and Kettle
I do agree that politics have become increasingly polarized and virulent. There is less and less respectful disagreement and more and more ideologically-driven villification of dissent (and dissenters).
But I don't see that the trend is any less apparent on the left than it is on the right. Yes, Bill O'Rielly is a demagogue who reduces complex issues to oversimplified schemas that reinforce the self-satisfied prejudices of his audience. And this makes him different than Michael Moore... how?
Over and over again, in Wheaton's article and in these responses to it, liberals have characterized anyone expressing a conservative viewpoint as brainwashed. What was Wheaton's phrase? "Pod people?" How exactly do these characterizations contribute to an atmosphere of respectful disagreement?
With Wheaton, I lament the increasing incivility and decreasing respect for dissent in our political discourse. But in his absolute blindness to the left's contribution to it, he is rather an example of than an antidote to the phenomenon.
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Republicans in the family
You guys are so nice! I have Republicans in my family, too, and after the 2004 election, I simply stopped talking to them. When they come to me of their own accord and apologize for voting for Bush and putting an end to two hundred years of American democracy, maybe I will speak to them again. I have looked deep within and realized that if they can vote for Bush, I really and truly don't give a s**t about them.
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My Dad, too.
My Dad has always been a conservative, but when I was young he told me to never vote a straight party ticket, to make up my own mind about each candidate. And now, after a steady diet of Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly for the last several years, he tells me with pride that he votes a straight Republican ticket, and furthermore that that's the only way to vote if you're a decent person. I can't even ask what happened, because he honestly does not remember being any other way.
It never bothered me before that we voted for different candidates, but sometimes it really hurts to think that my father believes that it's okay to hate people like me because we don't vote the same way. I miss the guy who told me not to vote that straight ticket. I wish he'd come back.
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On Your Pod Person Encounter
I'm sorry your father exploded into that virulent of an attack, Wil. However, I have to admit, having read your blog for quite some time, I wonder what someone with no political views whatseover would have seen in the confrontation. I agree with you entirely about 99.5% of the things you say on your blog, so I come from your political position — but I know that you feel as fervently about liberal positions as your father seems to feel about conservative positions, and I wonder how much that influences the truth underlying story as told from your point of view.
It's hard to think that anyone could make a transition from liberal to neoconservative positions in what seems to them a logical fashion, but it's quite possible that this is what happened with your parents, even if it ends up feeling to you as if it was a "pod people" transition.
That having been said, I don't think that we of the liberal viewpoints hold much blame (on a nationwide scale) for the state of contentious affairs in this country. Many people I've argued with are content to blame both sides, but it is the Republicans and solely the Republicans who have declared war on the very right to hold opposing beliefs to theirs, saying that dissent is unpatriotic. Clinton appointed two Supreme Court justices that the minority (Republican) head of the Judiciary Committee suggested to him, Breyer and Ginsburg. Try getting the Republicans to listen to anything the Democrats have to say nowadays; they don't even have room in their party for their own moderates anymore.
And so the mainstream of the Republican Party has incorporated its extremest elements, pushing the moderates right out of the party and resulting in a New Republican Party. And it looks as if your father made the transition with them to extremism, especially if they have ingested the words of Bill O'Reilly and other talk show hosts. Those men have charisma and charm, unfortunately, or they wouldn't be able to get audiences to buy their books, CDs, merchandise, and steadily watch their shows.
If you'd really like to get some insight into how the Republican mindset works, including the neoconservative aberration, I strongly suggest the book Moral Politics by George Lakoff. He is a cognitive linguist. I could never understand why Democrats and Republicans seemed to never be able to come to agreeable compromises, until I read this book. It will probably lend some insight into your father's and sister's trains of thought, as well.
I am sorry what happened with your family did, but at least your father and mother and you were able to get to a point where you could find peace again. Other families (fortunately, I do not include my own among this number) are not so lucky.
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RE: "Pot and Kettle" Anthony
I don't recall seeing anything in Wil's article that said that the left wasn't at all contributing to the partisan divide.
A real simple way to look at it is, well, it's a "divide" - so both sides must be equally to blame for it! If only that were true. The right has veered off HARD to the right, while the left has either defended its positions or, believing the right's garbage, inched more the center.
The right's in power in every branch of government, and on radio and TV, not to mention that they, like always, pretty much own everything George Soros hasn't pounced on yet. They are not COMPLETELY to blame for the partisan divide, but they are MOSTLY to blame -- and Wil is right not to play their silly games, but let its ugliness and untruthfulness make it self-destruct...much like the Bush administration is doing now, and it's lapdog TV network that has sunk to inventing "The War on Christmas" in lieu of reporting continuing bad news on its master.