Posted on 12/31/2017 6:19:40 AM PST by Kaslin
Anybody else sick of the constant bickering going on in the public forum? In 2016, we had a national election where we were at each other’s throats. We expected, based on history, things would calm down in 2017. They just got worse. My resolution for all of us in 2018: let’s take a deep breath and start to learn how to speak to each other again.
There is plenty of blame to go around with our national media being a prime example. Where the main purpose of the media was to inform and educate us on the issues of the day, it now seems their driving principle is to agitate. We know many in the media have a distaste for our president; but many forget that their jobs are not to drip disdain daily.
On the day the tax bill was introduced as well as Donna Brazile’s column disclosing some serious issues in her upcoming book, both CNN and MSNBC focused their evening broadcasts on their favorite narrative – the Russia investigation. Even two huge stories could not deter them from their “Take Down Trump Train.”
My God, the media has such antipathy for this administration they questioned the validity of the press secretary’s ability to make a pecan pie. Is that really what our country has come to?
It is not just the media doing the elevating, our elected officials must likewise tone it down a few notches. A client sent me an email he received from a local Congressman. Ted Lieu (D-CA) took over Henry Waxman’s seat. There are probably few safer Congressional seats in this country. It covers the Westside of Los Angeles. Yet, Mr. Lieu seems to think the only way for him to secure any national recognition from his moneyed district is with inflammatory rhetoric. I have yet to see him make a commentary where he was not on the attack. Some should tell him it is very unbecoming and not befitting his esteemed position.
Mr. Lieu assailed the Republican tax plan in the email. He called it horrible and stupid. He went on to call it a scam that will devastate California. This is all unnecessary and over-the-top language that scares his constituents instead of educating them about potential issues about which they should be concerned. Not exactly stellar leadership.
There are two ways to stop this. One is that we have a tumultuous event that so turns the stomach of all of us that we have a revelation.
The other way is that we one-by-one mimic Howard Beale (“Network”): “I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore.” In our own lives we demand that we live by a higher principle. I am not saying I am an angel or perfect, but here are some things I do as someone who has learned to cope with being a Jewish Republican in a very liberal city (Los Angeles) amongst many people who are far more liberal than I am:
1. Never bring up politics unless you absolutely know the person’s positions and you can converse with them.
2. If someone else brings up politics and you don’t agree with them, don’t launch into an argument with them. Ask first why they believe what they have just told you. Hear them out. Ask them where they read and gathered their facts from. Ask if they can forward to you what they read to obtain their position. Listen to their points and maybe you might learn something. It will open you up to listening to the opposition and maybe they will start to open themselves up to what you say.
3. Stick to the facts. No ad-hominem attacks. When someone starts calling their political opponents names or making derogatory comments about them then you know the policy points are weak. I may have slipped, but I rarely if ever said anything bad about President Obama. I just attacked him on policy points. I always said he was a devoted husband and father, thus he was a good man.
4. Read or watch the opposition. In my car, I am always listening to the Bruce channel. Having 3,000 CDs, I always have something old or new to listen to, but in my wife’s car she has satellite radio. I almost always turn to progressive radio. I find it a gas. Very entertaining and enlightening. I don’t agree and I think they are way off base, but I listen. Which is the point: we all need to do more of that, LISTEN.
5. If you find someone gets you wound up, then don’t watch them. If you are not learning from what you are reading or watching – lose it. I miss Hugh Hewitt’s radio show that used to be on in the afternoons in Los Angeles until he moved back East. He is a partisan Republican, but I always learned from his show.
6. Don’t always question someone’s motives or character if they disagree with you. Most often, we just disagree. Barack Obama was someone with whom I almost always disagreed; I thought his policies were wrong.
I have no illusion that everyone reading this column will have an epiphany and change their behavior and that will ripple throughout the country. But we must start somewhere. We are blessed to live in the most wonderful country, where people from everywhere on this planet are welcome and accepted as long as they follow the rule of law and desire to become Americans.
We must be a little bit more civil toward each other. That is my New Year’s resolution for us all in 2018.
Happy New Year!
Nice thought but it ain’t going to happen. Toughen your hide. This is the new norm when dealing with Fascist political liberals.
Perhaps we can have peace in our time. /sarcasm
We want to race to a far off peak, and the democrats want a bottomless canyon, where no person can EVER be "better" than any other. Absolute, enforced equality, with some pigs better than others.
We can still lose it all if we relax.
Lets hope so. It’s not the new norm for Progressives, Liberals, or Democrats. They’ve always been this bad. What’s new is we have a GOP that is warming up to fighting back.
90% of the vitriol has NOT been coming from “our” side, sorry to say.
And Obama is NOT “a good man”.
The current Iran situation has them on the ropes for 2018 already. If the uprising in Iran is successful, Trump will bask in reflected glory and Obama's legacy will be further tarnished as he was clearly on the side of the mullah's and keeping the people of Iran under the boot of tyranny.
Edmund Burke "
I’d love to “ratchet down” my conversations with liberals, but when I say “You first,” that’s where it ends.
“And Obama is NOT “a good man”.”
Hell, Dorkbama the Muslim eunuch quota “boy” is not even a man.
And no, we’re not going to turn it down. We take what the snowflakes put out, double it, and return it.
Any other response is taking the RINO approach.
Ratchet down? How about up? I like up, being one wanting to fight back.
Never happen.
As in—NEVER!
It’ll get worse—our enemy is fighting for its very survival and CANNOT quit.
So-lock and load, boys and girls.
Understand where the battle lines exist. There are plenty of liberals who love America just like us. But there are no globalists, REPEAT: no globalists love America.
Why? They are globalists. They believe in an evil international aristocracy that would supersede the authority of national government. And they are the children of evil.
We can get along just fine with good American liberals. But we have an enemy, and our enemy is globalism. There is no compromise with these people, none. And they are everywhere in media; they have taken over all of the Democratic party leadership, and some of the Republican party leadership.
Fight globalism! Down with the demonic internationalists!
Dear Bruce, we tried your “nice” for several decades and lost the country to the Communist. Look what we have gained back with just one year of the Trump Way. Let’s have another!
No way, this is what Commies count on, that the conservatives will always turn the other cheek, then next thing you know there’s a boot on your neck.
When did being nice ever get the GOP Congress anywhere?
It is the nicey-nice, smiley-face approach that has allowed things to get as ugly as they have.
Some people don’t like Trump’s Tweets, even if they like his policies.
On the other hand, I love it that he fights back! he says what we all have been thinking for YEARS!
This is the idiot that doesn’t learn from history and is doomed to repeat it. . .by being with the first group marched into the killing fields. THAT’S where this is headed unless we man up and crush the evil, foreign and domestic, that will not rest until it has consumed our freedom and our souls.
When battling a distinctly differing perspective one should battle to WIN. The other side is ....
The political conflict in Washington, DC is like the conflict between the so-called Palestinians and Israel in the mid-east.
If the Palestinians stand down and disarm there will be peace between the two.
If Israel stands down and disarms there will be slaughter and bloodshed.
If the Fake Media and Never Trumpers stand down and start working for America instead of against America there will be a cessation (or at least a great reduction) of hostilities in Washington, DC.
If President Trump stands down and stops resisting the Fake Media and Never Trumpers there will be slaughter and bloodshed.
It’s like the 1790’s all over again.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.