Thread: Left's and right's mutual loathing is poison

San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial

Left's and right's mutual loathing is poison

September 17, 2009

Something has gone fundamentally awry in American politics. Big chunks of each party literally hate the other side.

Those on the right often argue that what started us on this road was the instant vitriol that greeted President Ronald Reagan's 1987 nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court. Those on the left cite the readiness of the conservative movement to amplify outrageous claims about President Bill Clinton (he was involved in drug running; he had something to do with the death of aide Vincent Foster, etc.) from the day he took office in 1993.

But whoever drew first blood, we now live in a poisonous political culture in which it is close to the norm for one side to dismiss the comments and concerns of the other side with venom and contempt. This is on full display in the battle over President Barack Obama's push for big changes in health care. Supporters of the president routinely dismiss critics as liars, knaves, idiots and racists. Opponents of Obama's effort trash the president and his allies as fascists and/or socialists hell-bent on micromanaging all of our lives.

A mature, productive approach would acknowledge that both sides harbor extremists but that in general both sides have reasonable motives.

Republicans/conservatives aren't just posturing when they see the huge price tags associated with various versions of Obama's plan and wonder how a nation already burdened with staggering deficits can keep adding to the red ink. Democrats/liberals aren't just bloviating when they say it is outrageous that a nation as affluent as the United States has a health system in which tens of millions of people lack any kind of insurance.

These are both very legitimate arguments. But for the most part, the loudest voices in the health debate won't concede that those on the other side are acting in good faith.

This isn't just a recipe for political dysfunction. It is a recipe for endless, ugly social division. This may not bother Keith Olbermann, Rush Limbaugh and their acolytes. But it should bother people who want the best for this country.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... ?uniontrib

Seems to me we need to vote them all out and vote in a third party like maybe the Constitution Party..if not that one then we need to get some one to run on the Independent Party Platform.

Either way these people need to go!!!!

Kathyet

Left stands for:
Always Vote for Amnesty
Cap and Trade
Stimulus Bill
Tarp
Liberal aspects of health care reform bill
Hate Crimes bill
Large Government Control
Fairness Doctrine
Take away Guns
No freedom to express any differences of opinion of any of Obama's policy
Race Bating
Acorn
Czars
Higher Taxes
Redistributing our wealth to their "special interest" groups and/or to line their pocketts.

Right stands for the reverse of the left as we have seen on C-Span and read via legislation enacted.

There is no difference from either party the Republicans or the Democrats. They are each from the same BIG bird only a different WING. Left or Right ... The policies are on going and each side just continues them on.

Kathyet[/u]

There are vested interests driving either of the two big Parties. Both of them have groups that want government funding; sometimes their opinions are worthwhile, sometimes they are warped by self-interest. The right tends to want military spending and doesn't really take a sharp pencil to all of iys own proposals. Example: Reagan's anti missile system. The left wants social program spending but disdains personal responsibility. Example: Pushing an urban growth agenda and then funding programs to help people deal with the fallout from overcrowding.

Both sides have their delegations of experts, spokespeople, debaters, analysts, apologists---all looking for a salary to live on, but none of them directly producing anything of concrete value. With such inefficient allocation of human resources it is small wonder that many in both camps expect immigration to solve the productivity problem. So the strategy to somehow get their hands on some more government money for either vested interest is likely to continue.

Peter Schiff sums it up very well with the term "bloated service sector." Unfortunately, both parties seem to be involved in it.

[/QUOTE]With such inefficient allocation of human resources it is small wonder that many in both camps expect immigration to solve the productivity problem.[/QUOTE]

So they just want to let in more and more illegals into our country illegally,,hmmm..sorry I don't by that theory to me it is all for corporate greed....cheap labor and control of the populace.

Kathyet

This isn't just a recipe for political dysfunction. It is a recipe for endless, ugly social division. This may not bother Keith Olbermann, Rush Limbaugh and their acolytes. But it should bother people who want the best for this country.

Frankly I blame the mainstream media. If they did their job, that is, reported the news and details of legislation, pointed out the liars in a professional and non-biased manner, the rest of us would not be so frustrated. And it may be impolite to call the president of the United States a liar in a public meeting, but he was lying. And he lies all of the time, as does the press. So I say tough. If you think it's ugly now, just wait 'til next year.