Hillarysworld

rachel wrote:

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I am a firm beleiver that welfare had a hand in destryoing the black family.   Back in the day 80's  when my mom was on it for awhile you were not allowed to have the father of your child living with you and recieve foodstamps.   That's means if both you and your child's father were out of work and you needed help to get by like foodstamps daddy had to go bye bye from the house.  My stepfather is a liberal to the 9th degree and he is soo arrogant about it.  He will start fights about religon and what consertatives really represent as if his word is absoulte and there can be no questioning it.

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I completely agree.  My mom remembers when the case worker would come she would remove all of my dad's items and hide them at my grandmother's house. This was an outrage.  It broke up our families.

Good thought provoking article.

Not that I want to side with liberals; the article seems to generalize liberals to include all Democrats. That would be saying GOP=conservatives. Not quite. There is a broad spectrum in both parties.

Let's posit that all are driven by their own feelings, principles (let's hope) and value system.  By what standard do we really judge any party's objectivity?  There really is no standard; there are few good examples of fair and balanced analysis. 

Each side makes empassioned argument that is unilateral in trying to persuade the listener.  But, in doing so, there is a grand sense of "we know better" that comes from BOTH ends of the political spectrum.  BOTH are highly condescending to each other, and to the vast center.  Both refuse to converse the interests of the other.  Therein lies the problem.

There is really nothing less appealing or more disrespectful than when someone says I do not want to discuss it, or there is nothing to discuss, despite being fully aware that they view the situation entirely differently from each other.  That is where mutual respect breaks down, whether or not they realize it. That's the breaking point where mutual interest becomes impossible.  I believe that applies to a lot of life situations, not just politics.

In politics, the problem is compounded when columnists take extreme positions without giving an ounce of consideration to the other side. This happens with columnists as well as media channels.  At the present time, I would combine FOX News with all other media in calling them all mainstream. There is no real difference except they all take extreme positions.  It concerns me that even printed newspapers are owned by the television broadcasting stations (e.g., FOX News' parent company owns WSJ channel and paper). There are many ways these channels influence our opinion; some by simply not asking tough questions on current day events when they really ought to.  Giving a pass is giving people an easy go.

Fact-filled and less bias in the media is something that I hanker for. The only way I seem to find it is to switch on C-SPAN.   If I watch FOX News, i am having to balance it a bit and I watch HLN (HeadLine News) and Bloomberg, but that is not enough. So now I am looking at adding CNN.. but with that comes also MSNBC. 

There is no alternative to intake of information from wide variety of sources and good, patient dialog with fellow citizens.  In the meanwhile, hopefully we are smart enough to recognize the extreme inputs we are receiving and suspend judging too early on any political position or any candidate.

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ps.  This is one reason why I like Jay Cost of RCP so much; he really does a good job of both analysis and presenting good analysis - well supported cogent arguments - without pushing any one ideology down my throat.

-- Edited by Sanders on Monday 8th of February 2010 04:58:27 PM

-- Edited by Sanders on Wednesday 10th of February 2010 12:21:28 AM

bump

Hillarysmygirl16 wrote:

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I just thought it was so true that Liberals are very condesending they think they know all the answers especially about poverty and frankly they never actually even spoke to a poor person in their lives.

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Yes, HMG, true. 

It comes from inability to empathize.. and if you have never walked a mile in the others' shoes, or imagine yourself in the others' plight, there is no way to empathize.

I find condescension in both extreme ideologies.  And I would say the same thing (my prior para) about the far right conservatives as the far left liberals.  Far right thinks they have the corner on 'morality' defined their way of course [and it is not open for debate].

This is also the reason why we find media stuck in extreme positions, and analysis that is ideologue rather than fact-based.