Real Clear Politics is a great site, especially during election season. Data, commentary, major speeches, and all the rest make it highly useful and enjoyable for political junkies. That's still an accurate descriptor of me.
And I don't know who finds the opinion and analysis pieces, but I notice those that lean Right have noticeably declined in quality, with respect to avoiding ad hominems. The headlines are ad hominems, as are the pieces themselves. There seem to be alternate realities, and there doesn't appear to be any willingness to seek any neutral ground of fact to re-establish some basis for constructive conversation.
The Right in general is given over to conspiracies and a bunker mentality. Most people I know and see who are "conservative" (whatever that means) ignore the mainstream media altogether, in favor of ideological sources. Here's the thing, though: You can't persuade someone without a common language, and common facts. The political Right is of no use if it completely abandons a shared vision, shared language, and shared facts. Politics itself is impossible without this.
This new "anti-politics" of "owning the libs" seems to appeal to many people. It gets dangerous and ultimately self-defeating when one's tribe no longer holds the levers of power, and the level of contempt one shows has inspired a furious backlash.
Most importantly, people forget more fundamentally that we have to live together.
Politics has never been this consequential to people, and yet more frivolous, as it is today. That makes me sad. I'm not sure what to do about it.
And I don't know who finds the opinion and analysis pieces, but I notice those that lean Right have noticeably declined in quality, with respect to avoiding ad hominems. The headlines are ad hominems, as are the pieces themselves. There seem to be alternate realities, and there doesn't appear to be any willingness to seek any neutral ground of fact to re-establish some basis for constructive conversation.
The Right in general is given over to conspiracies and a bunker mentality. Most people I know and see who are "conservative" (whatever that means) ignore the mainstream media altogether, in favor of ideological sources. Here's the thing, though: You can't persuade someone without a common language, and common facts. The political Right is of no use if it completely abandons a shared vision, shared language, and shared facts. Politics itself is impossible without this.
This new "anti-politics" of "owning the libs" seems to appeal to many people. It gets dangerous and ultimately self-defeating when one's tribe no longer holds the levers of power, and the level of contempt one shows has inspired a furious backlash.
Most importantly, people forget more fundamentally that we have to live together.
Politics has never been this consequential to people, and yet more frivolous, as it is today. That makes me sad. I'm not sure what to do about it.
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