I think it's hard to have a dialog when you want totally different things out of life. From what I read on SI some people really believe we are "exporting" democracy by waging a war in Iraq. They really believe that the "why" of the war is not important- so the "reason" for the war doesn't really matter since the war is the "right" thing, because Saddam was such a bad man, and the Iraqis were so "innocent". To which, of course, everyone on the left goes "So what about Africa?", and "You can't run wars that way, since it results in chaos internationally."
I don't think that gap is bridgeable. The people I know, who are mostly left and center, will never think this war was a good idea, if the US was not threatened, because they don't think there is any other justification for unilateral invasions of another country- and there is no discussion on that. It just is what it is.
We could probably discuss education, or con law, or infrastructure, or agribusiness- but those are not fun sexy topics, and unless people can find some wedge that makes them real anger issues, no one really wants to talk about them. (ID in schools? Sure - people will beat that one to death- there's the "You liberals hate religion and want to stamp it all out" angle, and then there's the "You righties want to bring back burning people at the stake, in the schoolyard".
I guess what I'm saying is, that most real issues are low key, complex, and aren't appealing to people who want to bond over issues with likeminded partisans, and then hurl epithets at people who aren't bondworthy. The coffee shop threads are not the kind of boho roundtable I hoped they would be- where you really get in to ideas, and movies, and books, pleasantly (ok, well you can do that, but you're going to have a small thread if you do)- but on the flip side, I met my best female friend on SI, so who am I to complain :-) |
