Political Talk Has Become Pointlessly Personal and Rancorous

One of the things I learned as a part of growing up into a mature adult capable of getting along with others in a civil manner is that whenever someone asks me how to do something, what the rules are, or which is the better choice, not to answer them in absolute terms as some do, laying down the law in capital letters and multiple exclamation points, so to speak.  Instead, I have gotten into the habit of expressing myself in terms of how I would handle the procedure, policy, or choice, usually with reasons given.  If there were alternate choices or approaches involved, I'd also try to mention them as well, giving the person asking me a sense of empowerment and of being properly informed.  I don't think a lot of folks approach this in the same way, though, and almost never whenever politics are involved...

Yesterday afternoon while driving to the library I was fiddling around with my radio tuner and landed on a station broadcasting the Sean Hannity show. To this individual, anything goes as long as it promotes his political views...and that includes personally vilifying people he disagrees with.  I parked my car, went in, checked out my books, and walked out.  Along the sidewalk was a row of newspaper racks, one of which contained the local left-wing political rag The Gainesville Iguana.  I grabbed a copy and went to my car.  As I browsed through it, I noticed the same blunt, in-your-face kind of "my way or the highway" mindset I was just picking up from Hannity...except that these viewpoints were promoting the far left, not the far right.  There was no attempt on any level to respectfully address the opposing views on any issue, just as Hannity refuses to ever try to see anything from his political opponents' perspective...

I suggest that one of the cable channels start a new kind of talk show, but one with a special format: guests who normally argue for one viewpoint over another would, during their time on the air, agree to take the opposite position and plead their opponent's case instead. Wouldn't you like to watch a debate in which Ted Cruz tried to see things from a liberal perspective and Bernie Sanders from a conservative one?  Never will happen, of course...but at least I'd like to see media opinion makers and politicians start displaying some basic, common respect toward those on the other side, including complimenting them and pointing out areas of common cause.  But the trend nowadays...for some time, sadly...is for people to condemn in the most vicious personal terms those whose political philosophies differ from their own priorities, while either ignoring the behavior of those on their own side or going through great semantic contortions defending them.  As Marvin Gaye once sang, "Yeah, it makes me wanna holler and throw up both my hands"...