Isn’t it sad that politics has become the third rail of a conversation?
Once the weather, society/sports banter was out of the way, politics used to be a natural subject two people would dive into.
Even if folks disagreed, the conversation didn’t explode into a relationship-ending death sentence.
People used to listen to each other. Good points were made. One would need to back up a position. One may concede a point. But in the end, it’s highly possible both enjoyed seeing the world through a different perspective.
Maybe some changed their minds. Maybe they didn’t, but at least they were forced to defend their views.
This sad disappearance of critical thinking comes as we all watch the deterioration of political issues. The truth is nobody defends or argues positions to anyone anymore because it’s no longer necessary.
We all feel like we know everything.
We can get whatever news we want from whatever outlet most aligns with our own biases. We can follow like-minded people on social media. We can unfollow or un-friend people who challenge us.
Feeding into this myopic view of the world are the two major political parties. They’ve mastered micro-targeting people with messages designed to trigger action.
It’s not about changing hearts and minds. It’s not about convincing independents.
It’s all about driving reliable party voters to fill out an absentee ballot and getting them to the polls. That’s it.
Arguments are no longer won or lost — because they’re not being had.
Joe Biden lost his final debate because it showed the American public he couldn’t perform on the big stage anymore. He didn’t lose on any policy difference.
It’s a reason political debates are disappearing.
Nobody else is arguing civilly in public, so why should politicians?
Why should they debate issues when they have their poll-tested issues that gin up likely voters?
For Democrats, it’s abortion and protecting democracy.
For Republicans, it’s blaming Democrats for inflation and not securing the southern border.
Much of everything else is swallowed whole by a public that wants to believe whatever is fed to them to be true. Here are two examples.
Project 2025. This conglomerated wish list of right-wing think tanks is allegedly Donald Trump’s agenda for a second term. However, there’s zero proof Trump had anything to do it. The Heritage Foundation put it together.
The document had hundreds of contributing authors, some of whom once worked for Trump but don’t anymore. Trump has disavowed it. The Heritage Foundation is taking full ownership of it.
You may want to believe this is Trump’s blueprint, but since when has Trump acted with any consistent conservative principles, even when he was president? Like any politician, his positions from Jan. 6 to abortion have fluxuated.
Think about it. When has Trump ever taken policy dictates from anyone?
On the other side, Republicans are perpetuating the idea that Democrats are luring communist China into Michigan to somehow take over the United States from the inside.
Governor Whitmer and legislative Democrats approved incentives to lure Gotion into Mecosta County to build advance battery parts. The plant would create hundreds of jobs in a traditionally impoverished part of the state.
However, Gotion is an international company with Volkswagen owning most of its shares. To claim Red China is using Gotion to set up a political beachhead in Michigan is ignoring that companies with some level of Chinese connection are all over the United States. They’ve been here for years, subsidies or not.
Also, American companies has been operating in China for years.
Like turning Project 2025 into a political bogeyman, Gotion is being used to fearmonger on the other side.
We could expose both topics if we were brave enough to discuss them. But it’s easier to accept the banter and nod our heads with those digesting the spin the exact same way.
(Email Kyle Melinn of the Capitol news service MIRS at melinnky@gmail.com.)
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daveyscott341
Kyle Melinn’s point about the need for more civility on both sides is well taken. No argument there. But I was somewhat taken aback when he indirectly suggested there was equivalency between the Dems highlighting Project 2025, and the GOP claims that Dems are luring the Chinese to Michigan to help them take over the country, a variation of Trump’s constant rants that Dems are treasonous, villainous Communists who are out to destroy America. The latter claims are a sickening, repulsive diatribe worthy of the 20th century’s worst dictators. The former claims by the Dems reflect the legitimate concern of many that Trump will follow much of the Project 2025 blueprint in a second term, given that there already is much overlap between the recently adopted Republican platform and Project 2025, and many of its authors are some of Trump’s closest White House and senior advisors, including Cabinet secretaries. Let us also not forget that, in Trump’s first term, he looked to the Heritage Foundation closely for guidance on who to nominate for federal judicial vacancies, including the SCOTUS vacancies. To date, this represents Trump’s most lasting legacy, one that will take a generation or two to reverse, and the Heritage Foundation held his hand for this. But Trump has denied any knowledge of Project 2025, or what his closest allies are doing to shape the agenda of a second administration. He not only denied it; he strongly denied it. So I guess that settles it.
Friday, September 6 Report this
SteveB
According to Trump's speech in Wisconsin on Sept 7, he will enact many if not all of the policies enumerated by Heritage in Project 2025. This is according to the New York Times, which is not exactly a hotbed of left wing propaganda.
I expected better than weak, both-sides nonsense from City Pulse. A joint venture battery plant pales in comparison to a plan to fire thousands of federal employees and replace them with Trump loyalists, while remaking the federal government and concentrating power in the executive branch.
Do better, Kyle.
Sunday, September 8 Report this