What Is Provoking the Rage between the Liberals and Conservatives ?

Question

On this board? Or don't you see any?

All comments welcomed

Some good and witty answers--Thank you

Answer 1

It's a cycle: Everyone is unhappy with the country these days, and everyone has something, some one, or some group to blame.

Trouble is, politics isn't that simple. It's easy to hop on a message board and generalize and oversimplify about the reasons behind the country's decline, and it's all too easy to say something insulting--or to get insulted by someone's oversimplification.

Democrats and Republicans have a difference of opinion about the respective roles and interplay of the economy and the government. It's an important debate to have, and it makes our country better because we're actively determining our own fate. But politics isn't really about this long-term debate, it's about winning an election, and that means attaching positive and negative traits to those positions.

And when you do that, you demean the debate and you make it easy for citizens to generalize about Republican and Democratic positions. You give people names to shout and oversimplified talking points to spout. And it means the debate is gone and the invective, the mean-spiritedness, and the lingering dissatisfaction with a formerly proud nation, is all that's left.

I'm not saying that citizens don't understand what's really going on--I'm saying that it's easier to get mad, throw insults, and blame other people's ignorance than it is to sit down, discuss the problems at hand, make a case and move forward with making plans for this nation. We don't have time--that's why we elect representatives in the first place.

Even though sometimes it doesn't feel like our views are being heard, and it's so, so frustrating to see our country lose so much of its status in the world and feel like there's nothing we can do about it, we have to come together around the things we do believe in. And I'm not talking about buzzwords like "freedom" and "democracy." I'm talking about voting in every election, reading the news every day, writing to our elected officials, and making an investment in our political system instead of blaming our neighbors for our country's decline.

I have faith that our country will emerge from this dark era of bad feelings with a new consensus on our future. It won't be what we had before and maybe we won't be the sole global leader anymore, but we will have matured as a nation. Maybe it won't be in my lifetime, but I think it's a goal worth pursuing...starting today.

Answer 2

It is actually a culmination of the aftermath of the Civil War. In a sense that conflict was never resolved, a conflict started basically over a difference of philosophy of society versus the family being the arbiter of behavior, which resulted in the North not allowing the South to go its separate way (the South never wanted to fight, just be left alone), much like Sweden and Norway are diametrically opposed (Sweden ultra left, Norway conservative, Sweden with loose sexual standards, Norway prudish, Sweden with lots of night life, Norway they roll up the sidewalks at 9PM), yet they are friendly neighbors and most people born two hundred years ago would have been hard-pressed to say whether they were Swedes or Norwegians if asked, as that differentiation had not yet been established.

This irresolution has left a rift that is reaching its climax some 150 years later with such issues as small government versus welfare state, political correctness versus the right to be bigoted, proclaiming God in the public versus freedom to be an atheist but no public display, the idea that a man's (woman's) home is his (her) castle versus the State can tell you that you can't spank and other issues including abortion, gay rights, the role of business versus government in the shaping the economy - even global warming. In fact there is hardly an issue that each camp has a "right" answer to that is the litmus test of which group a person is inclined towards.

In short, there are actually two distinct cultures inhabiting the same continent and there is no more "West" for the outcasts to flee to. Although I am not a racist and believe that it is and always will be immoral for one person to own another and believe government should help the weak, I also question whether the Civil War should have ever been fought - I rather think the South should have been left to secede as the tranquility each "culture" would have had within its borders would have been greater. Then each "country" could self-righteously proclaim its superiority, much like France and Italy do to this day, instead of being forced to live together as the citizens of Iraq are forced to do in a geographical area where such a nationhood has only existed since Sir Winston Churchill's ingenious creation of Iraq in a fit of revenge against the Turks, the French, the Russians and the Arabs - in a sense he created that country to destabilizie the ambitions of the region as a hotspot while scratching the backs of the Hussein clan (Mohammed's clan).

So we have direct evidence in our time of separate peoples who should not be together in one nation (Kurds, Sunni, SHi'ites). So why couldn't we just grow up, learn from that example and realize that the sooner we split this nation up the better off we'd all be? Because I see no "Great Compromisers" like the Clays of the past to rescue us now - the time for that has passed.

Answer 3

Give me a break. You've got liberals calling the CINC a chimp, comparing him to Hitler, calling troops baby killers and comparing them to Nazis. If conservative talk radio is "provoking rage" on the conservative side what is the excuse for the left? The hatred and vitriol coming from the left is as great if not more than what you see coming from the right. My rage (it's more like irritation) stems from the lefts inability to comprehend anything that isn't fed to them in 30 second sound bites or presented in comedic form on the Daily show.

Answer 4

Oh, there's definite rage. Whenever one side accuses another side of being inhuman and traitors to a country we all love, there must be rage behind it.

As for why? Part of it is the anonymity of the Internet--people will say things here they would never say out loud. Part of it is that the users skew young, so we get a lot of gung-ho teenagers who haven't experienced enough life to temper their extremism. And a lot of it is the "training" we've all been getting from shock jocks like Morton Downy Jr., Howard Stern, the participants of Jerry Springer, Rush Limbaugh, etc., where *fighting* brings in more ratings than an earnest debate.

The question then becomes... what to do about it?

Answer 5

The Liberals and Conservatives.

Answer 6

I think Chi Guy is right. Conservatives lost the culture wars back in the 1990s, and they have become increasingly shrill and bitter about it since. Witness Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity, who have no parallel on the other side of the aisle.

Answer 7

All light weights step off! You can't blame this on Conservative talking heads, or Liberal blowhards! This has been brewing since long before the latest batch of butt muffins (political persuasion immaterial) started spouting off. This conflict was brewing starting back with JFK, and has just been snowballing ever since.

Answer 8

Rage? Nah, just standard political sparring.

A lot of stuff is said back & forth that really is only designed to get a rise our of each other. It keeps it interesting and edgy.

I'd prefer more true discussions, but those are few and far between.

So, keep the muck flying, libbies!

Answer 9

Under-informed people arguing,as opposed to debating...It's a lack of understanding the fundamental principals of political debate

Answer 10

I think is the Bush administration, whether it is doing a good or bad job, that ends up starting most of the arguments on here.