Bit Stampede

I’m very confused and disappointed by the hateful response some people have to President Bush.  Just because you don’t like him or agree with things he’s done doesn’t mean you have to be crude and nasty.

Although I wound up voting for McCain in the end, this was a tough call for me this year.  It’s the first time I wasn’t able to make up my mind many months before the election.  That says something, although I admit I’m not sure what.

While I certainly understand the passion people can have, especially for someone as engaging as Mr. Obama, I don’t get the kind of hate that flows in the other direction.  It’s shameful, and it makes me sad to have to listen to it from so many people I otherwise like and admire.

All that aside, congratulations to President-Elect Obama.  Good job, and good luck, sir.

Repeat after me: Don’t discuss politics with friends.

I have far too many left-leaning friends with whom I have extremely strong differences of opinion to engage in political debate with them. They tend to all come at me at once, so that I feel like I’m being ganged up on by them and their (from my perspective) ill-informed views.

It’s not conducive to legitimate discussion, and I always wind up offended and frustrated, which usually results in me storming off in a huff.

Here are a few examples of ways good friends can force me to withdraw from a political discussion in sheer exasperation:

1. Repeatedly call our leaders lunatics or idiots without backing it up with any kind of logical argument.  Me, if I don’t like someone, I just say that.  Just because I disagree with someone doesn’t make them an idiot or a lunatic.
2. Insist that someone’s motives are entirely driven by greed, malice, or sadism, despite a total lack of evidence that such is the case.  If you honestly think that, you’d better have a reason for it, otherwise shut the hell up.  Just because you don’t understand why someone does something doesn’t mean their motives are impure.
3. Argue that our country shouldn’t defend its interests, no matter where in the world those interests lie.  Isolationism doesn’t work, and never has.

I think it’s a low form of debate to use such arguments as 1-3, and I think people that don’t think we should defend our interests around the world are just stupid. I’m fine with arguing degrees to which things should be done, but to flat-out argue against it is insane.