Political Speech is meaningless. This is more and more apparent to me as I read and engage various websites with views that diverge from my own. Imagine that. Someone actually rising up to the liberal challenge to become exposed to diverse viewpoints becomes more conservative. So be it - I am getting tired of playing their game.
The fact is that the two parties now in power operate from totally divergent worldviews. There is no room for compromise or centrist government because the debates are being framed in totalitarian ways to make one side look absolutely essential to combat the demise the other side promises. Motives and logic are horribly and deceptively skewed to force people to choose one side or the other. In reality, these false images (like the candidate smear ads on t.v.) merely help people who already agree to agree more. They solidify what is already the worldview of the potential listener and do little to actually convince anyone. The truly objective listener is a rarity indeed. So rare, in fact, that they do little to affect the outcome of any election. The only thing that can change a person's political point of view is a major life change that radically alters worldview or one's perception of reality - like a conversion to Christianity that accepts Jesus Christ as the Lord and Master of your life.
Even so, the spin campaign rolls on, with each pundit thinking he might make a difference in the world by his own persuasiveness. Here are a few examples I encountered recently. Because the majority of my readers are of the conservative stripe (though I am very happy about all my liberal friends who are reading today), I have chosen three mostly liberal (or "progressive") sites so that you can identify the flaws in the way they frame what you (conservatives) think and the way you make decisions.
Dr. Gerry Lower, Religious War
This clown does not have the first idea about what Christians believe and how those beliefs shape their social, economic, and political philosophies. But it does not stop him from promoting how they should be considered within his worldview. He identifies traits that he does not like and then ascribes his own motivations to them. Thus, he renders the so-called "christians" as evil as he would like to believe them to be. Really, how impartial can the research he cites be when the "political scientists" title the current president "Dubya" on their charts? He unabashedly uses the assumptions of his own worldview in critiquing the worldviews of others.
George Lakoff, Using Language as a Political Weapon
An interview with the Berkeley professor about the dynamics of the language of political debate. It is good that Lakoff recognizes the power of words - and also implicitly that they are meaningful only to those who hold the positions - but his own bias frames his own words about the subject - "strict father" and the harsh terms used to describe conservatives are a good examples of using his theories about framing to frame the debate about framing. In fact, I don't buy into his "liberals just need to be smarter" whining. I think this is an attempt at further framing that denies the conservative resurgence and attributes the Repubs' successes as flukes that can be corrected with the further liberal educating of America. This fella does not stop. His political views become meaningless based on the meaning he himself ascribes to their meaning! Ha!
Ray Dubuque, Liberals Like Christ
This site does a very good job with the type of framing Lakoff discusses. He uses modern liberal notions of reality as the empirical facts with which to interpret scripture and assumes that all of the worst motives he can ascribe to conservatives are true. Within this model, he provides a frighteningly consistent theology of moral outrage against people who hold traditional views of scripture. Of course, often he does not reflect those traditional views properly, but he is consistent with what he ascribes according to his moral/literary framework.
All of this is why we need a standard from which to begin the development of our philosophies and worldviews. This is why I think biblical Christianity is superior to other systems. I do not get to just make up my systems based on what feels good to me. I must subject myself to scripture (or God's words). If scripture is true, mine is the only system that makes sense. If scripture is false, I more than all others am to be pitied. I believe there is an objective reality that can be discovered. Modern political debate is about framing and reframing, polling and responding, language and rhetoric, spin and falsehood. It is all baseless and meaningless and the folks who wholesale buy into this stuff are the ones who I really pity.
Fight the Madness.