For example, I would be labeled, in American terminology, as well left-of-center. But when I have conversations with self-styled Republicans or Libertarians, I find myself with far greater areas of agreement with them than disagreement.
This is a real issue....Americans have much more in common with each other than not, even if they fight forever on details like abortion. Politicians try to focus on our differences and emphasize them because that's how they get elected.
But it's important to realize that manipulation before you get too involved in hating the 'other' team.
How is abortion still an issue? Who are these people that lay awake at night worrying about whether someone will have an abortion?
In a historical way, I can see why it might have been agitating in pre-sexual revolution era (since it was probably always less about dead babies than keeping some kind of existential threat of pregnancy as a way to limit women's sexuality), but now? Do they think making abortion illegal now is going to actually change sexual behavior or have any kind of cultural impact?
It's used both on the right ("pro life") and on the left ("war on women") as a wedge issue.
>> Who are these people that lay awake at night worrying about whether someone will have an abortion?
Mostly "base" voters who are almost assuredly going to vote for either the right or left for other reasons, but who are cynically motivated to get off the couch by "pro life" or "war on women" advertisements full of BS. You can call people who buy into this stuff dumb, but it works (or neither side would do it)./karmawhoring>
This and the original question Gladwell was answering reminded me again of a basic question I've had since youth: why a political dichotomy anyway? Why not three types of people, or just individual issues that we have independent opinions on? Haidt explains some of this from the perspective of personality traits, but I wonder if another part of the answer lies in the most common voting system in the US: plurality voting. That system has the feature of a 3rd-party-spoiler effect, where a 3rd politi
... But when Gladwell pointed out that Canadians aren't so obsessed with the liberal-conservative dichotomy I started to wonder.... Okay, I see that Canada also has a plurality voting system, so I'm likely full of... it. Eh, I'll post this anyway.:)
It's not just plurality voting that makes Canada different. There are also three major parties and a couple of minor ones so it gives people (and the media) more places to slot themselves thus avoiding the US vs. THEM mentality.
If there were more choices than the Democrats and the Republicans I'm guessing it would be more like Canada and less like a WWE smackdown.
Diclaimer: I'm a Canadian but an avid observer of American politics.
What I find interesting is politicians who pander to anti-abortion people by making grand gestures that the Supreme Court would strike down, while not working on writing laws that go right up to the Roe vs. Wade limits.
Dealing with the problem of pure staff accumulation,
all our researches ... point to an average increase of 5.75% per year.
-- C.N. Parkinson
Divisions (Score:4, Insightful)
For example, I would be labeled, in American terminology, as well left-of-center. But when I have conversations with self-styled Republicans or Libertarians, I find myself with far greater areas of agreement with them than disagreement.
This is a real issue....Americans have much more in common with each other than not, even if they fight forever on details like abortion. Politicians try to focus on our differences and emphasize them because that's how they get elected.
But it's important to realize that manipulation before you get too involved in hating the 'other' team.
Re: (Score:1)
How is abortion still an issue? Who are these people that lay awake at night worrying about whether someone will have an abortion?
In a historical way, I can see why it might have been agitating in pre-sexual revolution era (since it was probably always less about dead babies than keeping some kind of existential threat of pregnancy as a way to limit women's sexuality), but now? Do they think making abortion illegal now is going to actually change sexual behavior or have any kind of cultural impact?
Re:Divisions (Score:3)
>> How is abortion still an issue?
It's used both on the right ("pro life") and on the left ("war on women") as a wedge issue.
>> Who are these people that lay awake at night worrying about whether someone will have an abortion?
Mostly "base" voters who are almost assuredly going to vote for either the right or left for other reasons, but who are cynically motivated to get off the couch by "pro life" or "war on women" advertisements full of BS. You can call people who buy into this stuff dumb, but it works (or neither side would do it). /karmawhoring>
Re: (Score:2)
Well said.
This and the original question Gladwell was answering reminded me again of a basic question I've had since youth: why a political dichotomy anyway? Why not three types of people, or just individual issues that we have independent opinions on? Haidt explains some of this from the perspective of personality traits, but I wonder if another part of the answer lies in the most common voting system in the US: plurality voting. That system has the feature of a 3rd-party-spoiler effect, where a 3rd politi
Re: (Score:2)
... But when Gladwell pointed out that Canadians aren't so obsessed with the liberal-conservative dichotomy I started to wonder. ... Okay, I see that Canada also has a plurality voting system, so I'm likely full of ... it. Eh, I'll post this anyway. :)
It's not just plurality voting that makes Canada different. There are also three major parties and a couple of minor ones so it gives people (and the media) more places to slot themselves thus avoiding the US vs. THEM mentality.
If there were more choices than the Democrats and the Republicans I'm guessing it would be more like Canada and less like a WWE smackdown.
Diclaimer: I'm a Canadian but an avid observer of American politics.
Re: (Score:2)
What I find interesting is politicians who pander to anti-abortion people by making grand gestures that the Supreme Court would strike down, while not working on writing laws that go right up to the Roe vs. Wade limits.