I was reading Daily Kos today, and came across an article I think people of all political inclinations should read: De-polarizing: Finding common ground through Bohm Dialogue.

Near the beginning of the article, they have a great quote from Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism:

This book was born in a Brooklyn coffee shop during the summer of 2004. I was talking to my soon-to-be-agent . . . when the conversation veered towards the parallel culture--an amalgam of extreme nationalism and apocalyptic religion--that seemed to be ascendant in much of America. Again and again while reporting for Salon, I'd had the sense that liberals and conservatives no longer merely had divergent values--they occupied different realities, with contradictory facts, histories and epistemologies.

(Emphasis mine)


That quote for me, puts words to thought's I've been having about difference I've felt in politics these last couple years.

I watched this vid, and despite being guilty of behavior that approached what he described, I started to write a diatribe about how the other side really is evil in this case, but stopped myself halfway through.

I didn't used to be so polarized. Through my teenage years, virtually all my friends were Republicans, big fans of Rush Limbaugh even, and it used to be fun debating the benefits of policy back when it was mostly about economic philosophy, and how much regulation there should be.

Now, the most non-hostile frame I'm personally willing to put on the divide is that on the several big issues of the day, economic policy, the war, the environment, and health care, one party denies that there's a problem, and the other party seeks to address the problems.

Throwing in the fact that the parties now have opposing stances on torture, and I do begin seeing things as good and evil. I see at best, voting for a pro-torture, pro-war party stems from being uninformed or misinformed, and at worst a failure of character.

I try to be a good liberal, and treat everyone with respect regardless of their beliefs, but being supportive of those who torture and wage an unjust war is kind of hard for me to set aside as being a simple difference of opinion that I should respect.

I don't blame the "typical" conservative demographics -- I know they're good people at heart, which just makes the whole situation this country is in all the more infuriating to me.

To me the "separate realities" idea is at least slightly comforting: the average hardcore Republican out there would agree this is wrong, he's just not on the same page with me about what this is.

The problem, is getting us all to get back into the same reality again -- or at least into one where the facts, history, and moral values aren't in direct contradiction of each other.