a political conversation
They're building a mosque near Ground Zero! The end of civilization is near! We can't have a mosque near ground Zero!
But there's been one there for years. Decades, in fact.
Still, I'm mad about this one! Especially because liberals are in charge now. After all, Obama isn't having an annual National Day of Prayer event at the White House! The end of civilization is near!!!!
Actually, neither did Clinton, Bush Sr, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Truman....
Well I'm still mad, only about Obama!!
Why only about Obama?
Hey! over there! Obama didn't go to the Boy Scout Jamboree!!! How on earth could he disappoint the Scouts like that?
Bush didn't speak there in his first term, either: he sent a video just like Obama.
Well I'm still mad only about Obama!
Hey, at least he addressed the nation's schoolchildren.
WHATT!! Keep that big-government pro-gay socialist Muslim indoctrinator away from our children!
So, you're glad he didn't address the Boy Scouts?
No, I'm horrified! How on earth could he disappoint the Scouts like that? Especially because he skipped them in favor of going on a daytime talk show. What happened to presidential dignity?
Actually, on that talk show he discussed the most pressing matters of the day, and was grilled intensively on his policies and actions.
I'm still shocked that a sitting president would ever appear on a daytime talk show! No president has ever done that before. The end of civilization is near!!
Actually, George W Bush did that, just a few years ago. Remember?
Of course, but I'm still only mad at Obama, because — look, there's Elvis!
But there's been one there for years. Decades, in fact.
Still, I'm mad about this one! Especially because liberals are in charge now. After all, Obama isn't having an annual National Day of Prayer event at the White House! The end of civilization is near!!!!
Actually, neither did Clinton, Bush Sr, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Truman....
Well I'm still mad, only about Obama!!
Why only about Obama?
Hey! over there! Obama didn't go to the Boy Scout Jamboree!!! How on earth could he disappoint the Scouts like that?
Bush didn't speak there in his first term, either: he sent a video just like Obama.
Well I'm still mad only about Obama!
Hey, at least he addressed the nation's schoolchildren.
WHATT!! Keep that big-government pro-gay socialist Muslim indoctrinator away from our children!
So, you're glad he didn't address the Boy Scouts?
No, I'm horrified! How on earth could he disappoint the Scouts like that? Especially because he skipped them in favor of going on a daytime talk show. What happened to presidential dignity?
Actually, on that talk show he discussed the most pressing matters of the day, and was grilled intensively on his policies and actions.
I'm still shocked that a sitting president would ever appear on a daytime talk show! No president has ever done that before. The end of civilization is near!!
Actually, George W Bush did that, just a few years ago. Remember?
Of course, but I'm still only mad at Obama, because — look, there's Elvis!
Comments
In general, I try to address the true heart of an issue rather than a caricature that I can just demolish. You'll notice, though, that in the above instances I didn't address the merits of *any* of the issues at hand: certainly there may be valid reasons for anger over Park 51, the Boy Scouts, the View, the National Day of Prayer, and so on. But this post isn't really about the merits of those issues. Instead, it's about a wearying trend in our political discourse, where I'm angry about some injustice only if someone I perceive to be an opponent is guilty of it, giving my own team a free pass.
It's like if Jordan and Taylor came in muddy, and Mom spanked only Jordan, and lectured him on mud in the house; then they both got a C-minus, and only Jordan got grounded and lectured on grades; then both made the same joke and Mom took it as hilarious from Taylor and as an insult from Jordan. You might begin to think there was something else going on.
Similarly, think of those people who four years ago were screaming about what they called injustices perpetrated in Guantanamo by the Bush Administration: are they still screaming at those same policies now that it's the Obama Administration? You don't hear nearly the outcry. But when people like Glenn Greenwald have continued with their indignation and fury, now aiming it at the Democrats who have the same policies that the Republicans did, you can at least say (regardless of the merits of his opinion or whether you even agree these are injustices to begin with) that he's consistent, and that he does care, as he seems to, about Justice and the Rule of Law, and not just scoring political points.
Regarding the above conversation: unfortunately, it's not some easily-defeated fictional version of an argument I've been gunning to win. Each one of the opinions expressed were actual opinions of actual people that I've actually conversed with over the past little while.
There really is someone in my life who was furious about Obama's National Day of Prayer business, and completely ignored the entire presidential history of it; there really is someone in my life who clucks about the Boy Scout thing, and somehow can't get so clucky with Bush for doing the same thing. And on and on. These aren't made-up; they're all-too-sadly real.
Just as with Mom and Jordan and Taylor, there are real reasons to not want mud in the house, and to dislike insults, and to enjoy humor; but, just as with Mom and Jordan and Taylor, onlookers may find themselves suspecting that the issues really aren't the issues after all.