"Obama Hates You"

My wife today was discussing politics with someone of a Republican bent and mentioned that she was leaning strongly towards Barack Obama, and she got a most curious response:

"Obama? Why would you vote for him, he hates you!"

This so surprised my wife that she told me about it, so now we're trying to figure out when Obama learned who my wife is and what he has against her.

Seriously, though, what is it with the blanket assertions in political discourse these days? This assertion out of left field shouldn't convince anyone, and yet there was apparently no attempt to put the assertion in context or provide any kind of evidence for the statement. It wasn't even qualified as to what "hates you" means (were they referring to hating her positions on certain other political issues? or had they bought into the Clinton line that Obama was inherently sexist for having the temerity to run a (gasp!) aggressive campaign?).

If I'd been a party to the e-mail, or even knew with whom she was debating, I'd like to metaphorically grab them by the collar and shake them and say "What the hell are you talking about?" We live in a world of facts not stupid statements generalized so far as to have no real practical meaning in reality.

There are real, substantive differences between candidates, even those in the same political party, moreso between those in different parties. We can advance our nation by discussing those differences and the real issues behind them. We may not all agree on all of them, certain issues really aren't matters of fact but of extreme opinion. Being against abortion doesn't mean you don't respect women's control over their own bodies any more than being pro-choice means you like abortion... it just means that in your personal scale, you value one of them more highly than the other.

But when you surrender your critical thinking in favor of repeating mindless and meaningless aspersions, when you take the latest talking points from your extremist fringe of whichever party you agree with and regurgitate them back without a moment's consideration, you do nothing to further the political discourse.

If you debate with me, you may help me to see your side of the issue. You may help me to see things in a new way or consider a point I'd not considered before. You may help me to change my opinion and may have your own modified in the process.

If you simply assert things which are patently not true and think that that passes for reasoned discourse, you simply make me think you an idiot and render it that much less likely that I will even consider any valid points you have to make, because everything you say will forever have to pass through the "is it worth the effort" filter. Too many things which blatantly aren't relegate you to the "not worth listening to" bucket.

And that's truly a shame, because if you have something significant and legitimate to say, I really do want to hear it. If you have a gift for me, I would love to receive it, but if you hand me a bag of dog feces too many times, then when there is an actual real gift in there, I may not even bother to check.

Liam.