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(The Chronicle has written before about how much it loves compromise, and it is a regular Leftist meme as well. I won't rehash the vapidness of the position in favor of analyzing the below article for its manifest deficiencies in other areas.
Note that its defense of traditional media sources [like itself] is wholly self-serving.)
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Space aliens visiting our planet would quickly conclude that the United States is inhabited by two bitterly divided tribes on the verge of splitting the nation asunder.
But they would be wrong.
Actually Americans espouse remarkably similar social and political values — across all political, religious, gender, racial and ethnic differences. An Associated Press story published in the May 12 Chronicle pointed out that recent polling shows significant levels of agreement even on issues considered to be divisive, such as the environment and immigration.
Pollsters have found that large majorities of Americans believe in God, place a premium on higher education, support raising the minimum wage and back term limits for members of Congress. Certainly there are issues on which there is wide disagreement, but the range of issues on which Americans largely agree is remarkable.
So why all the talk about this being the most polarizing era of American politics ever? (Partly because they're wrong due to having a too small historical window.)
Three and four decades ago, Republicans and Democrats in Washington routinely found ways to work together and reach compromise or issues that were important to Americans — even the most divisive ones. (Ok, we now have the size of their historical window. In the next paragraph they will offfer their theories as to what has changed. the get the cause correct, but miss the reasons.) Today, we find the successors of those politicians racing to the nearest microphone and camera to heap vitriol on their opponents. Compromise has become a dirty word.
What changed? What we didn’t have before but have now is an explosion of ideologically driven websites and cable news channels that shamelessly push patently false and wildly distorted information to whip their faithful into a froth over a weekly menu of manufactured outrages. (They view the alternative media as the problem, but in actual fact, the traditional media outlets had an unchallenged monopoly on the information that was made available to the people. Their take on the issues were never challenged, never fact-checked, and never countered with a contrary perspective. With the advent of the alternative media, no there is a option for people, and they began to discover how they were being misled according to the political perspective of the news gathers. This, of course, does not sit well with them.
Space aliens visiting our planet would quickly conclude that the United States is inhabited by two bitterly divided tribes on the verge of splitting the nation asunder.
But they would be wrong.
Actually Americans espouse remarkably similar social and political values — across all political, religious, gender, racial and ethnic differences. An Associated Press story published in the May 12 Chronicle pointed out that recent polling shows significant levels of agreement even on issues considered to be divisive, such as the environment and immigration.
Pollsters have found that large majorities of Americans believe in God, place a premium on higher education, support raising the minimum wage and back term limits for members of Congress. Certainly there are issues on which there is wide disagreement, but the range of issues on which Americans largely agree is remarkable.
So why all the talk about this being the most polarizing era of American politics ever? (Partly because they're wrong due to having a too small historical window.)
Three and four decades ago, Republicans and Democrats in Washington routinely found ways to work together and reach compromise or issues that were important to Americans — even the most divisive ones. (Ok, we now have the size of their historical window. In the next paragraph they will offfer their theories as to what has changed. the get the cause correct, but miss the reasons.) Today, we find the successors of those politicians racing to the nearest microphone and camera to heap vitriol on their opponents. Compromise has become a dirty word.
What changed? What we didn’t have before but have now is an explosion of ideologically driven websites and cable news channels that shamelessly push patently false and wildly distorted information to whip their faithful into a froth over a weekly menu of manufactured outrages. (They view the alternative media as the problem, but in actual fact, the traditional media outlets had an unchallenged monopoly on the information that was made available to the people. Their take on the issues were never challenged, never fact-checked, and never countered with a contrary perspective. With the advent of the alternative media, no there is a option for people, and they began to discover how they were being misled according to the political perspective of the news gathers. This, of course, does not sit well with them.
But notice, the fact that people have found out what is going on is an indicator of their ability to rightly judge things. They are stupid, they are being manipulated, the information is false, their outrages are all manufactured. Do you see how the Chronicle editorial writers are trying to marginalize those people who get their news from "unapproved" sources?) And the politicians respond to this sideshow like trained seals, spouting to any cable TV channel whatever that channel’s audience wants to hear. The splintering of media into mouthpieces for almost any imaginable political perspective has created a funhouse mirror that in no way reflects the reality of Americans’ values. (Whew. I just had to catch my breath after reading this. Cable news is giving people what they want to hear. But this "in no way reflects the reality of Americans' values?" How is it possible to give someone what they want that conflicts with their values?
But the real question is, what are Americans' values? Is there such a thing? A poll of preferences ["...believe in God, place a premium on higher education, support raising the minimum wage and back term limits for members of Congress] are not values. Values are bedrock perspectives on how an INDIVIDUAL chooses to lead his life. There is no such thing as group values.)
The only antidote for this poison (Hmm. Obtaining information from a variety of sources with a variety of perspectives is poison, you see.) is for the citizenry to recognize and reject this kind of zealotry. (A pejorative word intended to impugn dissenters.) And there are promising signs. The numbers of voters who call themselves Republican or Democrat has shrunk in recent decades, while the number of those who call themselves independents is growing. Those who call themselves independents may be less than purely independent, but they are at least signaling a willingness to consider issues from all sides and choose a position based on the merits of the arguments. (Independent does not mean flexible, thoughtful, tolerant, nuanced, or anything of the like. It simply means they've chosen to not be a part of the two-party club.)
Let’s hope this trend continues. The polling found one of the things nearly all Americans agree on is that our government is broken. Fixing that mess will begin with a more media-savvy electorate. (Unfortunately for the Chronicle, if Bozemanites restricted their reading to the Chonicle's pages, they would no little or nothing about a lot of issues. In fact, had there not been an alternative media, the traditional media likely would have never reported anything at all. ABC, for example, has yet to devote any coverage at all to the horrific crimes of Kermit Gosnell, for no discernible reason than he was an abortion provider.
The fact of the matter is that traditional media have done a sorrowful job in covering any news that does not fit their ideological template. Had it been doing its job, the alternative media would have never arose.)
Get smart. (Which means that you are dumb if you disagree with the editorialists.) Think before nodding in agreement with any of those over-top talking heads infesting politically biased media on either end of the spectrum. Let’s reclaim our ability to think for ourselves. (Again, the Chronicle attempts to marginalize dissenters by characterizing them as non-thinkers, mind-numbed robots, and idiots who are easily manipulated. This is insulting and beneath reasoned discourse. The Chronicle is routinely engaging in its own biased reporting but never seems to get that upset [if they even notice] about their own many failures.)
Get smart. (Which means that you are dumb if you disagree with the editorialists.) Think before nodding in agreement with any of those over-top talking heads infesting politically biased media on either end of the spectrum. Let’s reclaim our ability to think for ourselves. (Again, the Chronicle attempts to marginalize dissenters by characterizing them as non-thinkers, mind-numbed robots, and idiots who are easily manipulated. This is insulting and beneath reasoned discourse. The Chronicle is routinely engaging in its own biased reporting but never seems to get that upset [if they even notice] about their own many failures.)
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