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Have Ideas Become Passé?
by Carlos
A column in today's New York Post raises an issue that has been concerning me - the abuse of language to derail any useful political discussion.
It'S enlightening to see just what the hard left's message is in this election. In two words: "Shut up."...
The right in America is often (falsely) said to want to stifle dissent. But anyone who has been around the protests this week knows that an element of the left — not entirely relegated to the fringes — is intensely intolerant.
Quite a few of this week's protest slogans have boiled down, in effect, to "shut up." And more than a few of even the most moderate protesters have screamed that the Republicans should "go away," that they have "no right" to be here.
"Shut up," needless to say, is a childish message. It's the message of angry children, raging at a world they can't control.
Let's hope these children — young and old alike — someday realize that without ideas, without alternatives, they are just lunatics yelling at the wind.
It seems that the political left screams the most about free speech, yet is the most disposed to deny it to others. I didn't see any Republican demonstrators trying to disrupt the Democratic convention and prevent its speakers from speaking. I didn't hear Bush supporters trying to drown out their opponents yelling repetitive chants at the top of their lungs. This is a tactic practiced almost exclusively by the left, especially on our college campuses, where it has often resulted in the inability of any politically incorrect messages to be heard.
The New York demonstrators repeatedly showed that when you don't have an idea, just call your opponent a fascist or something even worse, or make a dirty joke about his name. That's no substitute for the real discussion of issues that protesters always say they want. Taking such cheap shots only conveys the message: I'm really not interested in discussing anything with you, I would just rather throw insults. In other words, Shut up.
Now before anyone objects that Republicans aren't great listeners either, I agree, they aren't. But throughout this campaign the Democratic side has made special use of the crass personal attack. All that does is convey the impression that they don't have the ideas in their favor.
I may not be running for office, but I still want a high standard of political discussion and I'd still like to exchange ideas with people who see things differently from me. I often learn from such exchanges. But when the language gets abusive and excessive, the only thing I learn about is the values of the speaker.
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