I listen to these politicians in DC, pundits on the news and radio, and since it is a very politically charged time in the country, everyone is going to have an opinon. It seems to me that everyone has gotten very sensational with their opinions. Now, I don't blame the pundits for doing it because sensationalism = ratings = commericial revenue. But I don't see the purpose of politicians having incredibly shallow opinions. They make character attacks, use god awful analogies, and basically use the politics of fear(either against an outsider or against ourselves). This doesn't make any sense to me. All that is doing is angering people that don't agree with that person and making the people that are sitting on the fence lean the other way simply because they don't want to be associated with that kind of a person. When did this become the common thing?

I was listening to Debra ..something... radio show today while I was cleaning house and she had a guest that had written a book about the history of terrorism and counter-terrorism in the United States. He criticized how the Bush administration was currently handling things. He was mild mannered and calm. He didn't do any personal attacks, he didn't use any outrageous and sensationalist language or statements. He was clear, concise, and most of all he made a statement and then backed it up with why it was the wrong thing to do and what would have been better. Now, while I may not like everything Bush has done, overall I support him. However, listening to this guy, I was actually starting to believe him. Why don't our politicians act like this? Am I the only one that thinks the politicians, namely in Congress, are pushing themselves farther and farther towards the extremist wings of their party? Maybe I'm blowing it out of proportion and it's really only the ones that have access to cameras or that have the real power that are doing this. But I would think that would give them even more reason not to do it.

I wholeheartedly agree. Less sensationalism, more professionalism.

Only a freedom-hating, terrorist-sympathizing, anti-American Communist would post a thread like this. Please, just think of the children.

The sad thing is, I know people who think like that.

I just realized why politicians act like that. A lot of them used to be lawyers. Making extreme arguments is what they went to school to learn how to do. Yet, for some reason, lawyers still have a sense of professionalism about them in my mind that politicians don't have. Maybe it's because in court there are Judges and rules to make sure they still present a valid argument while the judge in politics, the media, actually encourages outrageous behavior.

Obama for President!

This is one of the main rasons I hate politics in general. The politicians blow a lot of smoke up your *** trying to get a vote, but they don't actaully say anything meaningful.

[QUOTE=Kieran Horn]I just realized why politicians act like that. A lot of them used to be lawyers. Making extreme arguments is what they went to school to learn how to do. Yet, for some reason, lawyers still have a sense of professionalism about them in my mind that politicians don't have. Maybe it's because in court there are Judges and rules to make sure they still present a valid argument while the judge in politics, the media, actually encourages outrageous behavior.[/QUOTE]

Sort of. As I see it, the problem is not that politicians' "arguments" are extreme or sensationalist, but that they're intellectually dishonest. Because of the environment they work in, lawyers have to maintain at least some minimum standard of intellectual honesty because judges are trained to recognize bad arguments, and juries tend to have a collective ability to do so. The public as a whole is not so good at recognizing intellectual dishonesty; they in fact respond better to bad arguments than good ones because the bad arguments require less thinking.

This isn't going to stop until those of us who can recognize the difference stop voting for people who refuse to discuss the issues. Unfortunately, most of the people who are aware of the problem are too worried about what's going to happen if the other of two nearly identical parties wins an election or two to "waste" their vote on someone better.