From a bit Left of the Center
Argumentum ad hominem… argument to the man… this is the most common logical fallacy that one will hear in politics. It can be formed to be a cunning appeal to emotion or used to poison an electorate’s opinion of a politician even before his policy has been presented. And it is the crutch up on which bad policy hobbles through the congressional bodies of our nation. You have probably seen plenty of ad hominem arguments in your life, you have probably used them because they are easy to fall back on and they are effective at swaying the opinion of an unaware audience. An ad hominem is replying to an argument by addressing the person presenting the argument instead of the argument itself. The Soviet Union used a rather infamous ad hominem during the 50’s and 60’s whenever we criticized them for human rights abuses by responding, “And you are lynching Negroesâ€.
Our current habit of labeling and categorizing along solidly defined partisan lines is in and of itself an invitation for debate to devolve into a contest of negative slogans and pejoratives. People like myself who refuse to choose one side or the other because we examine the policy behind the slogans and find it wanting are still lumped into the catchall group of moderate… or undecided… or any number of other titles. That we who are standing in the center of the political landscape hold a definitive plurality of the electorate should give both extremes pause. It should temper their extreme positions to more moderate compromises. Instead it inspires them to out vanilla each other in wan attempts to find a place in the “mainstream†the rest of us call real life.
In many circles I cause people to scratch their heads in wonder as they try to identify me in one group or another. I speak at one point of a need for gun control but at the next rail against federal mandate in such realms. I support free-market ideals but at the same time call for an abolishment of corporate personhood. I believe in religious freedom but also the right to be free of religious influence in ones life. And I have been accused many times of being duplicitous or hypocritical because of this… but there is rhyme to my reason and it all comes down to a single moral ideal… I shall choose what is in my best interest and in best interest of those around me.
This moral choice places me in the realm of leaning to the left side of the political spectrum for now. Though I predict when I am old and chasing kids off my lawn my egalitarian ways will be seen as the conservative position of the politics of the day. Progressive ideals have always eventually won the day to become the new mainstream and eventually the fortress of conservative inertia. But I am in no hurry for the future to be now; it will get here in its appropriate time. I want people to be informed and to understand what it is that is going on around them; I want people to see the facts behind the rhetoric and eventually come to the same conclusions that I have.
I am a proponent of transparent government, they are in effect employees of the electorate and I would like to check what they are doing from time to time. I am very distrustful of lobbyists as they use money to subvert the will of the electorate and inspire the creation of legislation that is often not in the electorate’s best interest. I am a critic of much of our nation’s foreign policy, and have been since I started really paying attention to the news in the late 80’s. And I am very suspicious of politicians of any stripe who wear false piety on their sleeve to get a few extra votes.
I am not registered as any particular political party, and my voting record goes all over the place. Republicans in my home state though have in their endeavors come close a number of times of turning me into a yellow dog Democrat, which is usually cured when some local Democrat acts like a bone-head. I would like to see a viable third or even a fourth party but the current electoral system does not allow for more than two major parties for more than a couple of election cycles.
Philosophically Kant and Spinoza influence me but I cannot really be considered a strict adherent to either rationalism or Kantianism. I will endeavor to find links to back up facts and figures that I quote; failing that take them with how ever much salt you need… no need to give me any slack for a moment of intellectual laziness. If you like something I am saying, please comment. If you don’t like it, then please comment. Discussion is the only way we can possibly break the current malaise on political discourse in this country.