Framing the argument

I've finally begun to understand why little of substance ever gets honestly debated - much less decided - in the public forum:  You see, people aren't interested in defending their ideas... their convictions... their most closely held beliefs.  They simply want to score easy wins by making the opposing camp appear cruel, stupid and/or insane. 

People have been worshiping for so long at the alter of public relations and spin doctoring that they can't imagine the need to do more than frame their arguments in the most disingenuous, intellectually lazy/dishonest terms to carry the day.

This isn't a right - left thing.  In fact, this trait is perhaps the only thing that spans the entire political and religious spectrum:

Staking out the 'Pro-Life' label is obviously intended to imply that the only alternative position is 'Pro-Death'. 

Claiming the mantle of 'Peace' is a transparent attempt to make everyone else out to be blood-thirsty war mongers. 

Invoking the holiness of Jerusalem as your justification for burning dumpsters and attacking policemen isn't going to keep one kid (including your own) from becoming a fagot if that is what G-d has in store for him.  But by the same token, indulging in extremes of public displays of affection and pornographic attire that you wouldn't dare bring into your parent's living-room or your office does not make everyone you offend guilty of wanting to punish you for being gay.

Trying to trump the 'Land for Peace' debate by citing the religious prohibition against giving away even one inch of 'Eretz Yisrael' is ludicrous in light of the scores of adjustments that have taken place along our borders over the years without so much as a peep from the religious camp.

By the same token, labeling someone 'unpatriotic' and 'selfish' for refusing to obediently abandon their home/community/livelihood is a cruel oversimplification and conveniently ignores both the human and security consequences of making hasty territorial concessions.

I could go on, but I won't.

People... I know it's a lot more work, and will require you to actually defend your precious positions... but none of the issues are as simple to define as you'd like them to be. 

If most of what you think, feel and believe can fit on the narrow real estate of a bumper sticker or be expressed in the terse, rhyming cadences shouted at a demonstration, please don't flatter yourself that you are part of the solution.    You are, in fact, willfully perpetuating the problem.

Almost everything I see wrong with the world... and particularly with this country... can be traced to this juvenile (and essentially lazy), practice of vilifying and attacking whoever/whatever is perceived as standing in the way of your goal rather than carefully laying out your agenda for honest evaluation. 

If you honestly can't conceive of extenuating circumstances under which the other guy's position might be tenuously defensible and yours ever so slightly flawed... then you have no business debating issues in the real world. 

I don't imagine I can change the style or substance of public discourse... but I promise you this:  If you try that sh*t around me, we're done.  Full stop.