Combatting the Irrationality of Disagreeable Teabaggers

By Leadfoot_LA

I have been attempting to inject truth into my Facebook newsfeed for more than three years now.  Every time I see an illogical, mean-spirited, or just plain ignorant post, I try to counter with rational thought and fact-based links.  I’m not sure I’ve ever enlightened anyone or changed any minds, but still I persist.

Frankly, lately I have been ready to give up.  I am beyond frustrated that so many people I know, and some that I even love, can be so diametrically opposed to my way of thinking.  I like a good political debate, but I can’t tolerate that they have become so disagreeable and personally insulting.  I was ready to throw in the towel.  Then, on Thursday, I saw this:

Best. Video. Ever.

My fire has been re-ignited.  

“One voice can change the room. And if a voice can change a room, it can change a city, it can change a city, it can change a state, and if can change a state, it can change a nation, and if can change a nation, it can change the world.” – Barack Obama

So this post is my challenge to all of you who tweet, Facebook, Instagram, Pin, blog, or talk to real, live people.  We are less than 60 days from the election.  We MUST remain fired up, and ready to go.

However, I am more committed than ever before to civil discourse.  I want us all to be vocal, but nice.  I started researching the best way to accomplish this, and came across an interesting book: 

Basically, it says that we all form nearly instantaneous perceptions about other people and the things they do.  These intuitions feel like self-evident truths, making us righteously certain that those who see things differently are wrong.  Liberals cherish caring and fairness while conservatives praise loyalty, authority, and sanctity. Both sides would be able to communicate better if they could appreciate each others' core values. 

Try to remember that and appeal to those values as you communicate.  Hit them with facts and tons and tons of links.  (Maybe we should start a PoliticalGates Facts Library?)  If you are getting nowhere, move on, there are other battles to fight.  

Perhaps Cracklin’ Charlie said it best, in a response to one of my comments (ok, complaints) on the previous thread:  “Don't worry about your dad...worry about your daughter.”  Indeed.  The future is, well, the future.  That is where our energy should be spent.

And if my dad happens to read this post, he should remember the universal parenting law:  under the most rigorously controlled conditions of pressure, temperature, volume, humidity, and other variables, the organism will do as it damn well pleases.

And with that, I'm so fired up and ready to go, I don't even know what to do with myself!

Using Common Sense to Debunk the GOP-Tea Party Express

Guest Post by Dusty

Common Sense = sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts.

The GOP-Tea Party folks love to throw around the word ‘common sense’ in almost every single talking point. Now if only they could just learn how to spell it and learn how to use it properly in a talking point, but I digress. I found an interesting statistic while writing this article:

“Tea Party supporters are decidedly Republican and conservative in their leanings. Also, compared with average Americans, supporters are slightly more likely to be male and less likely to be lower-income.

In several other respects, however — their age, educational background, employment status, and race — Tea Partiers are quite representative of the public at large.”

Lack of common sense in our leaders was not that readily apparent until the 2008 & 2010 Election Cycle with the clear exception of Former President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

In 2008 our country witnessed the stunning and total complete lack of common sense in John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin has his running mate and the media’s stunning lack of common sense in their reporting of Sarah Palin.

In 2010 our country again witnessed the complete lack of common sense in the voters who turned out to vote in anger rather than to take a few minutes to think about how their vote would impact the entire nation not just their district.

Let’s see how using the definition of the word common sense we can debunk a few of the GOP-Tea Party Express major talking points shall we?

*No More Bailouts!

Umm no facts or explanation of the situation presented with those three words. No more bailouts for whom? Let’s try applying some common sense to this pesky little talking point.

How about No More Bailouts without a system of checks and balances in place. No more bailouts without regulation, timelines and accountability. See now isn’t that something that would appeal to both sides, liberal and conservative and even the middle? But now we have another problem because when we find something that appealing to the masses then we are in conflict with the next talking point.

*Reduce the Size of Government - So far we’ve have heard the GOP-Tea Party say they want to shut down the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), the Department of Education, the CDC (Center of Disease Control) and deregulate the Oil and Gas Industry, Wall Street and the Banking Industry. No explanation as to why or how they just want to shut it down or deregulate it.

What the GOP-Tea Party can’t, won’t or they just don’t the ability to articulate is all of these departments are valuable to this nation. We as a nation cannot afford to shut down any of these agencies without a little investigation as that would be foolish and very irresponsible. However, when applying a little common sense to this talking point-

Congress and the media need to debate and look into the rules, regulations that drive all of these agencies. Are there agencies that overlap? Where do they overlap? Can they be combined and streamlined? Is it possible to reduce the number of rules and regulations? But then how can we expect our current House of Representatives to get any work done with they work one week and take off a week and are only focused on making President Obama a one term President.

Reduce the Intrusiveness of Government!

The GOP-Tea Party has focused their entire mission since the 2010 election cycle to deny all women the right to an abortion, services thru Planned Parenthood. Texas signed into law a bill that would force young girls to get a vaccine. Texas did this!

To apply common sense to this talking point first the GOP-Tea Party would have to stop focusing on the denial of abortion rights and come to the table with a willingness to understand that to reduce the intrusiveness of Government means to reduce it for all the people of ALL sexes, color and creed. They cannot pick and choose when the Government should be intrusive.

*Stop Raising our Taxes! OMG! Just stop already. Just once I wish the GOP-Tea Party would stop and listen to President Obama one time. Unless you make over $250,000 per year your taxes would not be raised. In fact in 2010 President Obama lowered the taxes for everyone who was employed by reducing the payroll taxes for Social Security.

Did you know in West the State leaders are trying to figure out how to make the owners of hybrids pay for their share of the fuel tax? Yep, people who bought hybrids are paying less at the pumps so the State saw their revenues decrease and now they want to figure out how they can add a highway tax based on mileage to raise the State’s revenue.

Would it be great if raising taxes wasn’t the first and only choice of our leaders to raise revenue? Let’s see we have Federal Income Tax, State & Local Income Tax in 43 States, Real Estate Tax, Personal Property Tax, School Tax, Sales Taxes etc.

To apply common sense to this talking point the facts are that our country is headed towards another recession. The people who will suffer the most are the middle to lower class. To raise taxes is the only alternative to head off another depression. No one likes paying more taxes but people who use common sense to resolve issue know that it is necessary to increase the revenue in order to keep services for those who cannot otherwise afford those services. The EIC (Earned Income Tax Credit) is one tax that should be ended. This is the one tax credit that that makes every single middle class person I know angry, myself included. No one should get more back than what they paid in.

The GOP-Tea Party is driving across our county in a bus with the simple slogan of Restore Liberty- Honor the Constitution. This is their perception of the situation or the facts but they are failing to apply sound and prudent judgment. The GOP-Tea Party cannot Restore Liberty when their main focus is to deny the Liberty to those who do not share their beliefs.

Honor the Constitution? The United States Constitution states We the People of the United States, Not We the White People or We the Pro-Life People or We the Rich People and it sure didn’t read We the People of the Tea Party. It says We the People of the United States which means we All have a voice even those whose personal choices are different from our own.

The GOP-Tea Party started off with good intentions but rather than do the work required to come to a sound and prudent judgment of the situation they chose to create their own perception of the situation that was not based on the reality of the facts. The irony is that if they had done the work required they would have found that President Obama campaigned on the very same platform and he is trying to implement these changes.

The GOP-Tea Party has proven that most of its members have no common sense whatsoever during the last congressional session when they choose to hold hostage the raising the debt ceiling while arguing over the budget. One issue had absolutely nothing to do with the other but rather than do their job with intelligence and honor they choose instead to act recklessly and with dishonor

The Bailouts were necessary, could it have been handled better of course it could have. Do we need to reduce the size of government of course we do but we need to make intelligent choices not emotion choices. Do we need to reduce taxes-no we don’t, what needs to happen is to make the tax code fair for all and everyone pays their fair share, corporations included.