- Sep 6, 2000
- 25,383
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Seems like even now, after the election, this question keeps on making me wonder. Have liberals and the left lost the ability to articulate, debate, and defend their positions? Do they even realize that they are in a debate? I say this because there seems to be an overarching tendency in both the way they frame and articulate their arguments (such as they are). It seems they almost feel their position is a revealed wisdom. That is, any educated person, once presented with their position, could not help but agree with their point of view; they don't think it's really necessary to actually take the positions of the right seriously.
Before, during, and after the election we've seen the same thing. During the election there wasn't much of an effort made to actually build and present a compeling and rational case for their own position. Rather they seemed to feel it was enough to reveal Bush or his policies as "stupid" and that once it was pointed out, the voters could not help agree with them. After all, what educated and non-bigoted person could be against, say, gay marriage? Or abortion? They didn't seem to think that any position other than their own could be considered a reasonable alternative to the voters, so they didn't bother reinforcing their position.
Even now, many seem to feel content to blame the voters for their stupidity, say it's simply the "redneck" voters that didn't understand the issues which decided the election; in short anything but looking at their own positions and how they presented them. It will be that they didn't "get their message out," or that the voters didn't understand their positions, or that the red states are simply hicks that "don't get it."
Before, during, and after the election we've seen the same thing. During the election there wasn't much of an effort made to actually build and present a compeling and rational case for their own position. Rather they seemed to feel it was enough to reveal Bush or his policies as "stupid" and that once it was pointed out, the voters could not help agree with them. After all, what educated and non-bigoted person could be against, say, gay marriage? Or abortion? They didn't seem to think that any position other than their own could be considered a reasonable alternative to the voters, so they didn't bother reinforcing their position.
Even now, many seem to feel content to blame the voters for their stupidity, say it's simply the "redneck" voters that didn't understand the issues which decided the election; in short anything but looking at their own positions and how they presented them. It will be that they didn't "get their message out," or that the voters didn't understand their positions, or that the red states are simply hicks that "don't get it."
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