One of the things that I like to do is watch the Twitter feed for the keywords Obama, Biden, or McCain. I stopped watching for the fourth name about two weeks ago, when it began to be obvious that only two kinds of people were talking about her on that medium: rabid Republicans, and rabid Democrats. Neither, as a rule, had anything useful to say. Granted, Twitter is not the place to have a reasoned, reasonable discussion about politics unless you and your correspondent are both good at succinct statements. Even so, I've had brief discussions with people about topics relative to the election and the participants -- they'd say something that I agreed or disagreed with, they'd respond, and we'd go back and forth for two or three iterations. Such discussions did not occur, as a rule, when that fourth name came up. People who commented tended to either believe strongly in her, or projectile-vomit at the name. I wasn't learning anything new, I had nothing to add, and I'm not interested in getting flamed.
I believe in reasonable, quiet conversations.. For example, I spoke via Twitter with someone once who asked how I could possibly support Obama when McCain clearly had way more experience. I agreed that McCain did; even factoring in Obama's other experience, McCain has more -- as a missile launch officer I once knew said, putting down a newbie, 'I have more time in the elevator going down to the capsule than you have on alert'. McCain's got more time in the Senate men's room than Obama's got on the Senate floor. So I agreed -- I said that if it were just a question of experience, that'd be a no-brainer. I then said that what swayed me toward Obama was his attitudes -- I felt that he understood me more, cared about me more. My correspondent said that he did not agree that this was a reason to support him, but he understood why I did. And that, to me, is a decent conversation. I'm not looking to convert anyone -- if it happens, fine, in either direction -- I'm simply making my case, for you to accept or not as you will.
That doesn't seem to be a common view, these days. I find that sad. (I admit: that's wimpy of me. Guess I'm just not all that combative a guy, huh?)
