My wife and I had some fun Saturday night. We went out to dinner with friends. One couple, like us, were center to center right in our political points of view. The third couple was die hard liberal Bush haters. My friend, Sandy, started off the conversation by saying that he loves President Bush, and then he gave his reasons. The third couple had a look of shock and horror on their faces, then they started giving reasons why they didn't like Bush.
They started out with the economy. They claimed that they economy was terrible. My wife and I interrupted them and we started talking at the same time about how great the economy is. Federal, State and local government revenues are the highest ever. The total number of people working is the highest ever. The unemployment rate is very low. Inflation is low. We kept going on and on.
They complained about the Bush tax cuts. We countered that they stimulated the economy and made it grow. They complained about the war in Iraq; we said kill the terrorists on the streets of Baghdad or on the streets of New York.
What ever they said, we countered.
I am sure we lost two friends.
The important thing is that we had completely different points of view, and no matter how much we discussed politics, no matter how honestly we tried to present our points of view and back them up with facts, they couldn't change our opinions and we couldn't change theirs.
If friends who are U.S. citizens can't get each other to change their opinions in an honest and open discussion, how could the Palestinians and the Israels ever agree on anything? How could the Shiites and the Sunnis, who have hated each other for hundreds of years, maybe over one thousand years, settle anything by diplomacy?
Mao Zedong (also transliterated Mao Tse Tung) said in in 1954, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” I despair that we haven't learned anything since then.
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