Originally posted by Mysti-ken: It's unfortunate that this election (and U.S. politics in general IMO) is reduced to nothing more than a popularity contest featuring strident and sensational partisan rhetoric from both sides; rhetoric that is almost totally devoid of any substantiated, reasoned argument (classical definition).
JaTo and Mysti-ken would have us believe that the entire election is just a partisan screaming match. JaTo and Mysti-ken are trying to convince us that the election is "devoid" of substance and it's "damn near impossible" to find out the truth on the issues. They are saying it's hardly possible for the average voter to come to a rational conclusion on the issues, so we shouldn't bother trying. What a sad, defeatist, and undemocratic attitude this is.
Of course the party campaigns themselves are rife with overstatement, even outright falsehoods. Of course it's difficult to find unbiased reports. That is the nature of presidential elections. But the fact that disagreement and disinformation exist does not make the campaigns "devoid of substance", not does it make it "impossible" to find the truth. And it does not make the election any less important.
Discussions like this one are a way to learn about the issues. There are reliable sources of information, many of which have been referenced here. Some of us were benefitting from the discussion. Unfortunately, this new diversion by JaTo and Mysti-ken now steers the conversation away from the pressing issues and into a philosphical sob about partisan campaigning.
Maybe JaTo just doesn't want anyone to discuss the real issues (like the war against terror), because he knows the majority of Americans now think Bush has screwed up badly and they no longer support his conduct of it. Notice that JaTo is once again changing the subject, just when we were all deep into discussing Bush's performance in the war on terror. He has done this so many times in this thread. He did the very same thing in the thread about Bush's domestic record. See a pattern here?
Originally posted by JaTo:Conversely, all I hear and see from the other side of this argument is unsubstantiated and ill-informed speculation, falsehoods, oversimplification to the point of absurdity and a profound lack of understanding of US foreign policy over the past 50 years, even at a base level. It's the typical partisan "Bush is wrong and he LIED! Now what was the question?" attitude that is so aggrivating due to it's naievity. I expect it of 3rd graders; not folks that are supposed to have sound intellectual capacity and owe it to themselves to be more informed about the goings-on in the world that they claim to support or fight against.
JaTo is back in full insult-and-condescend mode. It seems that he cannot bring himself to credit his opponents with adult intelligence (I see we have been demoted from "high school" to "3rd grade" by JaTo), or even political sincerity. Fine. That tells us a lot more about JaTo than it does about his opponents.
