This is not the official Coffee Party blog...

...but I am a Coffee Party member who loves talking about politics and especially loves the "civility pledge" because I believe that there is no reason for us to scream at each other.

Purpose:

I created this blog to give me a place where I can talk about things from both sides of the aisle that just don't make sense to me. I plan on doing this in as civil a way as possible without being too politically correct. At present, I plan to keep the comments unmoderated, but if too many loonies come in, I reserve the right to change this.

Barriers to civil dialogue:

Hyperbole is one of the biggest barriers to civil dialogue, in my opinion. Neither side is immune, both sides engage, and I pledge to avoid hyperbolic nonsense in my own writing. The best example I can think of is Hitler. Both sides have used Hitler as a comparison to their political opponents (Left wing example, right wing example) and neither side has a point. IMO, the word Hitler should be used as an analogy only when you are comparing him to someone else who engaged in mass genocide. In the modern world, the only examples would be things like the genocidal campaigns in Rwanda and Darfur.

Biased "News" organizations, which I define as organizations that overtly espouse one ideology and demean the opposite are the wedge that is driving Americans apart. More and more vitriolic nonsense is spewed by people for whom honesty in political discussions is nothing more than a quaint memory of a bygone era. There are certainly some actors in this arena who are far worse than others, but suffice to say that I believe 24 hour "news" has gutted TV journalism by melding entertainment and news. For the record, I will pretty much trust articles distributed by Reuters and the Associated Press as I trust both organizations to do the fact checking that is so sorely lacking in much of the rest of the media.

Pundits that attack the opposition instead of engaging in reasoned, fact-based debate are the single biggest driver of the wedge between the left and the right. Most of the pundits I decry work for the organizations I mentioned in the paragraph above and are easily identified in the way they address and label their political opponents. Anyone who ever referred to Bush as a "Nazi," "Fascist," or "murderer" is in this category, as is anyone who ever referred to Obama as a "Socialist," "Kenyan," or "Communist" similarly belongs here.

Rigid ideology is one of the most insidious viruses to have infected our political process. The blind followers of the left and the right are the ones who have escalated the screaming match to the point that political dialogue is something that many people avoid at all costs. Neither the liberals nor the conservatives are 100% right on every issue and anyone who believes they are is decieving themselves. It is extremely important to civil dialogue for everyone to keep an open mind so that when facts are presented, they are accepted as fact and not dismissed because of ideology.