No compromises!

On Friday nights, we watch the line-up on our local PBS station. In our area, first is Washington Week in Review. That's followed by a local program with a similar format. There are usually two elected officials or activists, one each Democrat and Republican; one TV reporter; and one reporter from the local newspaper or a radio station. One of the discussions concerned the Senate hearings for Supreme Court Justice nominee, Sonya Sotomayor. The Republican panelist could say absolutely nothing new about Sotomayor - he went on and on about how awful she was. How he would never vote for her and there should be no compromise.

Following that program, Bill Moyer's Journal was on. The first two guests were from Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. They had supported Obama, but now were furious with him. The President had not ignored everything else and concentrated on the climate/global warming. They took him to task for compromising with the opposition.

These are perfect examples of what Dalton Roberts talked about in his column this morning. I was already planning to share the column with you for my blog tonight. And then there were these two interviews tonight as a lead-in. And now I'll turn the blog over to Dalton.

STANDARD DEBATES MIGHT CIVILIZE US
By Dalton Roberts
Chattanooga Times Free Press
7-17-09


One thing that's wrong with America is as plain as the nose on your face. And in case your nose has been removed, it's as plain as that strange-looking place where your nose used to be.

From my peephole, here it is: we have screamed at each other so much that we literally detest everyone who is not just like us. If we are liberals, we detest all the conservatives. If we are conservatives, we hate all the liberals.

As I pointed up in a precious column, we would not have Social Security and Medicare if members of both parties had not put it together. Call it socialism if you wish, but good ideas are non-partisan. If helping old people live their final days decently and die with a little dignity isn't a good idea, I don't know what is.

If it had not been for Republican senator George Norris of Nebraska, there might have never been a Tennessee Valley Authority to lift several states out of the economic Stone Age. Some called it "socialism," too.

I am thinking if we could homogenize Democratic senators Humphrey and Proxmire with Republicans Goldwater and Norris, and then clone such an advanced being, we could find solutions to all of our challenges. Well, at least it would be an incredible experiment,

We call TV news analysts "talking heads" but there are no talking heads.
There are only screaming heads. The one getting in the most licks is always the one who is rudest and screams loudest. Even one of the presidential debates this last election season resembled a bar room brawl more than a debate.

The truth is there are no more liberals or conservatives. The liberals perished with Truman and the conservatives passed with Goldwater. We have screamed at each other until we have all gone off the deep end and are blithering radical idiots and it is all about the use of government power. Each group wants to use it to punish those who disagree with them and to reward their own kind.

One thing that would help civilize America again would be to require that all debates be conducted with standard debate rules with timed openings, rebuttals and closes.

When I was in office and was invited to debate, I always said, "Yes, if it is a standard debate." I simply would not debate without a moderator and a timer. Otherwise, you foster screaming and other disrespectful behavior.

Why is this so important? One word: respect. After the debate the debaters must return to working with each other and we cannot work with those who have screamed away our respect.

When I was president of the Young Democrats and my friend, the Honorable Judge Ted Milburn, was president of the Young Republicans, we had such a debate. Instead of it driving us apart, we developed a deeper respect for each other and have remained friends through all these years.

We will not survive as the democracy our founders envisioned if we develop a pendulum government where the radical right governs for 4-8 years and then the radical left governs a while. For starters, we must become civil with each other. It de-radicalizes people to work together.

Somehow we must become idea oriented. We must become solution-minded. It might require dropping parties and letting people run on their own merits and advance the ideas they think will foster progress. Every time I question the value of the two-party system, someone calls me a dreamer. I am certain we could dream up a better way to do our country's business. I am certain nothing is going to work unless we can become civil toward each other and respectful of all views.

We don't need screaming heads. We need people who will shut their mouths long enough to listen to others. And that means standard debates.