Tucker Carson is an industrial-strength Republican, and Paul Begala is an industrial-strength Democrat. While I hold no great respect for partisans of either flavor, I did attend a debate between them recently and actually enjoyed the experience.
There was the obligatory hyperbola, of course. Carlson predicted Trump would never win the nomination, because he is "emotionally incontinent," meaning his ego will eventually overwhelm political good-sense. Begala predicted the Republican Party was doomed, because the Democratic Party is hunting for converts, while the Republican Party is hunting for heretics, meaning purity tests such as abortion, immigration, and gun control.
What made this debate enjoyable is that I was watching two friends disagreeing on almost everything political. They were disagreeing without being disagreeable. If anything, their disagreement with each other gave them respect for each other. They did not suggest that the other was either stupid or evil.
That is the America that I both love and miss! It was an America before talk radio and the corrupting commercialization of campaigns by turning them into mindless reality TV shows.
There was the obligatory hyperbola, of course. Carlson predicted Trump would never win the nomination, because he is "emotionally incontinent," meaning his ego will eventually overwhelm political good-sense. Begala predicted the Republican Party was doomed, because the Democratic Party is hunting for converts, while the Republican Party is hunting for heretics, meaning purity tests such as abortion, immigration, and gun control.
What made this debate enjoyable is that I was watching two friends disagreeing on almost everything political. They were disagreeing without being disagreeable. If anything, their disagreement with each other gave them respect for each other. They did not suggest that the other was either stupid or evil.
That is the America that I both love and miss! It was an America before talk radio and the corrupting commercialization of campaigns by turning them into mindless reality TV shows.
