Absolutism In Politics

There are some folks who believe that the truth is only available to them, and that anyone else who believes otherwise must be either deluded or a liar.

I think that Cindy Sheehan has fallen among these folks, and she herself has become a model of leftists of this particular ilk.

Conservatives by and large do not believe that anyone who disagrees with our views is necessarily "brainwashed" or ill-willed. But liberals of the kind described are not of a similar mind, and they are essentially absolutists in their own way.

I do agree that there are extremists on both sides.

I think that the Rev. Fred Phelps would consider himself a conservative, for example, even though most conservatives believe that has acted reprehensibly in protesting funerals.

By contrast, there are those whose lucid insights never betray a hint of retreat from what may be a position to the left of mine, but whose positions are nonetheless no less reasonable and defensible because of it. My interest is in a sane, rational way of discussion. I believe that both the left and the right have useful roles, and that despite the fact that we can disagree on various issues, we ought not do so in a disagreeable way. "We can disagree without being disagreeable," is the well-known phrase.

If there is a way to come together as a country or continent, surely those of us of such mind should be one of the first to try to do so.