Politics create more drama than any other topic

Remember the saying: never speak about religion or politics?
thats why!

But this election is special. Two very different choices (for once!) and different visions. Also a lot of people are tired of the past 8 years failures, the economic woes and the uncertainty.

Having the first black president is very exciting for one part and frightening for the other. I thought I'd never see such thing happening in my lifetime!

Spirits are heated indeed =)

reply to post by calihan123


What else really matters? Nothing changes our lives more than those two things with the exception of sex and death. These two things are the REASON for war. Most emotions that have something to do with anything else mean nothing.

I deal with that very same topic @ work everyday... I work for the conservative party, which to be honest isn't even my party of choice, its just that they pay me very well and I don't really have an option right now...

But some of the concerns clients raise on the phone are just ridiculous out of the world views of the country... half the people who argue @ us don't even know how the political system works, how the government works, they think they can have this and that bill passed right now right away... they think that we campaign with their tax dollars, they consider everything they buy a donation to the campaign... that way of thinking is completely wrong, and is the very reason I can't stand going to work anymore, politics are going in the wrong direction when too many people are in demand for action that cannot be fully accomplished without a majority # of seats in the house... regardless of whos been in power in the past 10 years i've heard all the same stuff, the PM's not doing enough blah blah blah, when the truth is they're is actual barriers being a PM, regardless of how much he'd like to get accomplished in his term, theres only so much that can be done, balancing national deficits, infrastructure and all the rest...

ARGH! well thats the Canadian standpoint, sall the same in the end...

cheerio

I'll tell you what gets me angry. When I'm for someone and I see postings that are either ridiculous distortions of that person's position or simply don't have any truth at all in them. I also despise the tendency to apply misleading labels to to a person or policy.

There are two reasons why this happens (well, maybe three). The first, as has already been stated, is that about 15 years ago there was some pretty intensive research into negative political ads and whether or not they work -- especially as compared with positive ads. The research clearly showed that negative advertising was effective while positive advertising was generally a waste of money. In fact, negative advertising was even quite effective among people who said they hated negative ads. The reason revolved around source credibility: just like any product consumers expected a politician to run positive ads about him/herself. They just dismissed it as propoganda, basically. But when the ad was negative, for some reason people thought thet were getting "the real dirt," even though some of these ads were laughable exaggerations and misleading to the point of being dishonest. In time, research found that negative campaigns in general, not just advertising, was more effective.

The second is that some campaigns try to go for what is now politely called "the low information voter." These are people who are pretty ignorant of the issues and are often (but not always) not very smart. It's easy to get them riled up by demonizing whole groups of people and basically lying about what an opponent wants to do.

The third is the political discussion in the MSM. 30 years ago, politics was considered dry and most people considered it boring. For the most part, only intellectuals were really interested in it. Then, it was discovered that if you rant and rave, insult people, ridicule people and distort their position, condemn them and (especially) hang labels on them, you started getting good ratings from people who otherwise would have found any show about politics boring: essentially, dumb people. And it's easy to get dumb people all worked up and motivated to vote against the "scumbag enemies of the country" who want to do something different than they do.

It's too bad. It used to be that, while liberals and conservatives were almost always in opposition, at the end of the day both sides realized the other was necessary. Conservatives were necessary to prevent the country from falling into a "flavor-of-the-week" mentality and grabbing the latest trend. Liberals were necessary to keep the country from becoming ossified and making sure new ideas were tried.

We're not like that any more. We hate each other, and it's virtually impossible to have an intelligent conversation when it comes to politics.

[edit on 3-11-2008 by ClintK]

i wasnt ever implying that religion, or politics arent important.. and dont affect peoples lives... thats not what i was saying


what i was saying was, its a constant battle between people, because everyone has their own views and opinions, and on one will EVER agree on the same thing, so why argue about it so much. its a headache and im so tired of hearing about religion and politics in every conversation.

we get that everyone feels whatever they feel... but dont argue about it if someone else disagrees. its pointless, and no one will ever back down, so why start talking about it in the first place?