(04-07-2009 10:54 PM)erice Wrote:  Eh, I cut back on participating here because I got tired of the hostility that sometimes creeps up from under the surface, intended or not. It's certainly not because I'm less supportive of Obama. I come to the Parliament to be around fellow friends of Rice athletics (and so that this sports dummy might actually learn a thing or two about the games I love to watch). Not to be on one side of a room full of conservatives arguing with liberals.

Occasionally I come back to the Quad to catch up, but like tonight, I often regret it.

While I understand why the OT posts were relegated from the main board to the Quad, I generally feel like it's had the effect of polarizing the discussions -- mostly it seems like it's just the extremists (probably I'm one of 'em) who meander over to this area of the Parliament. So I'm on a 10-step program to lay off this bad habit. Obviously (since I'm posting now) I'm still in the denial phase. But I'm trying.

Cue the "can't we all just get along" wisecracks.

While your viewpoints may often be extreme to one side, you are able to articulate them with reason and without venom, and you are able to listen to other viewpoints. If you go, the left will have lost one its best advocates.

For the most part, though, it seems to me the lefties who were/are here dish(ed) out as good as they receive(d), but they just can't take it as well, so they run off. Those who can't stand the heat are leaving the kitchen. It appears to me that for the most part, they want to say what they think, but are insulted when others say and think differently. So far, the right has shown Obama much more respect than the left showed Bush, McCain, Cheyney, and Palin.

I think part of the problem is what the Obama people have to defend. He campaigned on change, but where is it? He promised troop withdrawals, no lobbyists, tax increases only for those making over $250K, etc. Tough to defend the about-faces there and on other promises, or to defend the appointments that had problems, etc. Hopes/expectations were high, probably unrealistically so, so defending the reality might be seen as a tough assignment, one better avoided. More fun talking with people who agree with you. It is much easier to chip away at the Administration than to defend it, as we all learned in the past 8 years, and now it is tough to change the gears.

I don't think we should all just get along, if that means just nodding agreement all the time. Discourse that expresses disagreement is different from disagreeable discourse.

I am sorry the left here has decided to quit. It was fun while it lasted.