In looking at the diaries on the rec list currently, one of them talks about Boehner being at a cocktail party while the President speaks. After watching his speech, somehow that just seems trite to me.
As an unabashed progressive, I believe we as a country can do better. For our children. For our poor. For our mentally ill. The list goes on and on. And, believe me, I've had my share of arguments and screaming with people who refuse to listen to fact and quote Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin.
But maybe now is the time to rise above. Like OUR President tried to do in his speech. Maybe we're better off just posting on our facebook pages statements like "What Jared Loughner did was wrong and is unacceptable in this society." Period, end of comment. Instead of going into how the "hate speech" has inspired violence. With a simple statement like that, you separate the middle from the right. And most people in this country are in the middle. Let people try and argue with that statement, or "refudiate" it. Make them twist themselves in knots trying to argue against it. Or let them accept it. And then, maybe then, think about how we prevent that from happening again. You can't force people down a path they don't want to go. You have to show them the way, and let them get there themselves.
So maybe it is time to simplify the message. Ask the simple questions, even though they don't have easy answers:
"Do you believe kids should go hungry at night in this country?"
"Do you believe the elderly should have to choose between food and their vital medicines?"
"Do you believe that we should provide a quality education for our children?"
Once you get people to say yes, then they have to think about how we do those things. It's a much better route to a dialogue then "the government has to spend money on xyz".
So I'm going to try a different path. One that is less "I'm right, you're wrong", and more "we have problems, how do we fix them".
Hopefully it will work!