The Courage Of Our Convictions?

Americans who say they're liberals claim that Fox News is too slanted to a conservative point of view. Americans who say they're conservatives claim that most of the rest of the television media are too slanted to a liberal point of view. Whatever your beliefs on any given issue, I hope that you have the courage of your convictions. I say, "on any given issue," since I guess for most of us, we may favor what is considered to be a "conservative" position on one issue, but a "liberal" position on another issue. We need a wide range of opinions that make political leaders, business leaders, labor leaders, or even the leaders of your local social club think about their own ideas BEFORE they are implemented, and hopefully, then come up with plans that are refined to a point that they have a good chance to succeed. We aren't perfect, we're humans.

What I started out to say was, if you choose NOT to watch or to listen to a particular news program, or to read a particular newspaper or columnist, is it because inside, you're afraid that it might challenge your own beliefs? If you really believe in something, and you have a command of your facts, you needn't be concerned about "the other side's arguments." Of course also, maybe "the other side" has a good point or two, and in my opinion, we shouldn't be concerned that if we concede certain points, that somehow we've lost the basic argument. Whether you liked him or not, Bill Clinton and his advisers showed that they could compromise. When the Republicans took over Congress in 1994, the Clinton Administration was pretty much of a mess; after all, that was one of the things that contributed to the Republican victory. Clinton looked at the Republican agenda, saw certain things that he liked in principle, and ended up in compromises with Republican leaders, although admittedly, not without a fight at times (Hey, democracy isn't always pretty or nice). I'm not naive, Clinton and his advisers also could read the poll numbers that showed high levels of support for certain Republican-backed ideas (And in fairness, the Republicans read those same polls, too!). I didn't read Clinton's book from a couple of years ago, but I remember Dee Dee Myers, one of Clinton's former press secretaries, commenting that Clinton liked the give and take with Newt Gingrich, because Gingrich was a man of ideas, as was Clinton, and I take it that the former president had some such comment in his book. Of course, Clinton has since appeared on numerous occasions with Republicans Bob Dole and former president George Bush to help raise money for, and bring awareness to, various causes. He has been criticized by some in his own party for his association with these former opponents, but I think that it shows that we CAN work together on a number of things. Sometimes, we aren't as far apart as political consultants or the more extreme elements of both parties would have us believe.