I would like to draw attention again to roachboy's post #31 and #40, above.
What roachboy has identified within our microcosm of "conservatives" and "liberals" and the difficulties we create in either discussion or debate, closely mirrors the US macrocosm of political discourse. Conservatives do have a consistent view of the world that they hold as a group. Very effective leadership of the party has prevented strays from the accepted ideology with either the stick or the carrot. The elimination of dissent allows conservatives to speak as if from a single voice and contrary viewpoints are viewed as amusing, at best.
As roachboy clearly points out, conservatives assume that liberals are equally united in ideology and hold to a clearly defined and agreed upon platform. Again, this inaccurate assumption holds true in both the micro and macro world. Liberals only appear to be identical to conservatives in that they are all "not me" in their views. This is my greatest frustration in participating in Politics because I am immediately identified as holding specific beliefs that I do not, simply because I disagree with a single conservative belief.
This very fundamental difference between parties is addressed in roachboy's post #40. Is it even possible in either discussion or debate to bridge that divide in any meaningful way?
I support Baraka Guru's suggestion in post #15 that "discussion" topics and "debate" topics should be separated and moderated with a differing degree of formality. We tried to formalize debate topics in the past, but I think the attempt was abandoned too soon. (Very different time zones slowed down responses by a day or more).
Perhaps creating this somewhat artificial distinction would allow for a greater range of expression within the Politics forum. "Discussion" topics are a more appropriate place to post "feelings" oriented responses that are less acceptable to the more factually based "debate" topics. I believe that a range of formality for debate topics is possible and desirable.
Just a thought from one of those unpredictable independents.
