St. Paul Topics - This Week: Light Rail http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul-topics -----------------------------------------
At 9:36 AM -0600 11/5/04, someone wrote:
At the other extreme, you have a bureacracy that believes that it's the role of the city to provide them with a job, health benefits and a generous retirement because they have a right to it.
I understand the point of this post. It makes some sense. However, the characterization of the "other" side very much gets in the way of the interesting things that this poster has to say.
I think that many conservative folks would identify themselves in the group that believes that "That government is best which governs least." This is a fairly uncontroversial statement.
However, in all my years in politics - I've never met anyone who believes that "it's the role of the city to provide them with a job, health benefits and a generous retirement because they have a right to it."
This is much more how some folks perceive the "other" side - but, no one that I've ever met would describe their ideology in these terms.
I would suggest that for any kind of meaningful dialogue to take place, we need to do a better job of figuring out just where each of us stands in relation to the "others" without resorting to such oversimplified and polarizing characterizations.
For example - how about describing the "other" side of the extreme something like this:
They believe that government is a social tool
which can and should be used to to fix almost
every problem.This might still be controversial and is definitely an oversimplification, but its a much fairer description of the differences between extreme liberals and conservatives than what was put forward.
Just a thought.......
Best wishes,
Tim Erickson Hamline Midway [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Tim Erickson http://www.politalk.com St. Paul, MN - USA 651-643-0722
[EMAIL PROTECTED] iChat/AIM: stpaultim
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