Goes without saying

Democrats refuse to work with Republicans.

Democrats raise taxes.

Why do Republican’s get away with making these claims? Partly it’s because reporters don’t engage in debate with the people they’re interviewing (so they don’t seem biased), but is also because Republican’s (and Democrats) are speaking to their bases, their supporters. When speaking to people who agree with you, you don’t have to worry about facts. That’s seems like I’m calling them liars, what I mean is you don’t have to make your case because they already agree with you. Ones supporters accept as given something others would require evidence for, before they believed. “It goes without saying.”

If you believe in ghosts, then the door shutting on its own is proof that the house is haunted. If you don’t believe in ghosts, then the door shutting might be due to air pressure changes in the house, (like happens in my apartment) or any number of other reasons.

If you believe that Democrats like big government, then you probably don’t know that Clinton reduced the size of the federal government only to have George W. Bush increase it. If you believe that government can’t solve social problems then you ignore the civil rights movement, or the fact that social security and Medicaid have helped millions.

Whenever anyone makes a statement, and I mean anyone whether you agree with them or not, you should ask yourself, “is this true, or am I agreeing out of a preconceived notions?” Is this a fact or a belief? Be skeptical, but in the true sense of the word. A real skeptic accepts as facts ideas that have ample evidence for them. A skeptic doesn’t dismiss everything as opinion, but seeks to eliminate questions by finding more evidence. The more evidence for a position, the more likely it is to be right.

So when you say, “they’re all in the pocket of the corporations.” You’re wrong, and are part of the problem. Because as long as you spread the blame on every Senator and Representative, then those that are truly responsible will get away with their obstructionism and live to obstruct another day, while those who are trying to do the right thing get swept out of office because they were painted with the same broad brush as the obstructionist. When you don’t vote because you think your vote doesn’t count (another truism), the status quo wins. If everyone who disagreed with the way things are going now actually voted, things would change. That’s something that many in power would rather go without being said.