Stop the Rebuttal Huddle: The Problem with Our Political Discourse

This autumn season, we have plenty of national characters to focus on like Witches, Nazis, and Mama Grizzlies.  You know, the extreme political candidates running for office this mid-term election.  This year, we have candidates who have dabbled in witchcraft, dress-up and play Nazi for fun, and claim to be like, well, bears.  These nationalized characters and their extreme actions and beliefs have propelled our political dialogue, sidelining  rational discussion of the real issues that affect us. Free, open and rational speech in our political discourse has been silenced by scary soundbites. Drama has replaced reason.

To paraphrase what  President Obama said in an interview with George

Stephanopolas: “the only way to get on TV these days is to be rude. If you

are rational nobody will listen, but if you say something outrageous, you

will be put on TV in a hot second.”

Nobody listens to the calm voice or the voice of reason.  Instead, we only listen when a congressman screams “you lie” in the middle of a proper joint congressional hearing or that the Democrats want “death panels” or that the “Republican health plan calls for people to die quickly.”   What frames our discussion now are threats to burn the Qur'an on the Right and the "stealing of democracy" on the Left.
Reason has been replaced with what I call the Rebuttal Huddle. This is the practice of culling a questionable point from an opponent’s assertion and warping it into an outrageous claim or soundbite.  The Rebuttal Huddle subverts discussion of the merits of opinions and commandeers any discussion of reasonable compromises and solutions. 

Let’s move away from the Rebuttal Huddle: let’s discuss things calmly and be reasonable.  We don’t need all the hysteria and drama.