Thanks for making my point

Sometimes you get a comment that's too delicious to leave buried in the comments section of the blog. I got one (actually, two, but from the same person) today. My first reaction on reading them was to be a little hurt, because no one likes to be personally attacked. I then realized, though, that this comment perfectly illustrates the vapidity that passes for debate on the Left. Here, see for yourself:

Bookworm, Does it *hurt* to be so vacant? Just asking. [G-raze, 02.09.06 - 7:59 am] and while I'm here. Your tagline? "Outpourings from a conservative living in a liberal outpost." It's pretty lame, but that's your business. What concerns me is the back-ass backwards of it. Being bookish hasn't helped you corner words. Try this: "Outpourings from a conservative oasis living in a liberal dessert." Like I said, it's lame. oh, and outpourings? try sentiments. or ad hoc reflections. Something like that. [G-raze, 02.09.06 - 8:11 am]

Aside from clearly disliking the fact that I'm a conservative, what the heck is G-raze saying? Does it help you to know that these comments were left on my post about my post strongly criticizing Carter's behavior at Coretta Scott King's funeral? It doesn't help me. I can infer that G-raze thinks that it was appropriate for Carter to demean the President's office by using his fame as an ex-President to get invited to a significant funeral and, while there, attack the sitting President, but that's a mere guess on my part. Certainly, G-raze doesn't say so. Essentially, G-raze says nothing but "You're ugly and your mother dresses you funny." I already learned back in 3rd grade that that's a dead-end argument. "Am not." "Are too." "Am not." "Are too." "Well, you're uglier." "Am not." "Are too." And so on, ad nauseum. I'm always willing to engage in polite debate, and will try to defend my position -- and, if I can't defend my position, I'll concede that I've erred. That type of reasoned, polite debate, however, is not what I'm getting here and, to extrapolate outwards from this one example, this absence of real debate is the whole problem with the Left in this country. It can't engage, so it doesn't engage, and those Americans who think at a more sophisticated level than the average elementary school student are recognizing the void in this approach. Talking to Technorati: Political debate, Personal attacks, Ad hominem attacks