Reply #288: For as good as this post is-- [View All]

--For the valid point it makes about the media's inane fixation on the petty interpersonal disputes in politics, which stoked into fires by the infotainment industry then override and devour the honest policy discussion lying beneath-- here in the comment thread, it's become an example of itself. Thread upon thread of messages, screenview upon screenview, and half of it amounts to bickering back and forth among people who probably agree on almost everything, trying to determine who insulted who first and who misconstrued the other's meaning.
I don't point this out to point a finger. Maybe it's an inevitable part of the process. What fascinates me is the extent to which personality determines political choice, and how it feeds and detracts from conflict, agreement, progress and stagnation. I don't think this is off-topic; I think it's at the center of this issue. Some friends and I have begun a discussion about the role personality plays in politics at a site called Know Me Now, and I'm going to point to this thread over there. No one's posted an Edwards thread there yet. I'm curious to see what happens if some people from this thread join that discussion.