THE ELUSIVE MIDDLE GROUND

There is a good chance I’ll get myself in trouble saying what I’m about to say, but here goes. Men and women are different.

I’m not sure why this obvious statement tends to cause problems, but it does seem to. Not with the men, but with women. (This puzzles me because I know a lot of guys, and I’m not sure why women would want to be like any of them.)

Anyway, here goes. Women and men both have an emotional and rational side. So far, so good. Since people rarely have a 50/50 dose, one of the two sides tends to show itself more often. In general, women tend to be more emotional than men. From what I have experienced, emotion tends to be more of a Liberal trait. So, when you get an emotion- based woman in an emotion-based political philosophy, you have a perfect storm. 

Let me give you an example. This is a summation of a “discussion” I had with a Liberal woman on Facebook:

She entered a FB post chastising the House for proposing a bill which would cut the food stamp program by $38 million dollars while doing nothing about the cost of war (the classic “Guns and Butter” economic argument).  This is a very devoted woman who teaches at a “poor” school and experiences every day the effects of being poor in America. I understand and admire her for doing what she does, but my rational side took ove,r and I pointed out to her that $38m is only 5% of a $40B poorly managed program. If this is like most other federal spending “cuts,” it means they are agreeing to reduce the rate of food stamp spending by 5%. The food stamp program is increasing at a rate of 13% per year, so with the proposed 5% cut, the program will only be increased by 8%. (How would you like your household income to be increased by only 8%?)   Her response, minus the sarcasm, was to point out the children in her class who, every day, say they are hungry. 

She is talking about the Congress taking money from needy children and I am talking about, with a debt of over $17T, taking money from those, with means testing, who would never be eligible.  I fell into the trap I fall into every time I debate a dedicated Liberal. I try to address, with logic, an issue arrived at with emotion. I guess this is why I seem to have much more heated discussions with Liberal women than Liberal men (along with the fact that I know more Liberal women than Liberal men). Addressing emotional problems with ration answers never seems to work, and yet both left and right try it all the time, which is why compromise can be so difficult.

If Liberals can just crank up their rational side a bit, and Conservatives their emotional side, we have a chance at compromise—slim, but a chance, rationally speaking.