"Dem./GOP" Label = Personal Identity to Defend

Sun. Sept. 9, 2012:              PART TWO



This time, dear Readers, you need to suck it up and read ALL of the items below.
As the 2012 election campaign unfolds, one of our young but insightful Readers has observed:

In political discourse, even highly intelligent people in the USA's democratic republic use their intellects NOT to seek truth wherever facts may lead -- but to defend one's "Democratic" or "Republican" label as the biggest part of her or his personal identity.

You use your brain to justify your Ego's earlier choice of party, rather than to keep an open mind.
If you argue against my label, my party -- you are calling me evil and/or stupid.
You are with us, or against us.
You are blue-eyed, or brown-eyed.

If someone can invent a way to overcome this aspect of the Human Condition,
please step forward and save the planet from endless violence, and the USA from Civil War #2.

Eckhart Tolle has tried, in The Power of Now and sequels.
Are there others?

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Here are 3 examples of good strong NYT op-ed pieces:

One of them, DAVID BROOKS,  may please a conservative, by eloquently expressing -- from the middle of the political spectrum --  disappointment with his prior vote supporting President Obama.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/opinion/obamas-elevator-speech.html


Two of them insult a conservative's GOP label, and therefore his/her ego.

1.  "The Hex on Paul Ryan:  The Veep Nod is Much More of a Punishment than a Promotion."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/opinion/the-hex-on-paul-ryan.html

2.  "Mr. Bernanke's Next Task"

"According to Mr. Bernanke, the economy is being held back by a sluggish housing market; counterproductive fiscal policy, and both the federal government and the states cut spending in the face of weak growth; and the euro crisis, which hurts the United States because of trade and financial links to Europe . . . 

"Unfortunately, meaningful progress on housing and fiscal policy requires Congress to act.  Congressional Republicans, however, have long resisted efforts to revive growth on the theory that a weak economy will help them regain the White House . . .

"That leaves the Fed [i.e., the Federal Reserve Bank] the only entity with the autonomy and the power to take action." 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/opinion/ben-bernankes-next-task.html