Last Thursday at Drinking Liberally our guest was the decidedly conservative Frank Antenori, a former Green Beret and 2006 candidate for the Republican nomination to CD8 who was beat out by Randy Graf.
I received more than one complaint about my choice to bring a conservative to a liberal party, but I believe that such dialog (regardless of the volume at which is conducted) is essential to liberalism. Some may believe that it isn’t worthwhile to understand the views of your opponents, but they make the same mistake for which we criticize this Administration: failure to understand your opponent is fatal. Worse, not understanding your opponent dooms you to fight him on every issue, rather than understanding how to enlist his cooperation or aid in reaching many of your goals.
It is undoubtedly pleasant to pass the evening over a few beers amongst a sea of heads nodding to your every utterance, but it is essential to cultivation of a truly liberal mind-set to test your assumptions with exposure to views much different than your own. Being liberal means being fact-based and open-minded, not rigidly ideological. A very valuable foil to complacency and the echo-chamber effect, which has so harmed the Republican party, is to seriously listen to other viewpoints and provide reasons why you disagree with them. At its best, dialog gives you not only a deeper appreciation and understanding of your opponent’s views, but also of your own.
I don’t expect, nor should liberals in general expect, to be able to change the minds of conservatives with whom they converse. That is not the goal of dialog. The goal is simply to understand the views of the other side better, and to explain your own cogently. Frank certainly didn’t change his mind on anything, as far as I know; nor did any of us. But we exchanged information and understood each other better. The only end to the empty rhetoric and demonization between the parties that is poisoning our politics is better understanding.
That said, the conservatism of the Republicans who have thus far been our guests at Drinking Liberally (Frank Antenori, Ray Carroll, Jon Paton) are of a decidedly more pragmatic, libertarian, limited-government, low taxation, pro-business, traditional conservative bent. We haven’t had any of the real far-right exemplars as yet, and I’m not sure if we will (what do you think?). The sort of Republicans I have been inviting are liberals’ natural allies, working partners, and loyal opposition. They are practical people with whom liberals can reason and get things done, and who can keep us grounded and honest.
We will certainly always have many more liberal guests than conservative ones (if only because it takes a certain intestinal fortitude for a conservative to agree to attend), but we will continue to occasionally host conservatives in the future. If you don’t want your views challenged, if you want to inhabit an intellectual hot-house wherein you never encounter true disagreement, and you don’t want to practice the diversity and intellectual rigor that is the bleeding heart of liberalism, then you might want to skip those Drinking Liberally sessions which feature a conservative guests.
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Inviting conservatives from time to time is ok. For the first half-hour or so, the discussion/debate with Frank was somewhat entertaining. After 90 minutes, the circular arguments were tiresome. Regardless of their politics, speakers and guests should be given a time limit.
azw88;
The man who exposed a corrupt Pima County Sheriff from his own party who was then indited on over 80 Grand Jury inditements and forced to resign after being BRIBED by him is a coward?
The same man who called the Democratic Party Platform “NUTS” relating to open borders and enforcement of The Rule Of Law is “Insecure?”
azw88 I would not take the path of a Fools Dance, just for my own Political Gain!
I think we are over taxed and UNrepresented by The Federal Government!
dwight, you would be welcome to attend I am sure… I suspect that you are far too insecure to do so….
Mike,
I’m glad you had Frank over. I would have loved to have attended, but I was out of town. Although Frank and I have different opinions on many issues, we also share a common cause; to make America a better place.
I consider Frank a friend, and if he would have won the CD-8 seat, I know I could have called him anytime and he would have answered with the utmost respect and open mind.
I don’t agree with Frank on the direction of his ideas of Middle Eastern policy (Iraq), and we have some different opinions on how to end our dependency on oil, but we agree that our addiction to oil is one of the nation’s biggest problems.
If Frank is reading this, I hope he will also accept a challenge. The Az Dem Party veterans are organizing and will have our first State Party Veterans Caucus, 29 April. Salette, my wife, is organizing the veterans of Pima County. I hope Frank will do the same in the Republican Party. God knows the veterans and service members returning from combat operations are not getting what America owes them.
Keep up the good work Mike, having an open mind, being liberal, isn’t about excluding different points of view.
Did youn ask Frank how he feels about loosing his job at Raytheon as will thousands of his fellow employees as Government Defense Contracts cease due to The Democratic Party Defense Cutbacks as outlined in the Party Platform? As a my Father was a Raytheon Employee for 50 years he had to deal with many lay-offs as the changing Political climate changed coming out of The Viet Nam War which Forced the Country into a Steep Recession. This conbined with the expiration of Tax Cuts inposed during the last few years will throw the job market into a tail spin,combine that with off the chart gas prices and its the 1970’s all over again with 17% mortgage rates! This is not a joke and is fact as I have seen it all before and I hope someone has a Plan To Deal With It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Except the views of a Life Long Democrat; Dwight D. Leister are NOT welcome.
Even though I consistently run into people on the right who profess that cows created global warming, it is still refreshing to engage in debate. In addition, we should all remember that we are all Americans first and even though some from the other side would have others believe that we are in bed with terrorists, the vast majority of Americans can think rationally.
There is almost always some kind of common ground somewhere among us all, even the uncommon ground needs to have a healthy debate so that truth can be meted out.
I think inviting conservatives to hoist a few in solidarity as Americans is a great idea, and even though they have an altered viewpoint on we we hold to be reality, the conversation hopefully was engaging and refreshing, unless it degenerated into the kind of opposing talking head shout downs that we see all to often on CNN, MSNBC and other shows, then I think it is a terrific idea.