The day after

Getting Beyond  Election Day

Wall Street Journal, November 8, 2016 By Steven Bullock
What Ben Franklin Could Teach Us About Civility And Politness 
Politeness sought to escape the bitterness of continuing conflict. Instead of harshness, arrogance and anger, politeness encouraged sympathy, good humor and common ground.

Respecting other people led to goodwill. Continued cooperation was better than grudging consent. Franklin determined never to contradict other people’s statements in conversations. He would instead present his opinions modestly, with due regard to others’ attitudes and feelings.

Politeness sought to escape the bitterness of continuing conflict. Instead of harshness, arrogance and anger, politeness encouraged sympathy, good humor and common ground.

But Franklin did not believe doing the right thing always conflicted with the polite thing. He expressed pleasure at seeing important issues discussed “with decency and politeness,” “without party views, or party heat.” Such interchanges required what we call today “emotional intelligence,” awareness of other people’s attitudes and concerns.

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I hesitate to present this next article just because of the title and references to Trump and Clinton within it. The subject is not about the presidential candidates however, but about political correctness and how it substitutes for deference.  It goes on to explain how "conservative" has become a bad word among some, how this came to be, and why conservativism is a force for good.

To some, the article may put liberalism in a bad light, but it makes a comparison between the two concepts in order to explain why one is currently dominate and the other is forced into the shadows.  These ideas are an important step in understanding and respecting how others we do not agree with think.

We may agree on where we are going, but not how to get there.  If we choose the wrong path, we may not get there at all.  As Ben Franklin suggests, with politeness we may discover how to resolve our differences without one point of view dominating the discussion.

Wall Street Journal, November 8, 2016 By Shelby Steele 
Trump, Clinton and the Culture of Deference

Political correctness functions like a despotic regime. We resent it but we tolerate it.

In the broader American culture—the mainstream media, the world of the arts and entertainment, the high-tech world, and the entire enterprise of public and private education—conservatism suffers a decided ill repute. Why?

Deference has been codified in American life as political correctness. And political correctness functions like a despotic regime. It is an oppressiveness that spreads its edicts further and further into the crevices of everyday life.