Tribalism: The enemy within.

I don't know how well my attempts to talk about politics within the comic book blogosphere and podcast communities will fly.

But I am doing so, in part, because I believe that too many people are treating politics as a taboo subject. That good people are scared off by being hostilely judged by people who don't agree with them.

Anger and confrontation seem to be the standard form of political discourse these days. The fringes have a disproportionately loud voice, and intimidate those of us who don't quite fit into their ideas of right and wrong. The extreme left and right are both driving us towards tribalism.

The political blogosphere has been discussing tribalism lately.
Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters has put it very well.

…this anger and tribalism creates a national sense of rhetorical civil war where we cannot ever agree enough to maintain standards of behavior or get anything accomplished.

…

The point of politics is not to engage in primal screams, but to find ways to implement the best policies for the nation, states, and communities. Anger has its place, but we cannot allow anger to define our politics and our ethics. If we are to make a better nation and a better world, we have to insist on a focus on policy and performance regardless of which party is in power. Otherwise, we're just playing Capture the Flag.

Please read the whole article.