Please check your politics at the door

Recently, I was at a polite dinner party, in the much-maligned state of South Carolina, when one of the guests referred to global warming. There were sympathetic murmurs of agreement about the problem when across the table, a respected New York-based plastic surgeon spoke up.

She said she was tired of hearing about global warming as though it were a fact. She had recently read a book that effectively disputed the findings of the more than 80 percent of the scientists who claim global warming is a problem.

Ah, politics.

Soup spoons raised in mid-air, the hosts exchanged uneasy glances. It’s a funny thing people do, assume that people they like and share interests with will most likely share their political views.

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It’s understandable in this day and age, when there is so much shorthand to describe someone’s political position, that it’s coming down to code. Nearly everyone wears a scarlet letter. For some it is a “D†and for others it is an “R,†but the effect is very much the same. People wear their politics on their sleeves and are viewed with suspicion by those on the other side. Race, religion, class and sexual orientation have all been part of the great divide, but it looks as if politics may be the biggest cleaver of them all.

When I was growing up, my grandfather would never reveal how he voted. He believed in the sanctity of the power and privacy of the vote. How quaint!

This was a man who loved a good verbal jousting. He brought his skills as a lawyer home and at dinnertime, we kids needed to be prepared to discuss the issues of the day. But it was never enough to have a point of view or a strong belief; we had to have proof.

One of my brothers took to bringing clips from Time magazine to the table in an effort to win an argument with dear old Granddad. In true lawyerly fashion, he was adept at arguing any position. How confusing.

He was trying to teach us to reason without reaction. These days it is pretty hard to have a current events discussion without it blowing up in your face.

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It’s interesting to realize that it’s uncomfortable to talk about politics with your friends when you don’t agree. It’s most interesting when you make a new friend and enjoy their company on many occasions before the specter of politics raises its gnarly hand.

“Please pass the bread — and your head on a platter,†when I realize with horror that you voluntarily, without any coercion voted for Bush — twice! But the fact remains, you’re a good neighbor, I love your dogs and I’ve enjoyed every other conversation we’ve had. Is this what they call cognitive dissonance?

Is it a surprise that civil discourse on the national level has all but disappeared when tensions flare at a simple dinner party when someone mentions a melting polar icecap?

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Political discourse has gotten so short-circuited that prior to President Obama’s State of the Union speech, for example, the Republicans were already airing their rebuttals. Obama suggested they maybe hear him out first. Of course, at the same time, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was discussing many of the items that would be in the speech.  It’s sort of like the press conference announcing the press conference at which Sen. Dodd will be announcing his decision not to run for re-election. Official leaks, they’re called.

There are no surprises left in the political arena, except when you discover that your new best friend is actually — gasp — of a different political persuasion than you.

Maybe we can talk about the weather? No, scratch that, that’s a minefield, too.

Tara Kelly, copy editor at The Lakeville Journal, is an avid follower of social trends. E-mail her at tarak@lakevillejournal.com.