Some questions to which I wish I knew the answers:

• Common wisdom is that the level of political discourse is trending continually downwards in the US. It says that the electorate is increasingly polarized and that there is less and less willingness to even consider the opposite side of many political issues. Is this really true, or is this just a case of looking fondly to the past?
• If it is true, is the increasing interconnectivity of the world partially to blame? Are we as people less likely to engage with those who disagree with us if it's easy to find forums which just reinforce our own views?

A while back, I had an interesting conversation with a friend who would almost certainly describe himself as a born-again Christian. Although we rarely broke that implicit rule that says don't talk politics with a friend on the another part of the political spectrum, we did talk about what political blogs we follow. He said he gets a lot out of reading Power Line, and I suggested that Kevin Drum is a liberal blog that is more substance than rancor.

(I was terribly embarrassed that, after giving this advice, the headline on day and find that the top story was something along the lines of "Most idiotic conservatives ever".)

I don't know if he still checks up on Drum, but I do look over Power Line every few days, and I find myself shocked at what I read there; it seems so clear to me that the narrative of the Other Side's consists entirely of rumors, scaremongering and personal attacks while My Side clearly states its case...

If there's anything I got out of my college education, it's that certainty is to be distrusted, questioned, and skeptically examined, especially when it is you that is certain of something. When I step back and look critically at what's written in the blogs which seem RightCorrect, I see some of the same unsubstantive look-at-how-awful-those-people-are stories that fit with my world view and therefore slip past my own bs-detectors.

I do sincerely hope that, if Obama does win this election, his rhetoric of finding common ground across the political spectrum turns out to be more than talk.