A conservative in an argument with a liberal

A conservative in an argument with a liberal is almost always at a disadvantage.The conservative has to make sense. It's self-imposed.

While this may not be a law of nature it accurately  reflects my personal experience.

The liberals I've encountered don't labor under the same burden. They've already had their minds made up for them, usually by the likes of John Stewart, Rick Mercer, Bill Maher, or a number of other comedians posing as  journalists and commentators for the midstream media.  Their followers usually can't assemble any argument more coherent than "it's the free market's fault" or "It's the conservative's fault and (ENTER CONSERVATIVE POLITICIAN NAME HERE) is a moron."

I've been thinking about this subject because it has just happened to me again.

It was inadvertent, like most initial steps into minefields often are. A visit with a childhood friend and his family was marred by a brief foray into politics and economics.  My friend's wife was flipping channels in the TV room. She stopped on a channel where Bill Maher was speaking, pretending to be funny.

 "What do you want to watch?" she asked.
I answered that she could watch what she wanted, but that I didn't think Bill Maher was funny any more.  Her reply was that, although she didn't really like Bill Maher either, she loved John Stewart and by the way, the Republicans are assholes.


Well, they certainly have their share. But how did get that non sequitur get into her stream of thought? Is it an indication of how conditioned by the midsteam media's constant stream of derision and ridicule towards conservatives their mass audience is, that a regular John Steward viewer could not tell me she really liked John Stewart without reflexively throwing in a dig at the Republicans.

 I then compounded my error by asking, "Why would you say that?"

She didn't have any facts other than her "Assertions." Her answers boiled down to "You're wrong." or "John Stewart says..."  She was determined in her belief that she was right though, and that my facts were irrelevant. It wasn't until we could find a public figure or institution we could both agree was "bad" that she felt she had "Won" and we could get back to our socializing.