# "How Did We Become Bitter Political Enemies?"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-we-become-bitter-political-enemies/789112>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [June 16, 2017, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-we-become-bitter-political-enemies/789112 "2017-06-16T13:23:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 284

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**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-we-become-bitter-political-enemies/789112/284 "2017-06-18T22:14:54Z")

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> [@wolfpup](#):
>
> That’s cool. And it works well for you, too, since the most polite posts tend to be the least argumentative and the easiest to respond to.
> 
> But I also note in passing that “politeness” consists of more than just language use. It more fundamentally consists in acknowledging the facts of an opponent’s argument, such as the fact that if 148 of the parties to the Paris accord that include the world’s major industrialized nations have all ratified it, and the Republican-dominated senate in the US would never do so, then it’s at least highly plausible that the problem is not in the accord, but in the ideology of the Republicans. Another aspect of politeness is that if an opponent requests “And kindly don’t remind me that I’m being mean to Republicans. If you want to respond constructively, please start by addressing the facts.” that one respects the opponent’s wish to discuss material facts rather than etiquette. But you are of course at liberty to proceed as you wish. 😉

I was writing a response to your long earlier post, but I’ve gotten sidetracked from that, and wanted to respond briefly to this:

There’s a very good reason that the Constitution requires treaties be ratified by a super-majority of the Senate. It’s so that before the US commits itself to some action on the international stage, we ensure that there’s broad-based and durable domestic support for that action, so that it won’t be undone next election and we won’t look schizophrenic and our allies won’t be left confused and unsure if the US is really committed to a course or action.

Obama short-circuited that process and committed us to an action that did not have a broad-based and durable base of support in this country. Do you, at least now, understand why that was not a good idea?

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