I learned a valuable but hard lesson from a Republican politician once. When the stalwarts abandoned the party, Al LaPierre and Don Siegleman put together our ragtag band of miscreants and we took the Democratc Party of Alabama over on behalf of the candidacy of George McGovern. At some point during the campaign I found myself speaking in a televised debate. My opponent was Bert Nettles, an unknown to me, save for the only fact that I needed to know, that he was a Republican congressman from our district and that I would be speaking on behalf of one of the greatest Presidential candidates we had ever fielded.
A melifluous-speaking Southern gentleman, Nettles was perfectly cast as my grandee opposite. He, a silk-stocking lawyer from one of the robber-baron law firms; Me? College in the Sixties, the Antiwar, labor and Civil Rights movements, my ethnic background and my childhood in one of the most notorious Democratic Party boss strongholds had left me with little regard for Republicans. I was full of myself, a contemptuous guardian of the forest moral against an enemy that had not only proven itself to be evil - they were downright stupid to boot. I was going to kick major ass.
But, Nettles had done his homework and I was armed merely with blind faith. And, if he was driven by the same sort of prejudices or ideology, it didn't show. He was eloquent, polished, and prepared and, oh my gosh, made sense. (He was what we would later call a Neocon or new conservative - read that smart, prepared and not easily capable of being pidgeon-holed.)
He was gracious while all the while being devastating. He listened to my points, apparently understood my concerns, and addressed them all. I was stuck with posturing, avoiding what I knew were the issues he was actually addressing and the points he was making. I twisted in the breeze. There's nothing worse than sitting there, telegraphing to the world that you're full of shit. Except for knowing it.
I vowed never to be unprepared or over-confident or, worse yet, arrogant; to not demonize the other side but to treat them with the courtesy and dignity - both facially and intellectually - I would have myself be treated; to listen to what they say, truly examining it for its substance and, importantly, to address them if they make legitimate arguments, accepting whatever level of validity they may merit.
