ncm: I agree that agreeing on facts is not the issue. As you say, the problem is that people weigh the facts differently. Agreeing on how to weight the facts is the issue.

However, the problem with harmonizing adherents of different political parties is not in obtaining agreement on facts. Generally each side considers its own facts (or myths) deciding and the other’s facts entirely beside the point. Remarkably many “conservatives” still consider the Bush/Cheney presidency a great success. They like having a war on, they seeing billion-dollar no-bid contracts handed out to themselves and their people, they like taxing the middle class to pay themselves interest, they like duping the lower-class into voting them continued power, and they especially like tricking the opposition into making one-sided concessions for the sake of comity. Why would they even want to discuss anything?

That’s not true; you just need to get to them while they’re young. Like the cigarette companies.

Truthfully, I think the mark of a developed intellectual mind is being open to changing it. Of course, intellectuals were never popular, least so currently.