Tobiasly’s Blog

I am in Dallas this week on business, and last night I was flipping cable channels in my hotel room. I caught part of Dennis Miller’s new talk show on CNBC, and really enjoyed a comment he made during a debate with one of his guests. I’m not sure who the guest was or what exactly they were discussing (it was either directly or indirectly related to the November election), but I’ll lamely try to paraphrase the exchange anyway.

Miller’s guest was lamenting that American politics has, in his opinion, become too polarized lately. Miller replied: “Why is it that people think polarization is bad? Why do so many people think that everyone should be somewhere in the middle, singing kumbaya and agreeing on everything?”

His guest (apparently not expecting someone to argue against polarization being bad) hemmed and hawed something about “I like kumbaya” and that people should be willing to change their minds.

Miller replied “look, the time for sitting on the fence is over. If you’re still in the middle, pick up a newspaper and make up your mind, because it’s on!”

I’m sure I didn’t get it quite right, but I really liked the point he was trying to make. If you don’t know where you stand on Iraq, the war on terror, the economy, and this administration, it’s your duty to make up your mind and let your voice be heard this November.