The problem is can we all refrain from personal attacks, etc. and concentrate on learning about political processes, philosophies, and histories? Economic theories and philosophies are just as diverse and hotly debated. They often go hand in hand with politics. They do involve "taking sides". Taking sides in a debate does not mean personal attacks and holier than thou attitudes. It means honest debate on the merits of a particular course of action. I wouldn't mind exploring these ideas, how they come about and why one system is ultimately chosen over another.
For example, our Federal government often uses taxes and credits ostensibly to help one group or another. Often they are used to change behavior. What are the economic consequences, intended and unintended, of such taxes and credits. Cigarettes are an example. One of the intended consequences was to, hopefully, force people into smoking less or stopping altogether for health reasons. Another intention was for states to use a share of the taxes to promote non smoking and address smoking related health issues. The unintended consequences include less people smoking so there is less money going into the pot, many states are not using the money for anti-smoking campaigns and health issues but for other things, and an increase in black market cigarettes (although the last was probably anticipated). Altria was a big supporter of Federal regulation on cigarette content. One of the consequences of this will be that, as long as their products meet Federal standards, they are more likely not to be sued and if sued less likely to lose.
When I took tax accounting class, I discovered that the rather chunky tax credit to help adoptive parents was set to expire either 2011 or 2012 (I forget which). Consequences? Some potential adoptive parents will not be able to afford adopting - the result, less babies adopted, and perhaps more baby kidnappings and black market babies. This may, over all, be a small issue in the scheme of things, but not for people who want to adopt and the babies not adopted.
We could try and if it turns into a sling fest, it can be discontinued.
