"I was watching the news earlier", she said "and they were talking about how there are similarities between Donald Trump and Idi Amin."
Now I am far from being a fan of Donald Trump, but this utter hyperbole made me see red.
"What a load of bullshit!" I replied heatedly. "Did he come to power in a military coup?"
I was about to list a dozen other major points of difference when my younger son (who was also present) felt he should butt in.
"The problem with these kinds of conversations is that they are toxic", he replied. "One person calls Trump a fascist [today's f-word] and Trump's opponents start gleefully listing in their minds the similarities to Hitler while people who support Trump start making mental lists of why the claim is obviously wrong. As a result, nothing that's actually worthwhile gets discussed."
Hm. You know what? Despite the fact that my younger son was lecturing his parents (especially the one male parent), he was right. Civilised political discussion is fast disappearing from the world's democracies. In the UK, Brexit has caused immense rifts between old friends and sometimes even within families; in the USA it seems to be the same with the 2016 elections. In 2017, elections across Europe might do the same thing.
Looking ahead over the next few years and decades it's clear that western democracies will face enough challenges anyway, from government finances to global warming to ageing populations. Do you think that for a while we could back off from the hyperbole, step away from the f-word and discuss the real issues?
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