@Ron_C Agreed. I have not run into many Right-wingers that can thing for themselves. In fact, most of the Conservatives I know that are even capable of holding a more in-depth discussion about anything political or financial than the Eliza computer program are here on Fluther. For instance, I had a Conservative co-worker who not only did not but stubbornly refused to believe that there was a difference between corporate tax and personal income tax; he thought that every penny that the incorporated company we worked for counted as personal income for the owner!
To be fair, there are some hard-core Liberals who think that The Daily Show is journalism as opposed to journalism-related comedy more akin to editorial comments. (Granted, I use those sources myself, but only as an alternative viewpoint or discussion starter as opposed to stone-cold fact.) By and large, I have observed that Conservatives are far more likely to shut down their brain and not even question their talking heads. Most Liberals and Moderates/Centrists take in information and actually think about it before forming an opinion. Sometimes they get bad data, but at least they use their brains.
Many Conservatives blindly worship Reagan and overlook some facts about his presidency. They also tend to give credit to those who don’t deserve it , and think that Bush-43 was the best thing to happen to the economy and that he could do no wrong, but the truth is that he was capable of making mistakes
I think it should tell you something that comedians, a group that makes a living off of pointing out stupidity and absurdity, find more material by looking at the Right’s policies, actions, and ideology than they do from the Left or Center.
Back to the original question though, as you can see, I am not above the typical response to a political debate; digging in my heels and trying to belittle those I don’t agree with. Part of that is because it is felt that those on the other side cannot be reasoned with, and to an extent that is true. The two sides are so far apart that a middle ground is a long commute for either of them; long enough to often not be worth the bother. Sadly, only one side seems to know history and look at it without getting totally revisionist to the point of delusion. (They still revise/ignore some stuff, but not nearly as much.)