Debating a Leftist is like trying to have a conversation with a Magic 8 Ball toy.  You try to discuss a topic and then you wait for them to shake the black sphere, turn it over and have them read whatever phrase emerges from the glass.

It is canned speech.  It's like a caveman grunting 'Fire, hot!'  They only say enough words that can fit onto a cardboard protest sign using a Magic Marker.

Whenever the Left's opposition party is in power, they foment these convenient piecemeal fabrications of cobbled script and drop them like turds at a dog park without the courtesy of bringing their own plastic bag to pick them up.  The Left is just not qualified for civic debate.  It is because they are not civil, moral creatures who believe in the actual exchange of ideas.

Instead, the Left carries on with maudlin assertions of hysteria.  We saw this all the way back in 2000 when Bush was 'selected' and 'stole' the election.  Back then 'Shrub' was daddy's little Bush who used the invasion of Iraq as a ruse; a 'War For Oil'.

It was all caricature then, and remains so today.  The danger however, is that the Left knows it works, and... it does.  It is the steady drip of propaganda that can carve cultural channels, and eventually ingrain Grand Canyons of division within political society, turning discourse rancorous and superficial.

When someone back then shouted 'Halliburton' it was its own assertion, dissertation and conclusion, all in one word.  There was no need for them to back it up or connect any dots.  You just need a megaphone.  For a Leftist, the only requirement are decibels.  Or, like cast members of the Walking Dead, a small wooden first strip to staple a sign to so they can become a zombie foot soldier in their endless war on intelligence.

Every once in awhile you will get one who tries to defend their cheap two-word phrase.  'Koch Brothers' and they wait for you to retreat or fall back in line.  And when you don't, 'I like the Koch brothers.  They employ thousands of people in hundreds of companies who make real things people want.'

'But they control politicians!'

'And have you read their platform of what they stand for?  Limited government.  Free markets.  Lower taxes?'

It doesn't go much further than that.  The caveman only knows how to grunt and they've run out of diaphragm strength to push air.  They furiously shake their Magic 8 ball, but having cycled through their entire bank of phrases, they either have to repeat themselves(which they do endlessly) or shut up.  At that point, it's like trying to nicely close the door on a Jehovah Witness as you realize all they have are pre-written paper tracts.

The Left are pamphleteers in a world of conversation.  They are the bumper sticker society.  Except instead of sticking them on a car they try to silence you by sticking it over your mouth.

In a way it's ingenious.   They are great commercial writers.  Their gift is in creating marketing jingles.  There is a certain beauty in watching a well-trained border collie control a herd using a silver dog whistle.  The notes are nearly impossible to hear, but the animal responds.  And unfortunately there are a lot of sheep that one border collie with a loud enough bark can corral.  It is important that we fight back, always, when confronted by a two-word grunt.  You are headed into the holidays and will have the opportunity to have plenty of conversations with estranged relatives.  There are always one or two leftists at every dinner table burping up political discourse.  I usually start with the Socratic method.  Ask them a question regarding their grunt.  Then ask another if they can formulate a defense for the first.  I can guarantee you that it is always a conversation worth having since the rate of a thoughtful leftist versus a drone is about one in a dozen, and even the more thoughtful ones are as easy to dissect as removing an avocado pit.  It is imperative to challenge them.  There are other ears around the table, peripherally, not all of them yet drifting off into the hazy fog bank of tryptophan and gravy.  So be encouraged and lean in with your Santa cap.  Everyone I am sure has at least one uncle who is a college professor.  The 'educated' ones are some of the easiest to deconstruct and process besides the turkey on the table.