I love politics, In fact I was a political commentator for many years. But the point of TJWalker Interactive here at the blog and over on my YouTube channel is to discuss and analyze communication and speaking skills. Unfortunately, I find that, especially on YouTube, it’s impossible for some small-minded people to ever think past politics. So if I dare say candidate x made a bad speech today because his zipper was down and he forgot what he was going to say, I’m immediately besieged with angry emails accusing me of anti-x bias and having an ideology that is in contrast with what any decent human being could have. Then, I’m asked to “prove” that I’m not “biased” against “X,” which is another tiresome debate where the accuser can never be convinced.

I have grabbled with this dilemma for awhile. I want to be true to the nature of social media and let everyone have a voice. I don’t want to stifle anyone. I want to be responsive to people. But at some point, I lose control over why I started this blog if everything seems to be about politics and the casual visitor who comes in for the first time to TJWalker.com or Youtube.com/tjwalker and sees nothing but hate-filled invective thrown around and everything is about calling someone a Nazi or a communist or some such nonsense.

So my compromise is to let people to continue to post whatever they want, but when I am accuse of some sort of ridiculous political bias, I am going to respond with the following form letter:

“Excuse the form letter-TJWalker Interactive is not a Left-Right political blog; in fact it’s NOT POLITICAL at all! I am about communication, analyzing effective/ineffective communication in newsmakers, & how-to advice. Examine our postings (1000s)-you will find that we criticize all parties equally. Liberals accuse us of right-wing bias; conservatives accuse us of left-wing bias. Frankly, it’s tiresome. If you care to engage us on an actual “communication” issue, we’ll give a real response.”

What do you think? I’m trying to be respectful to anyone who writes and to be offering some sort of acknowledgement. But I am hoping this letter makes the people who just want to re-shout the same old tiresome political debates to move on. And frankly, I’m hoping to save myself a whole lot of time and to create an environment where people who want to learn, discuss and analyze communication can do so in a civil environment. Please let me know if you have any other ideas on this subject—like everything else in the blogosphere, it’s a work in progress.