I think it's important to here the other side of the arguement, if only to confirm your own convictions. Ideological arguements are not winnable, perse, and it's also important to remember that to exclude the other side, or to dismiss the otherside is very dangerous. I speek specifically refering to US politics. I'm a Republican, and firmly believe my party has the right vision for America. This is not to say that outright dismiss the Democrats as always being wrong. There are many who are blinded by their ideology, and refuse to see the otherside, and are to quick to dismiss it. Others are so blinded that they feel that there beliefs are always right, or their party is always right. For example, in the Bush thread, I firmly support our President, I feel that he is doing what is right in regards to education, taxes & foreign policy. However, I am concerned over his, and the Republican party's unfocused environmental policy. They are to dismissive of the studies that show the acceleration of Global warming due to a possible correlation with an increase in co2 emmisions. I don't know whether the science is right here, Rapid warming and rapid cooling have been seen before in the ecological record, however, to dismiss the possibilty of these studies being accurate is dangerous. I'm also concerned over the party's gay rights platform. While I don't believe that gay couples should be allowed to adopt children, I see nothing wrong with acknowledging a union between them, with all the rights and priviledges that a traditional married couple recieves.
I think in the end, it really comes down to neither side being absolutly right or wrong. The purpose of debate should be to explain yourside, and in the end hope that the otherside has taken your views into account, and questioned their own beliefs, to see if they still hold true.