Is It Time for a “Transpartisan Dialogue” Over “Coffee?”

At this point, after watching the “Party of No” and the “Tea Party” in action since Barack Obama’s election (and, really, during the entire Bush presidency), I’m highly skeptical that Coffee Party founder Annabel Park’s suggestion of “transpartisan dialogue” will prove to be worthwhile. How can you “dialogue” with people who create their own “facts,” who are impervious to empirical evidence (e.g., the overwhelming science of global warming), who hold ignorant and bigoted views (Islamophobic, xenophobic, homophobic, key word “phobic”) of their fellow citizens, who hold Democracy itself – and “dialogue,” for that matter – in contempt?

I mean, I wish Annabel luck, and if anyone can do it she probably can; seriously, the woman’s a force of nature. And maybe, just maybe, a movement of rational, culturally diverse, fact-based, solutions-oriented, and non-partisan (rather than hyper-partisan to the point of blindness) people, opening a “transpartisan” dialogue over “coffee” with the non-crazy elements of the Republican/Tea Party coalition, can win the day in 2010 America.  I’m skeptical, but I hope to be proven wrong later this month when the “Coffee Party” holds its convention in Louisville, Kentucky. Go Annabel (and her similarly super-talented partner, Eric Byler, too)!