Is it possible to debate for something you don't believe?

[darkism]

Something must be in the water at this university. This is the second time this semester I've been in a debate on the WRONG SIDE - the one that I disagree with.

They told me then and they tell me now, "you don't have to agree with an issue to debate it."

Excuse me? WTF kind of reasoning is that?

Get a load of this question:

With a republican president, republican congress, republican-appointed Supreme Court and a republican-drafted Patriot Act, is the United States losing he ideals advocated by Locke and becoming a totalitarian state, that exercises tyrannical control just as deTocqueville suggested?

Now, we all know the answer is OF COURSE IT IS, WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE.

But I've been designated to debate the OTHER side. How am I supposed to argue with a straight face that the US is NOT turning into a fascist state?

BTW, the professor is a liberal and knows that I am too. I tried to reason with her but she would hear none of it.

"You don't have to agree with an issue to debate it." What a crock!