The other day I got into a debate with a liberal on twitter (shocking I know). This guy had responded to one of my posts regarding Tea Party opposition to military intervention in Syria, saying that such a position was illogical and implying that those who held it were despicable human beings. He then began grilling me with all kinds of foreign policy questions, from events in Reagan’s time to Bush’s War in Iraq.

Now I’m no foreign policy expert; in fact I know precious little about the intricacies of dealing with other nations. So I’m left with a classic debate scenario:  the unanswerable question. How do you respond to a question when you don’t know the answer?

The simple solution is, you don’t. You can’t know everything, so the proper response is to take control of the situation by admitting that fact up front.

@Pro_Freedom_ I’m not read up on either incident up to this point so I can’t give an accurate answer.

— Kelly Campagna (@warriorwoman91) September 7, 2013

Even if the opponent continues to push it this should still be your answer. Doing so takes the issue off the table so that you don’t have to step into the trap set for you to make a statement that you will not only regret but probably disagree with later.

@Pro_Freedom_ Again my specialty is not foreign policy; my knowledge largely focuses on domestic.

— Kelly Campagna (@warriorwoman91) September 7, 2013

So the next time you find yourself asked a question that you don’t know the answer to, just remember my favorite go to response:  I don’t know.