Amy, I guess I would like to ask another question of you. If we remove the labels of “liberal” and “conservative” from ourselves and each other, what exactly are our differences?
Is it how we see the role of government in our lives?
Is it that you don’t think the government should use any of our tax dollars to help provide necessary food or medical care for those that can’t afford it, and I do? Okay, but I think there is surely a middle ground where we can meet. I don’t think you want to see old people kicked out of their nursing homes because Medicaid is no longer available to help with the cost and neither is their savings because it has run out. I don’t want that to happen either. I don’t think you want women who can’t afford it to go without birth control and have children they are not financially or emotionally able to care for. I don’t want that to happen either. (I also don’t think either of us believe that women and men should only have sex when they want a baby.) I don’t think you want children to go without healthcare or food because their parents can’t or won’t provide it. I don’t want that to happen either. I bet we both agree that parents, if physically and mentally able, should work to provide for their children and that they should be able to make enough to do that with a full time job. So there are a few things we agree on.
Is it that you don’t think the government should tell you whom and how to worship, or for that matter, if you should have to worship anything at all? I don’t think they should be able to either. I don’t think you believe that only Christians are true patriotic Americans any more than I do, and I don’t think you or I believe that only those that agree with everything the government does or says are true patriots. You disagreed with a lot of Obama policies and I disagree with a lot of Trump policies. That doesn’t make us awful people or unpatriotic. We both know it just makes us thinking individuals who care about our country.
Is it that you think we shouldn’t help innocent people in other countries who are being tortured and killed by their governments? Okay, so maybe we disagree on that. I’m sure you have your reasons for thinking we shouldn’t and I have my reasons for thinking we should. That doesn’t make either one of us monsters. I don’t believe either one of us think there is something inherently wrong or bad about a person just because of something they have no control over, like their skin color or disabilities or sexual preference. I also don’t believe we wish misery, death and mayhem on half of the American population…the “other” half, that is.
Is it that you think the really rich people need more money and less taxes? Maybe, but I doubt it. Is it that you think corporations should be paying our lawmakers huge sums of money to pass laws in their companies’ favor even if it might harm you or I? Maybe, but I doubt that too. Is it that you think that people who make mistakes or who suffer as casualties of their parents mistakes should be treated inhumanely because they weren’t always on the right track? Possibly, but I bet that’s not how you actually treat friends or family who have experienced brokenness in their lives.
I think we have so much more in common than we recognize because we don’t look past the labels we give ourselves or others give us. I want a country where I feel safe, where I have the freedom to believe what I believe, where I can question the wisdom of its leaders without fear, where we are compassionate to those that have less for any number of reasons, and where everyone is given a fair shake. I want a country that has honest leaders who work for us and not against us. I believe you do too.
