DIALOGUE: WILL CONSERVATIVES & LIBERALS EVER BE ABLE TO TALK AGAIN?
This Conservative Is Still Trying
Over the last few years, this American felt a greater & greater desire to dialogue with Liberals. Frankly, I wanted to understand why they continue to vote for policies that are so obviously destroying their own nation, destroying their own society, and destroying futures for their kids & grandkids.
I know many Liberals: neighbors, relatives, colleagues, cordial acquaintances & (now former) friends, but can find no one willing to talk POLITELY about politics & social issues. I want to sit down with a self-described Liberal to discuss our political differences in private. I sincerely want to understand why my fellow Americans support Liberal policies. So long as they do not scream at me nor call me names, I will listen politely (and take notes).
My cousin? Nope! He called me a fool because I believe in the Bill of Rights and don’t want bureaucrats, politicians & courts to destroy these protections.
My sister? Nope! She called me a racist and stopped speaking to me in 2016, the day after Trump won his first election.*
My sister-in-law? Nope! She barked at me because I said something mildly positive about George W.
The lady I met last week while we were each walking our dogs on the beach? Nope! She called me a liar when I mentioned that dogs were starving at the border because illegal aliens abandon them when they no longer need guard dogs.
A neighbor? Nope! During a dinner party some years ago, she stomped out of my house in a huff because I suggested that America should not give visas without first vetting foreigners for terrorist ties.
A neighbor’s son? Nope! He wrote me a nasty email when he learned that I and nine other neighbors had formed an election integrity group to ferret out ghost voters in our community.
A former colleague (we used to practice law in the same burb before each of us retired)? Nope! She called me a “1%er” because I mentioned that elderly friends were returning to work due to inflation. [I think she was calling me wealthy. She knows that I am not; therefore, I can only assume she was trying to insult me. It didn’t work. It inspired me to write this article.]
Another former colleague (before I retired, we were attorneys practicing in the same county)? Nope! She tried to get me disbarred* because she didn’t like an article I wrote for the Oregonian in 2017.
My long-time friend’s nephew? Nope! I spent a lot of time with this young man over the years. His aunt & I even traveled to Canada with him in 2013. In the fall of 2016, he and I worked on a powerpoint presentation together. That was just weeks before I became a racist and a bigot* and he started insulting me on Facebook.**
What Liberal is willing to talk politely with a Conservative to discuss political or society issues? Does such a Liberal exist anymore, or did their hatred so overwhelm them that all their reason died on November 8, 2016?*
Dear reader: If you know a Liberal willing to dialogue with me, please give them my contact information. I will be polite so long as they don’t scream at me, or call me names. Diane
I think so many Democrats are clinging to the illusion that their party has not been taken over by the Marxist influenced far left! Although I'm a very conservative Republican, I was raised in the 1940s & '50s by two thoughtful "New Deal" Democrats who saw government as a legitimate tool to "liberalize" (in the old, good, "classical" sense of the term) our Nation and remake it to (try) to better live up to the promise of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, which are enduring statements of the goals of classical liberalism. My Dad was an attorney who was for a time President of the Young Democrats of Oregon, and he even ran, unsuccessfully, for a seat in Congress. He voted for Adlai Stevenson but came to admire Eisenhower's administration. Unfortunately, he didn't live to see his party go off the rails! But my mother, who lived into the mid-90's (and her 90s), became totally disillusioned (that early!) by her Democrat party and although she never changed her registration, she ended up voting 100% Republican and conservative in her later years. I think there are a LOT of Republicans who were Democrats and who feel that their party left them behind (as Ronald Reagan did). These people like your neighbor are clinging desperately to an illusion that things haven't changed and they will NOT debate you on the facts because they KNOW that the facts are totally against them and their party, which is willfully leading our constitutional republic to intentional destruction!
An excellent review. I think One of Socrates’ quotes is appropriate: “if the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.”
Even though many liberals are dogs, they will not roll over and expose their bellies!