Liberals, Conservatives, Moderates, it's a special time, can we find a little peace?

CookingWithCarlo.com ^ | Dec. 24 2005 | Carlo3b

[carlo3b]

  Liberals, Conservatives, Moderates, it's a special time, can we find a little peace?

I have been wanting to do this for quite some time. Somewhere deep inside I believe that there can be a bit of common ground between the Left side of the political spectrum, and the Right. Why would we want this, assuming of course that there is someone other than me that would like to see that happen. I believe that there are many things about our wonderful nation that we share that could serve as a starting point to start a healing between us.

I think we should try it, if only for the sacrifice so many have made to afford us this opportunity. If I am right, I'll bet there are some things, more than we imagine, that we have in common, and given a real chance we may find them..

If we can at least agree that we as a nation, have been slowly dividing culturally for quite some time. Perhaps we can even go a bit further, I think our society is sick, and it can use threatening to become truly polarized, to the point of permanent harm to the very fabric of our being..

Help me make a list of those things that make us a country that is united..

Please I am serious, list anything that you can, that you believe you agree  would be a compromise on your part for the good of our nation..

Moderator, please give us a bit of latitude, and maybe we can start a dialogue that will benefit all.. Merry ()

I'll start..
1) As much as it would burn my butt, I believe I could live with Gay Marriage if the Gay community could stop the Gay agenda, infiltration into our public schools, and private businesses.. You know what I mean.. I.E.: School, Diversity training, Gay-Straight, and tolerance BS.. and Boy Scouts, Salivation Army.. etc., I don't want to count the number of right wing conservatives in the offices of the ACLU. You don't want the 10 commandants being taught or a class on religious freedom, and creation, I say we both back down, and teach our own kids..

2) I don't like being told that I can't have religious symbols in the marketplace, but can we agree that any private business should be able to display any religious display it wishes without litigious reprisals? If the anyone in the public hates it, they could avoid that business as they wish..

3) I could live with abortion in cases of forcible rape, and the life of the mother or the baby, and even financial crises.. I am an adoptive parent, and I really can't think of a way to justify giving birth to every baby without a plan to care for it with love and security until maturity..

4) I believe there are still reminisces of sick racial prejudice in pockets of our society but I also believe affirmative action is insidious and cruel in main. I would agree to the harshest of penalty if anyone is caught withholding a job or position simply because of a persons race.. But I must say that I have no idea how to prove a case.. I have seen it happen on both sides and I wanted to scream, perhaps I will the next time, and maybe that is a start..

developing..

[inquest]

I stated my reason why it should happen. Liberty, pursuit of happeness and equal access to government.

All of which already exist for homosexuals. You refuse to see that there's no inequality where there's no discrimination.

You are using the techicality of public license to say that marriage is public.

Given that this is the very "technicality" that's at the center of the debate, it's hardly insignificant.

[don asmussen]

Carlo, you make the following points, and ask if we can agree:

1) -- I believe I could live with Gay Marriage --

2) -- can we agree that any private business should be able to display any religious display it wishes without litigious reprisals? --

3) -- I could live with abortion in cases of forcible rape, and the life of the mother or the baby, and even financial crises.. --

4) -- I would agree to the harshest of penalty if anyone is caught withholding a job or position simply because of a persons race.. --



We have already [essentially] agreed to all of these in our 14th Amendments decision to protect "any person" of being deprived of rights to "life, liberty or property, without due process of law."

All that is really needed, [and many here disagree] is a consensus that ~all~ of us are bound to support & defend the US Constitution as Amended, - as our supreme Law of the Land..


There's the real rub. - Can you agree?

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

Happy Birthday to the baby Jesus.

Merry Christmas all, even you godless commies out there!

[bray]

Really, haven't ran into to many pro-abortion, pro-homosexual marriage, anti-prayer in school Conservatives.

You may be sincere in trying to change opinions, but every one of your positions are liberal positions and have caused damage to our Country.

Your abortion and homosexual stances are basically the same as HilaryCare so I guess you are a Moderate.

As for your adoption, good for you however charity should not be worn as a halo. You may be surprised how many people you have falsely impugned.

Merry Jesus' Birthday

[Stultis]

I believe that there can be a bit of common ground between the Left side of the political spectrum, and the Right

ABSOLUTELY there can be, and is. It's called "no man's land". Look out for the razor wire, tank traps and AP mines!

[Terriergal]

Sorry, I'm drawing a blank.

[Pukin Dog]

If I had children, I would want them to pray wherever they dammed well pleased.

Look, there are idiots on both sides, that cannot be denied. But there is also no getting around that fact that enemies cannot be negotiated with, they must be destroyed or rendered ineffective.

This country is in the middle of a culture war, and it is a war we dare not lose.

[dalereed]

"If I had children, I would want them to pray wherever they dammed well pleased."

You do, your koi fish.

They are probably praying constantly that a neighborhod racoon doesn't invade!

[Issaquahking]

Carlo,

Even a broken clock is right twice day, and so it is with the liberals.


The quotation usually attributed to Churchill is, "If you're not Liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not Conservative when you're 35, you have no brain." However, the attribution is false.


I agree with the thought, whoever said it!


My association in the extreme sense would be (worst case scenario) America going to war ("civil") and wiping all the stupid lib leadership(dean, ted *Hick* kennedy, pelosi, etc.) from the planet. I just might be Dale Reed on steroids (in thought)!


The only thing I can give proper consideration to, would be being liberal with a good girl in the privacy of my bedroom...


Merry Christmas to you anyways!

[bray]

Pukin, it is actually a Religious War which makes praying even more important. I send my son to a private school so he can pray and hear about Jesus. Guess that makes me a zelot, which is nice.

Merry Savior of the World's Birthday to you!

[texas booster]

Carlo

I believe that your long track record on FR allows you a soapbox to speak from your heart. I presume that you have successfully completed surgery and have recovered enough to post on Christmas Eve, instead of worsening your blood pressure by watching the Texans (Oilers?).

My biggest problem with laying out areas of discussion is that the battle lines have shifted so much from my youth. Forget compromising on abortion; it is too divisive. What I think is a reasonable compromise was passed 30 years ago. And I am still young.

I do believe that our political discussions have degenerated into a religious disagreement that can have no compromise. (See the latest PLO/Arab/Iranian suggestions for the health and wellbeing of Israel for an example of how it may become here).

Some more areas that we can discuss:

1) Get the bad guys off the streets so they don't prey on our citizens.

2) Keep repairing the safety net in society by balancing government and private redistribution of wealth. It is way out of balance today and contributes to much of the malaise that we live in each day.

3) As for FR, download and run Folding@Home as Team 36120 so we can together work to beat disease and advance medicine.

http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/download.html

There is more we can discuss, but I am a slow thinker. Need to get ready for the Christmas Eve services at church.

Merry Christmas, Carlo.

[bigsigh]

there are several meanings to public. I don't feel as if I'm endorsing anybody's marriage. Unless I hang out at city hall or read the bridal pages of the local rsag, I don't know who got married. That's the public sense I am expressing.

If the government bestows benefits or provide programs based upon marital status, then they must provide equal access to those benefits. That is not legitimate discrimination. When you vote that homos cannot marry, you are denying them the pursuit of the same happeness you yourself pursued. Those things should not be subject to popular vote. They are inherent.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Merry Christmas, Carlo : )

Gays are shooting themselves in the foot by ramming their agenda down everyone's throats. I've worked with gay people, the attorney who represented my in my divorce, was a lesbian. I didn't know until she mentioned leaving the day of my divorce to attend a niece's graduation...with her partner. I don't have a problem with folks who leave their sex life at home.

My son in law is a Democrat. I sat him down and showed him the material about Kerry's service record, and voting record. He stayed home. He wouldn't vote for Bush, but the Eagle Scout in him wouldn't allow him to vote for Kerry, either.

As for liberals, I simply avoid them in order to keep my blood pressure on an even keel.

[bigsigh]

may your New Year be free of throat ramming!

[Route66]

The problem is, we've been thinking like this for the last 40 or 50 years. Why? Because most conservatives really are nice people who just want to be left alone to live our lives and raise our kids as we see fit. However, our tendency to avoid conflict over key issues affecting the weave of our social fabric and our flawed thinking concerning the willingness of the left to allow us to coexist along side them has cost us dearly.

The better we learn our lesson the better off we and our children will be. We can't afford to lose anymore and we have a lot of inches to regain to even get back to what used to be the middle. Just remember that the whatever the "middle" is will always be defined by the wherever we all stand at the moment and never take into account how much we've already lost. We have given away our way of life an inch at a time because it will never be enough until it's all their way. I wish it were not so, Carlo.... but it is.

[TheSpottedOwl]

may your New Year be free of throat ramming!

Oh good grief, I didn't even catch that!

[bigsigh]

It never ceases to amze me the metaphors people us.

[bigsigh]

use, or their bad spelling for that matter.

[etlib]

From the time I was in school at Berkeley until sometime in the late 80's I was stupid enough to think there was some common ground too. Then I started to realize that every time the conservatives were nice, the liberals pushed harder and made things worse. I realized that they would just abuse every attempt from the conservative side to seek "common ground" or to give them the benefit of the doubt. I came to realize that they were either dishonest or fools (sorry, no nice way to put it).

I had an epiphany after a presentation by a few liberals who were leaders in my parish church. When one of them used the well worn phrase "can't you just keep an open mind." I realized that she meant "you might as well do what I want since I am not going to pay any attention to your opinion." I further realized that the presentation she had arranged was a perfect example of psychological manipulation.

[etlib]

The problem is, we've been thinking like this for the last 40 or 50 years. Why? Because most conservatives really are nice people who just want to be left alone to live our lives and raise our kids as we see fit.
 
Precisely!  The liberals take advantage of the niceness to run roughshod over us. I have put aside "nice" when it comes to politics for that reason.

A lot of this is projection.  Being nice, we thought they were nice too, but they aren't.  Being dishonest, they think we are dishonest too and so easily justify their behavior.