Will Liberals and Conservatives at least agree...?

Question

That we are all Americans before we are Republican or Democrat?

Answer 1

I think it is very reasonable for "all sides to agree that an American is American before they are a party member.

Answer 2

Yes - I'm an American before I am either a Republican or a Democrat.

I am an American - and I am liberal. And I do believe that progressive thought is what will make this country great again. Those who disagree with me can use all the pejoratives they want - but I will ignore them. For, I do not "hate" someone for having an opposing point-of-view.

Right now is a very bad time for political debate. There is a bitterness and spite that is dentrimental to reaching any real solutions. Political parties have become like sports teams - where people will pick a "team", route blindly for them, and shout down "fans" of the opposing "teams", without REALLY knowing why - and this works BOTH ways. I see a ridiculous amount of inaccuracies all over Yahoo! Answers on a daily basis - and if people believe things that simply aren't true - where are you going to go from there??

I think liberal Americans have to deal with the fact that there are conservative Americans, and vice-versa. And - there are plenty of Americans who are centrist, libertarian, socialist, traditional conservative, etc., etc., etc. - and you know what? None of us are going anywhere. There isn't going to be any cessation from the Union. We're all here - and we have to deal with each other - so what are our choices??

We can continue to live in a country where you can cut the tension with a knife. Where people have genuine HATRED and CONTEMPT for people they don't even know simply because they view the world differently than they do. You have talk radio and opinion TV that works to divide this country & continue the "sports team" mentality described above, rather than really try to discuss issues and come to a middle ground that all (or at least most) can be happy with - or at least deal with for the sake of American unity.

You have political leaders who, through misleading ads or misleading answers in interviews who PURPOSELY skew facts and statistics in order to be elected or re-elected. PURPOSELY misleading your own supporters, knowing that they will dig no deeper or do their own research should really be a crime.

Let the people have the knowledge....let us make decisions based on that knowledge.

That's the country I want to live in - where people can really hammer out their differences, find the root cause of their fundamental disagreements, and work together - find places where both sides will bend a little bit.

The goal should be to work together & make this country at least somewhat unified again..........not to divide & conquer & say "NeoCons are the devil" or "Libs are retards" - which is basically where political discourse is these days.

On another note.....a couple of responses.

To compare the modern-day Dems and Republicans to these same parties decades ago is a fallacy. The philosophies of political parties always change with the generations.....so to somehow imply that the Democrats are racist because more KKK members might have been Democrats back many decades ago is simply ridiculous.

Second - not Christianity - nor ANY religion for that matter - should have a hold over any political party. To say that Republicans are the true Christian party, and the Democrats don't act Christian is absolutely inaccurate.

As far as I'm concerned - NEITHER party acts very Christian. I thought Jesus preached turning the other cheek & loving your enemy. While I don't think Jesus would have at all supported the actions of the 9/11 terrorists, or the actions of Saddam Hussain against his own people - I don't think Jesus would have endorsed our military action in response to those events either - especially with regard to Iraq. The Bible also speaks about materialism and usury (lending money at interest) in a negative light - which are basic tenants of capitalism. In fact, it was SOCIALISTS who took their philosophies directly from the Bible. I'm not saying the U.S. should become socialist - but the point is, if the Republicans are more pro-capitalist and the Democrats are more pro-socialist (which I don't think is true, by the way), then I believe Dems have the Christian "edge" on that issue.

Nonetheless - I don't believe our government should be governed by ANY religion. Politics is politics. Religion is religion. Keep them separate - and BOTH will be stronger for it.

Thanks for listening.

Answer 3

first of all why cant one be a good American and subscribe to a point of view. and be good Americans. Many liberals would say They fight for liberal causes to because they believe in there heart that this is the course to make things better for all Americans. Conservatives think likewise about their agendas. They are politically active because they do care about America and Americans. One might say the politically numb, non-voting majority are the more of the problem with America.. I myself am a conservative although not always a republican. geographically speaking the majority of the country is conservative to libertarian and certainly right of center. The majority of the population centers however tend to be more liberal. Does that make one group good Americans and one group bead Americans no. at least they are active and participate in this great republic.As for they hate spewed by many in this forum some can be attributed to immaturity some to passion. Personally as an historian I find many of the responses here uninformed on both sides in many cases and down right juvenile in an awful lot of cases. most of the more radicals on both sides do not think for themselves and recycle garbage information towing the party line and have little interest in the facts. Folks take some time to learn the facts not from some politically biased Internet site but form history and legitimate sources. Some facts for You liberals and Fellow conservatives

What party supported and funded the Klu Klux Klan and historically has has had more documented cases of voter discrimination against minorities.?

What party defended the labor against big business and passed legislation defending the rights of laborers to make the modern labor movement possible

Was Bill Clinton a liberal Democratic president?


Give up?

The Democratic Party by quite a large margin has more documented cases of poll manipulation and the KKK was essentially an arm of the Dem. party in the south.

It was the Republican party under Teddy Roosevelt that broke the monopolies and established the rights of workers to be represented by Unions and wrote the initial legislation giving the rights of Labor to Strike. He also was instrumental in passing legislation ensuring safety in the work place

Sorry Republicans Bill Clinton by any historical Measure was right of center in his governance and has to be labeled a conservative centrist. The last true Liberal to hold the office was Jimmy Carter. As a matter of fact in the last 50 yrs. there are only 3 presidents that could be termed Liberal Carter, Johnson & Kennedy. and out of that 3 Only Johnson could be deemed a Progressive Liberal on the fairly far left at least when it came to domestic issues.

Peace all Even to the misguided long suffering liberals among you.

Answer 4

I am Christian, then a husband, and a father, then (way down the list) an American, And a republican.. The democrat party does not behave in any way that convinces me that they are Christian, or patriotic americans. So; I just cannot agree with you on that one.. Democrat persons that I know that are Christians are JFK democrats and just not aware of the terrible changes and evil undercurrents within that party.

Answer 5

Yes, we are all Americans and it would be great if we could dwell a while on the things we have in common and can agree on, rather than our differences. Then maybe we could join together to see that government of the people, for the people and by the people doesn't vanish from the earth.

Answer 6

This conservative will.

Friar Chuck: He didn't say we had to agree on the definition of American, he only asked if we would agree that we are all Americans first.

Answer 7

I think that is so more with Conservatives than Liberals. Consider "Bubba" driving his pickup with American flag decals and an "America-Love It or Leave It" bumper sticker. He considers himself much more of an American than the Liberal with the "Imagine World Peace" bumper sticker. I do too.

Answer 8

Defiently. The problem isn't that either end of the spectrum doesnt love America, its the disagreement about how to best help and progress our country. The passion (sometimes called fighting) is a reflexion of the love people have for America.

Answer 9

You know I don't think they will agree, it appears and this is just my opinoin, that too many liberals are so strong in thier hate of Bush that they will even hurt America if it causes Bush to lose.

If and when you have this much hate, there is no level of agreement.

And the major items that divide them have no middle ground, so I don't know what is going to happen except that it will only continue to grow worst, with the party not in power ( no matter which one) attacking the one in power

Answer 10

You know, I posted the same question a while back and all the Repubs made terroristic threats at me,
But reguardless what Repubs say true Americans ARE Americans first.