Understanding the Opposition

Land of the Free, Home of the Brave? Are we free when others can tell us what we may read, interfere with our sex lives and worst of all rule women’s lives through reproduction legislation. No, wait, worst of all allowing our children to be murdered.

I have always wanted to understand the opposite point of view because, even if I may not agree, I want to know where the opposition is coming from. The best example is our system of government and the legislature. I have been a life-long Democrat, starting when I was a little boy going with my father into the voting booth. Wow, was that special! There were long lists of names in columns on a board. Each column had the name of a political party at the top with the candidates below. My father showed me the top lever on the Democratic column, pulled it and all the Democrats were voted for at once.

I eventually learned the fundamentals of each party and from my upbringing I wanted to take care of everybody. From the other side I learned that the country could not afford to take care of everyone and that was one of the tenets of the Republican party. This made sense. Small government made sense as well since it could accomplish more than the huge bureaucracies we have today. But today, nothing makes sense to me anymore. Maybe someone can explain it to me.

My first question is about “stop the steal”. I do not understand how those who were stealing the election were just doing it for the presidency and not the House and Senate. Why didn’t those manipulators on the left arrange for more Democrats to win so that they could dominate in congress?

How come that politicians get vaccinated and then imply to their constituents that they do not need to? Why is there a red and blue divide on vaccination? Who does this help, certainly not those who have so advised? They are only harming their own constituency.

Speaking of having it both ways, why do some politicians take advantage of the Supreme Court decision saying that corporations are people too, and can contribute as much as they wish to a politician’s campaign but then criticize or even punish a corporation for expressing an opinion?

We also learned that Supreme Court clerks are being asked for their phone records because of the Alito leak but not a word about the conflicts of interest that Clarence Thomas has.

This one just seems so basic to me. Why do we want to dictate what our children read, are we hiding something? Of course, any child with a computer or access to a library can find the information, but those who fear the facts want to block them not only from school libraries but from the public libraries as well.

I have read that parents want to control what their children are exposed to in terms of what they are taught, sexual orientation, and their psychiatric health. That limits the children to only what their parents know which might be out of date, and what child wants to ask their parents questions about their feelings. They feel much freer speaking with a neutral individual especially if they are professionals, teachers or counselors.

Instead of being free to take care of ourselves and our neighbors and our country, the right wing today seems to wish to dictate how we should think, how we teach and learn and what is allowable in our private lives. They wish as well to impose their religious views on everyone else.

How does it follow that owning guns is a sacred symbol of freedom but reading can be restricted? Further does it make sense that giving up on AK-15 type assault weapons would lead to further restrictions on guns but, as Alito wrote, banning abortion would not lead to further incursions on privacy. As one commentator said they care about their fetuses but not our children!

We can no longer take for granted that our society will continue to be more open and free than any in history. Spanish philosopher George Santayana wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Winston Churchill said it a little differently, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”