Reply #82: On the contrary... [View All]

[The Quizzical Toad]

Abortion can be a very nuanced subject. You yourself admit that abortion is the termination of a human life, no matter what period of gestation it takes place. In recognizing that, it ought not be overly difficult to understand why there are some that are uncomfortable with it. I admit that I personally am uncomfortable with the measure. Yet there are those that can be uncomfortable with a measure and yet realize that laws do not exist to force moral behavior, but rather to protect the rights of citizens. Some must be brought to a realization of this fact slowly. It does little good to push them away immediately by telling them they have no place here. The same goes for individuals that profess belief in a particular religion. Would you push away the Hindus, the Jews, the Muslims, the Buddhists, the Taoists, the Sikhs, and many other potential allies simply because they do not fit a perfect "orthodoxy" of liberalism at the outset?

I think it's a mistake to think that the only "common ground" must exist necessarily outside of "capitalism" per se. Capitalism, socialism, communism... these are all ideologies. The best solutions for society do not exist within rigid ideologies, but rather in our ability to take what we find in various ideologies and implement them as our own. Certain parts of capitalism work at certain times - that is why we ought not throw it as a whole into the wastebasket of history. Other parts do not work. The same goes for socialism. The key is not in following a rigid dogma that says there is one way things must be done, but rather in educating ourselves on various matters so that we can find the best solutions for a given situation. To me, that is liberal, because ultimately it is the most human approach. Dogmatic loyalty to a particular dogma, on the other hand, is for computers, because it ultimately deals in 1s and 0s. The best "common ground" exists in recognizing that we have a shared responsibility to find good solutions for society's ills in a responsible manner, and that these solutions are best found while working together.

The right is successful now because it has polarized society. That is their game. We do not win by playing their game of polarization, by attempting to form a strict orthodoxy of the left. That simply pushes people into their hands, as they are the masters of that game. The way we win is through depolarizing these issues while working to find solutions to the major problems we face today: an ever increasing deficit, sky high oil prices, tyrannical laws such as the "Patriot Act", a president who is glad to be a pawn to corporate interests, an endless "War on Terror", a faulty-premised war in Iraq where many innocent civilians and American troops are losing their lives every day, skyrocketting costs in health care, along with many, many others. We will never be successful in making fundamental progress on these issues if we simply push people away at the outset because they are religious in their personal lives and/or have a strong opposition to abortion. There is simply too much more at stake than that, and refusal to see past personal orthodoxy simply serves to ultimately add to the list of our problems.