I suspect there are many more areas on which we might agree - if the labels were removed.
I think I might have posted of my experience with a gentleman who came to work for a firm I was once employed with? He had operated his own businesses and was a true conservative, a strong believer of the "get the government off our backs" school of thought and generally dismissive of "liberals".
In the department he managed there was an excellent, long term employee who always did more than was required - always volunteered to stay late when necessary, did errands like stopping at the post office or law offices on the way to or from work... you know the type... the employee who always gives more than is expected and uses common sense.
For a few months she needed to care for her mother who was undergoing cancer treatment - nothing drastic, just two hours in the morning twice a week to get her mom home after chemo.
Well, this gentleman paid her for the time. Hey, for all the stuff she did for the company without nickle and diming us, this was the least we could do, right? Wrong. Payroll kicked it back and management denied her pay for those two hours a week.
Tom, that was his name, came to me screaming. "This is no way to run a business! yada yada yada When I ran my companies I NEVER treated my people like this! yadaydayada There outta be a law, dammit!"
The point I'm trying to make is that there are so many conservatives who would give you the shirt off their backs, who treat their employees wonderfully, but totally miss the concept of social justice when applied to society as a whole - until it hits them in the head. These people will organize bake sales to raise pennies to help a family devastated by medical expenses - but oppose any government intervention to ensure that medical insurance is available to all because they don't realize that health insurance companies fight tooth and nail to avoid insuring individuals and, if they do, screw anyone not associated with an employer-sponsored group. If conservatives understood this they wouldn't tag anyone who favors health insurance reform as a "liberal".
They favor laws requiring parental approval for abortions in cases involving minors - but, as John Kerry pointed out, he voted against such a law because it would have required a child raped by a father to get the father's approval to obtain an abortion. Most conservatives would agree with Kerry that his position was logical - if they looked beyon the "liberal" tag.
Bush's "conservative" base favors funding a strong defense, education inititiatives, highway projects and, in Bush's case, a mission to Mars - but hate taxes. Those things are "conservative" and good but the taxes to pay for them are "liberal" and bad? Go figure.
We really need to start focusing on the issues rather than labels.
You would have to choose from that list the one issue on which we agree.<g> |
