Of all the people i speak to, if there is one divide... its politics. From old Reagan democrats to Fox news conservatives to young bleeding hearts (read inexperienced and ill-informed) to tenured professors to a few (maybe 1-2 at most) like myself: libertarian leaning - conservative - ultra pro west - sarcastic pricks. By and large everyone is respectful but you know who's who and you know who's buttons are where and over time just how to push them.
Now, after two paragraphs some of you were probably going to end up saying "why the need for the family history, say what you got to say and let me get back to my dungeons and dragons" because skimming through two paragraphs is taxing for the modern over stimulated mind. I get that. Hence why i took the time to preempt that. The setup matters. Your ability to relate to said setup will only further enhance your ability to process and retain the moral or crux of the story. So, for that you're welcome.
Of all these different people the men i grew up riffing with the most also happen to be two people i probably admire the most (step father and maternal grandfather). They also happen to be quintessential Fox News Republicans. My step father will tell you he voted for a Libertarian once (John Anderson circa 1980) and my grandfather will tell you he does not care what gay men do. And although these things are probably true these two men are also anti-democrats. They hated Clinton as much as they laud Rush Limbaugh. They laugh and snicker at Al Gore (still) and loathe Obama but not because he was Black but because he was Blue. As in Democrat. These were men who worked in the same blue collar companies for 40+ years each. They're as honorable as they are honest. But sometimes they dont have time for facts. And facts Trump EVERYTHING.
And that is my point.
If we are going to have political opinions and make them a bedrock for or a reflection of our moral compass, well then we had better get them right.
If you say in the middle of a conversion when we are verbally high fivin' over HER defeat last month "Obama doubled the National Debt in just 8 years" and i rebuttal that with a simple; "well yeah, but Bush did too, so what does that mean?". It means dont wave me off and walk away.
It means ask me to cite it. As i offered to. Please, by all means, test me or anyone presenting you with facts that chip away at our culture. By that culture i mean a pro west conservative leaning culture. Do it here, amongst family and like minded people as opposed to out there with people that need to be countered. Many of those same people who are waiting for you to do the same so they can label you a Racist, Xenophobic, Islamophobic, Misogynistic, Transphobe, Genderphobe, a Phobephobe or a Phobephobeaphobian. And BOOM. Discussion ends and you've lost in the court of PC Public opinion. Being a conservative or a ProWesterian' does not absolve us from mistakes. The worst thing we can do is ignore those mistakes & pretend they dont exist and carry on a jaded self serving mantra of willful ignorance. That's not us. We're not liberals. We can be betterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
