Addressing Liberals

My Top 3

I have many friends and relatives who are liberals. It is so important not only to heal the Republican Party, but also to reach out to our liberal American friends and try to find what common ground we can. This is my attempt to find our common ground and to have an open and respectful dialogue.

If one studies socialism and compares their doctrines to many of the liberal positions, a direct correlation is obvious. But this does not mean that all liberals are socialists. I do not believe that and I know many Democrats who are opposed to socialism. So when I refer to the liberal socialists, I am talking about those leaders in the party who are trying to deliberately tug the country into socialism.

Many prominent Mormons have been Democrats. I’m sure our Protestant, Catholic and Jewish readers also have friends and relatives of that political persuasion. So do we want to disenfranchise them and accept a permanent divide? I hear conservative talk show hosts saying we won’t give up until we convince everyone to be conservatives. Until then we will consider the other side to be enemies. I do not agree with that attitude. It is unrealistic. Those who believe in freedom must also uphold the freedoms of liberals.

It so often comes down to a matter of the pendulum swinging too far one way or another and this is what we should be careful of. The only real answer is for us to encourage respect and tolerance for people even if we disagree with their positions. Tolerating people does not mean we tolerate their positions that we feel are wrong.

There are actually a few areas where I have sympathies to what are considered liberal views now but I consider them age old wisdom, some of what were held by our Founding Fathers. Free Trade is one of these.

Instead of making sure we are staying with every single point of our party’s platform, hopefully we can use our own brains and make personal decisions about which issues most closely conform to an inspired Constitution. On issues such as free trade, there are compromises that can be reached that will even the playing field, and also allow free trade that will not hurt American jobs by encouraging through tax breaks and incentives, the flood of companies moving factories off-shore. This does not come under the rubric of a personal value and should not be seen as sacred, so therefore, compromise is possible.

Another area where I agree with liberalism is environmentalism. I don’t believe man made global warming is the problem that some scientists and many politicians say it is. I believe the environmental pendulum has swung so far that it makes most conservatives recoil at the extremism of the issue and thus pull back to hard the other way. I also believe that most farmers and ranchers are better environmentalists than anyone in government. Honest dialogue that isn’t reactionary can help bridge some of these gaps.

We cannot heal America until we stop looking at our neighbors as enemies. Let’s love liberals, not in a condescending way but with real kindness. The Lord has asked us to love our neighbor as ourself. He didn’t say only the neighbor who is a Christian or a Republican.