Can liberals really be friends with conservatives?

[Carol]

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Star Member wyldwolf (34,218 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

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Can liberals really be friends with conservatives?

From an LATimes Op-ed.

My mother had Republican friends. She was a lifelong Democrat, worked with the Adlai Stevenson for president campaign and was a precinct chairman for Hubert Humphrey. She was ashamed of Richard Nixon and thought Ronald Reagan was misguided. Still, she didn't hate Republicans. She disagreed with their politics and they with hers, but she believed people, no matter how they vote, are basically all the same.

I don't agree. I don't want to be friends with someone who is a member of the tea party or is a Newt Gingrich Republican. We are not the same. I equate their political views with thoughtlessness, intolerance and narcissism.

My views on all these things — gay marriage, abortion, the war in Iraq, healthcare, education, food stamps, even NPR and PBS funding — seem so logical to me. Of course we need to take care of those less fortunate; of course we want everybody to have the joy and legal benefits of a life partner; of course we want every baby to be wanted and every person to be safe, healthy, informed and looking forward to a better future.

These things are no-brainers to me, and it kills me that my neighbor disagrees. I wonder what would happen if he woke up one morning to find that his son had been killed in Iraq or that his 15-year-old daughter was pregnant or that his favorite sister was gay. What if he suddenly lost his job, his wife got cancer, there was no insurance and not much food? I'm not saying I want life to knock him around. But would he still feel that the government shouldn't be helping anybody out?

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...,1149982.story

I've had similar talks with my wife who, in a lot of ways, is more liberal than I am but also much more tolerant of Republicans. I asked her this once: If you saw a child, starving and sick, turned away by one of your Republican friends, would you still respect that person? Of course not. Then how can you respect someone who indirectly causes millions of sick and hungry children to go without food and healthcare by their votes for Republicans?

Star Member jillan (28,633 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
2. My soon to be ex is a die hard, faux news watching Republican.

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There was a time when we could get along. Then came hate radio and faux news.

Not any more. A friend of mine explained it best - it's more than politics. It effects the entire way a person looks at the world.

Be thankful you were not in my house when "Obamacare" passed.

So jillan can't get along with her husband because because he thinks differently than she does. In fact she's so intolerant that she's getting a divorce because of it.

Star Member Demeter (54,233 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
3. It's even more than not respecting the GOP

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They are dangerous, like rabid animals. They cannot function in a free society because they have no respect for differences, and no ego boundaries to tell them MYOB. They want to be the Deciders. America was founded on the notion that there was no elite class of "deciders", that each decided for himself.

If the GOP cannot work within this meme, then they cannot be functional Americans. They can only be terrorists, destroying the nation and the government.

Reagan was the start of it all. Nixon at least finally bowed to the will of the People. Reluctantly, and with a lot of arm-twisting from his fellow GOP, but he did yield.

talk about not having respect for differences......

Star Member southernyankeebelle (4,183 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
4. Every thing you say is right. But if this country doesn't find a way out of this mess then we just

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should go ahead and divide this country in half like Canada. This democracy was built on cooperation and compromise. Your momma is right. When I am around people who are republicans I don't talk politics. They see me and what I do to help others. I see what they do and how they handle a problem. Some times both help each other. The only way this country seems to unite is when a major problem happens. Sad but it should be this way all the time. Demcrats put it out there to solve. What I see going on in the republican party is back room hiding what they are doing. That has to stop. It is up to republicans to stop it.

Of course.:eek: By doing everything the way the Democrats want it, becasue their policies of spending more and more money have been oh so successful.

[fettpett]

um...yes...I have a lot of friends that are libs, get along just fine with them

[3rd-try]

If you saw a child, starving and sick, turned away by one of your Republican friends, would you still respect that person? Of course not. Then how can you respect someone who indirectly causes millions of sick and hungry children to go without food and healthcare by their votes for Republicans?

I know it's usless...but wyldwolf, why don't you look at any, and all social indicators of the black family unit 20 years prior and 20 years post LBJ's great social "fix-all".

It's jaded, but I see more and more many liberals whose motivation sure looks to be about feeling good about themselves. Otherwise, wouldn't they occasionally research the real results of their policies?

Like in the great union debates....They are totally pro union. But, they have no economically sound(mathematical) way to pay for it. (yea, tax coporations..dumbass)

[Odysseus]

I find it hard to be friends with people that see me as thoughtless, intolerant and narcissistic, especially since they never listen to why I think the way that I do.

[Arroyo_Doble]

Yes. My inner circle friends run the spectrum.

[michaelsean]

Only raving lunatics can't have friends who think differently, and that's what places like the Hive thrive upon. Hey DUmmies, it's your failings. Rational people get along fine with others.

[Articulate_Ape]

I find it hard to be friends with people that see me as thoughtless, intolerant and narcissistic, especially since they never listen to why I think the way that I do.

You know, if you actually took the time to think about it for once, you'd realize that you can't tolerate me because you believe it's all about you. :tongue:

[Rockntractor]

It depends on the degree of friendship and also the importance of politics to the liberal.

[Zathras]

If someone puts their politics ahead of their friends then I don't want to have anything to do with someone that shallow and petty. Which is why I could never be friends with anyone at the DUmp since every member there in good standing is just that.

[Apache]

As long as they keep their opinions to themselves. Lefties that can't, don't stand a chance around me....