We have another election round coming and I'm thinking about how polarized we have become as a society. There should be some way to make it through the cycle without doing long term damage to society. There is a possibility we might even get a little more polarized if we don't sort of think of central shared values that tie us together. The voices we hear (not all) are either all on this side or all on that side leaving most of the large sleeping middle confused.
Contrary to radical belief, those in the middle are not enemies because they can take the best of both worlds and frame it into something that works for a wider group of people (They are the ones who give us the "wiggle" room in voting to get things done.)
The loudest and often most ignorant voices in the room should not be the one's making the decisions the rest of us have to live by. Such individuals play a short-term gain that helps rally lots of people to their side by poking their life grievances but ultimately leaves a bigger mess.
We are not talking about things we want to change in the nation but we are talking about the underlining anger over where this country has gone and how that is often misdirected.
The problem is that it isn't a specific person or group of people (that is only going to cause ethnic strife and more problems) but the way we compete on the market. To compete well we need a shared sense of purpose and universal values (Just like we need universal principles in justice).
I'm a guy who loves religion! I think its great and it teaches people values. In all the religions I have reviewed or studied in some way almost all of them focus on some very basic principles shared as universal aspects of a good life.
Religion and philosophy are intricately tied as a mechanism of understanding the world. One could say that science is a branch of philosophy and in turn rests in part on both (Doesn't seem that way but I think that might be true.).
What Liberal-Conservatives (I say this because its sort of a middle dichotomy between two ways of looking at the world) is taking the best of conservatism and allowing a more inclusive approach through a level of liberalism. They are the ones who can apply "good" conservative American values and open them up for relevancy to a wider group of Americans (i.e. we are now all minorities and we might want to think of what ties us together.)
I believe its important to take conservative values we learn through our worship and open them up to the formation of basic principles of what it means to have values in the U.S.(responsibilities to country, community and ourselves). In other words, we want people to focus on shared values that are good for God (It is up people to decide for themselves using their god given freewill the nature of this "being"), Country, and Family without limiting the message to only one societal demographic. Don't we all have a part to play in the success and failure of our country and people (regardless of background)?
Is there an advantage to liberal conservatives? ...or perhaps no such thing? 🤷
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