Re: Just so you know - It is illegal to attempt to change the US Government to Social
DamnYankee said:
True. But the primary goal of the leftists is to ensure we become a socialist sh*thole.
I'm a leftist and that's certainly not my goal. I'm in favor of some socialist reforms, but there have to be limits to them. Not everything can or should be publicly owned or administered, and there must be competition to spur progress. The best economies (i.e. the ones in which people flourish the most) are mixed economies, with some socialist and some capitalist features.
DamnYankee said:
Don't think for a second if the left could get away with it, they would destroy the 1st Amendment.
I'm going to go out on a limb here: did you mean to say "Don't think for a second if the left could get away with it, they
won't destroy the 1st Amendment." In short, I suspect you think leftists do want to destroy the first amendment. Is that correct?
Perhaps some do. I do not, and I don't know any leftists who disagree. Much as I wish I could make the KKK shut up, for example, I know that going down that road would lead to something potentially much worse. Similarly, I am a person of deep spirituality and devotion to religion, and I cannot support any attempt to ban religion or religious expression (with commonsense exceptions--if your religion tells you to sacrifice babies, you don't get to practice that part of your faith).
DamnYankee said:
Remember the leftists chip, chip, chip, away. That's why we have sunk to Banana Republic status right now. And that's why we have DJT.
It's odd that leftists accuse rightists of the same thing. I suggest this is a manifestation of the us/them mentality, which is part of what's destroying this country.
If I could say one thing across the aisle it's this: I bet if you and I both sat down over a beer or coffee or something and avoided talkign politics, but instead talked about personal morality, we'd find we have more common ground than the news media and current national conversation would lead us to believe. If you saw a child drowning, what would you do? I would do whatever I could, even at the risk of my own life, to save that child. If you saw a woman being beaten on the street by a gang, what would you do? I would call the police or tell someone to call the police, and then charge into the middle of them. If you saw someone vandalizing someone's house, what would you do? I would, again, call the police and then go try to stop them, though I'd stop short of shooting someone who was just committing property damage--you don't deserve to die for damaging property. In my day-to-day life, I try to help as many people as I can in whatever way I can (I'm largely guided by Therese of Liseux's writings on this topic). I'm willing to bet that at least your sympathies and intuitions lay along similar lines.
I'm also willing to bet that, on questions like these, the vast majority of Americans see eye to eye, and we've been taught over the last forty years or so to forget about those basic and all-important points, to focus on going at each other while a small cadre of elites (who are not aligned exclusively with either democrats or republicans) slowly steal our birthright. The problem I see, and I think it's reached the point of irreversibility (or nearly so), is that neither side is willing to listen to the other. I hope I'm wrong about that.
