--Common Ground, a Spooky Halloween Subject--
Sometimes, when I tire of the ugliness of political strife I wonder: if we could push partisanship aside, what are the areas of common ground between conservatives and liberals?
This is a bit like opening a cartoon closet door. A lot of junk immediately falls on my head.
One immediate and important problem is what those two labels mean, "liberal" and "conservative". I hope to blithely avoid that. Another problem is that I want to skip over the overly obvious Norman Rockwell things, such as "rule by law", "freedom", "one person one vote", "puppies are cute". Let's assume that's all given and try to stay closer to a policy level. Finally I want to avoid the problem that that certain groups of people claim they believe in principles but in practise only follow those principles when it's to their advantage. It's hard for me to avoid that, but seems necessary if this attempt is going to be constructive.
One place I see some overlap of interests is between environmentalists and hunters. Certainly all hunters are not conservatives, but a lot are. As I understand it hunting groups sometimes ally with or act alone as environmentalists over land issues. This is not to say that they are in harmony, but that there is some common ground. Even wild-man Republican Ted Nugent for all his happy animal killing says he planted thousands of trees with his own hands. Let's not focus on Nugent though... Bill O'Reilly, before he furiously walked out on Terri Gross a few weeks ago (NPR interview), said something to the effect that he believed in protecting the natural environment.
I am tempted to see overlap in fiscal responsibility, although I haven't seen this on the side of conservatives where I live or nationally. They seem to use debt as a crowbar against popular social programs. (So easy it is to stray from my main effort!) But probably there are some regions where conservatives and liberals personally should stick their political necks out to work toward a balance between taxes and expenditures.
Finally it seems true that partisan fever, which I often feel, makes the divisions worse than they have to be, just like George Washington warned. But didn't Washington himself put some of Jefferson's supporters in jail under the Alien and Sedition Act? (I may be confused; it's been a long time since history class.) Maybe Washington should have tried to disbanded his own supporting factions before making his anti-faction Farewell Address.
If war is politics by other means, is politics war by other means? If that's true, then maybe this whole exercise is misguided.
On the other hand, assuming we are all human beings, is there something artificial about partisan strife, and common ground is obvious if we look at it in some other kind of way?
I ask that if you vote in the poll, try to do so in a meditative mindset; try to put partisan anger and outrage aside (one of my own challenges).
Thanks.