Posted By RichC on February 9, 2021
Did you ever have a political discussion or receive an email that generated a desire to reply and explain? That sort of happened to me this weekend … but I decided there isn’t an upside in the one on one reply. The best approach, as is often the case when talking about faith and religion, is to recognize people are different and that it would be wiser to focus on ourselves – in the case of faith, working on our walk with God … and in the case of politics, venting on my blog. 😊
Like most people, I have friends who have different political views. Those I befriend generally appreciate respectful political ideologies that differ so as long as the desire is how to preserve our freedom, protect citizens and democratically govern our country – no one I know wants to live in an oppressive state; we all want the best for our country and most, up until the past couple years, believed in our nation’s founding principles.
Even those within our family differ (which is ok and something Brenda and I encouraged). We regularly debate how intrusive and how big/expensive we want our government to be. Taylor is a debater by nature and also a county planner. He sees it essential to control development and enforce restrictions to keep his county on the best path. I smile remembering when he was just out of college, that his ideal was to have everyone living in an urban environment (vertically) with public transportation and planned green spaces. I’m sure he would prefer having a stronger hand in dictating "his planning" to developers, businesses and landowners in the county where he now works. I suspect that universities teach them to be "central planners" suggesting that they are the educated ones and know how to best develop cities … and in his case, a county. Yet he is slowly learning, as he meets resistance, that most residents don’t appreciate an authoritative approach. At least in his country they elect commissioners who will return a bit more voice to the residents. In time he has become better with the county politics and does understand why some residents push back – although as with any job is frustrated with the handcuffs. I wonder if he will find the right 
balance when it comes to state and federal government as he gets older? Like the John Adams adage: “If a person is not a liberal when he is twenty, he has no heart; if he is not a conservative when he is forty, he has no head."
For me, I love my independence and freedom. I hate the waste I see in our government by politicians thinking they can better spend our money than keeping more of it in the hands of the individual. I’d love to be Libertarian, but recognize that without guardrails we would be living in the wild west. On the other extreme, too much government, in my opinion, restricts the freedom that has made America great and so desirable to those who don’t have liberty. The bigger government grows, the more taxes it sucks out of the economy .. not to mention creating a dependent class as politician dole out money (heavily borrowed from the future). There always seems to be a crisis and reason to need more and there is never a will to pinch pennies and live with a balanced budget (both parties).
In the end, I’m left feeling like a square peg trying to find a political party where I fit. Republicans hardly even talk, let alone act fiscally responsible … and I don’t think there is such a thing as a moderate Democrat anymore? They might as well call themselves the Socialist Party. Sadly, we have become a nation of extremes and neither those on the left or those on the right seems to be able to find any common ground.
This is as good a time as any to mention a new regular read website mention by a friend who is an automotive journalist. The political site is called TheHustings.news … check it out.
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Tags: adage, debate, democrat, government, john adams, libertarian, lost, opinion, Politics, quote, republican, socialist, taylor, thehustings, venting, website
no salt on the roads and very few snowplows were out. She is thankful to have Tuesday off.
