Hi! So, how are you today? I've got a favor to ask of you. Well, really a couple of things to ask. First of all, you know I support the President in his re-election bid. I don't think he's perfect, far from it. But my honest opinion is that his policies and actions have been good for me, my family, and for most of our country, no matter how they look, pray, or where they live. That's what I think. Prior to him coming along, I felt very disaffected by the GOP. They said what I wanted to hear, but they administered and governed in exactly the way I opposed again and again. And candidly, the other party, likely your party, not only hasn't seemed to want my support or vote at all. They honestly to me seem to be running against me every bit as much as Trump. I mean that. Because I'm a white, Christian, man who played the game by a set of rules the left questions or rejects, this has somehow made me out to be the bad guy. And you, my friends, have either glommed onto it, or you have kept your mouths shut rather than to reject the blanket blaming on and denunciation of white, Christian, men especially.
I love my country. I know our history is imperfect, but I love her anyway. I was happily brainwashed with things like the Pledge of Allegiance, songs like God Bless America, and have been known to have tears in my eyes during a meaningful or moving rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.
I worked hard to reach my modest dreams. I changed jobs, moved across the country three times, and endured the pressures of sometimes extremely stressful and difficult work to provide for my family and to amass enough savings to provide a retired life for Caroline and I. A lot of less determined people would have quit a few of the jobs I had, or they would have withered under the pressure and failed. But I didn't.
So here are the three things I ask. And I ask sincerely and kindly:
1) Please stop with generalizing about Trump supporters being stupid, science deniers, uneducated, uninformed, etc. That includes posting memes and re posting articles by academics, opiners, entertainers, athletes, politicians, news reporters and writers. When you report that stuff from Keith Olbermann or Dan Rather, or some Georgetown professor who 'explains' the error of our uneducated and unadvanced thinking, realize that I see that and I see YOU telling ME that's how YOU feel about ME. Get that? I hope the capitalization helps. The fact that I think the Paris Climate Accords were bad for my country do NOT mean I deny global warming, that I'm a science denier, or that I'm stupid.
2) Please stop with generalizations about my skin color, and the presumption that if I don't agree with some of the social justice movement of today's premises, beliefs, or goals. Just because I don't agree with that stuff is NOT a license to presume I am a racist. I know you're going to disagree with this, but I don't believe Donald Trump is a racist, either. Matter of fact, almost nobody, except for some tenants with whom he had lease and occupancy disputes who alleged those disputes were predicated on race. I tend to believe the disputes were predicated on money, but that's my opinion. When you posts memes, post articles about white privilege, about Trump supporters generalizing we're bad people and racists because of supporting him or our positions on issues, I see YOU telling ME that's how YOU feel about ME.
3) Lastly, I need help understanding what it is you think America should look like. I mean how should our history books have been written? What should the role of our city, state, and federal government entities be in the lives of everyday Americans like you and me as opposed to now? I think the pandemic illustrates some of the difference in perspective I see. Seems like leftward leaning people see government's responsibility, and with that responsibility additional authority over our everyday lives and activities to control our lives is different from mine. I don't deny the government has a role, and has some authority, but I get uneasy when I see personal freedoms compromised or removed. There is personal responsibility, too. I see a different balance. But beyond and not necessarily excluding the pandemic, where is it that you believe the government should have a larger role in our lives, and in your life. And if the larger role you see is in areas of benevolence, like healthcare, food or shelter for poor people, or expanded government funded education, etc., what are the limits on how deep into my pockets (my 401k, company stocks and investments, social security, pension, etc.) would be acceptable to achieve those things? What do you think immigration should look like? Open borders? Are all the aforementioned benefits and social welfare items I touched on to be afforded to everyone who should desire to come here, or is there some reasonalbe point at which limitations to immigration and benefits to immigrants would stop?
I'm asking the questions in 3 above, because many, many times I've found myself totally lost on what it is the left thinks America was, is and should be, who Americans were, are, and should be, and what our history and government, were, are and should be. It often feels like we're not even looking at different sides of the same coin. It feels like a different coin from a different country, in a different pocket, in a different world. I want to understand. I started trying to answer my own questions by reading Joe Biden's 110 page platform document. Again, and again I felt as if the vision there was so far from my own it was totally foreign to me. It didn't seem to represent me, to be for me, about me, or by me. Are we that far apart that we can't even try to understand one another? Are the insults of #'s 1 and 2 above the best we can do to come to understand one another?
Food for thought, and written with feelings of great exasperation, frustration, and frankly, sadness.
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