I hope more parts of the country can learn to live like you have. We get along pretty well here in Nebraska. Most of my family lives in Colorado and they have had a lot more problems between people in the two parties.

At this point, I'm more inclined towards intransigence than healing. Conservatism has simply become progressivism driving the speed limit, and that's a road I'd prefer to never travel down.

I think that social media has done our country a disservice, but I think it might go back to... well... the Jerry Springer show. It started to take off about the time that Rush Limbaugh was hitting his stride. I know it sounds weird, but before Springer, a particular segment of society that he exploited had been fairly hidden from the mainstream. And people became fascinated. Soon, content started focusing on the oddities because they were interesting. Then came "reality TV" and abhorrent behavior became the example that people emulated. It's come a long way since Leave it to Beaver and My Three Sons. In any case, everything provocative is now amplified. Watching it on TV this summer, Portland looked like a war zone. Having lived there and still having family there, it was only one block. Granted, it was horrible, but it was the same 50 or so people allowed to maintain the stupidity and it got amplified, as usual. The reality is that 90%+ of liberals were just as appalled.

But to hear it on conservative media, all liberals were in lock step. It's not true.

All conscientious Liberals and all conscientious Conservatives probably can agree on 90% of the most important things. I think we need to figure out how to focus on that 90% for a while..

I agree. There is a great diversity of opinions in the Democratic party and with liberals. I think the issue is the farthest left appear to be driving the agenda. It seems to me that Trump was a symptom of that rather the type of person or could generate a following without a significant external force. Also, there has been a very significant cultural divide between rural areas and urban areas. Each is very ignorant of the challenges the other faces and the unique legal considerations that each environment needs. I grew up in a small ranching town and live in a bigger midwestern city. Most people live their whole lives in one environment and it is handicapping our ability to communicate about important things.

Ever hear of the pistachio paradox? My 4 favorite ice cream flavors are chocolate, blackberry, coffee, and pistachio. I choose chocolate 80%, blackberry 15%, coffee 4%, and pistachio 1%. That's basically picking pistachio every 2 years.

Liberals dislike rioting, but they chose anti-rioting like I choose pistachio.

That becomes a problem when your wife's preferences are exactly opposite of your own and you only have enough money to buy one pint of ice cream.

I think that is not entirely accurate... I think that a minute percentage of liberals will ever participate in a riot. There are knuckleheads that get out of hand, but liberals don't have a monopoly on that. There is abhorrent behavior on both sides.

I'm specifically talking about choosing candidates who will enforce law and quell riots. That's the pistachio flavor. They'll choose an anti 2A candiate over a law and order one all but 1% of the time.

But only from a miniscule percentage. I would be willing to bet that it is less than 1% on each side.

"Conservatism has simply become progressivism driving the speed limit, and that's a road I'd prefer to never travel down." ... I like that line.

I don't know... I think both sides have done a horrible job choosing its leaders.

All the more reason to reduce the leaders scope and let local leaders handle things.

Do you believe most American's have that granular of choice now? It almost seems like you can't get away from chosing a party platform at this point, so if you are Democrat you will vote for anti-2A and if you are Republican you will vote for a pro-2A candidate whether you like it or not.

That is why I lean more libertarian and states rights than anything else. The high up the chain you push the decision making the worse outcome and more people you will disenfranchise.

I think one way that the founding fathers intended to avoid this issues was the size of the House of Representatives. They debated making it 1 representative per 30K or 1 per 40K and even assuming that the population would grow to be in the hundreds of millions, they decided on 1 in 30K. In that ratio, we should have more than 10K reps. With Internet technology, we could do that now.

I think they sh#t the bed on the Senate, though. CA having only 2 Senators sucks for us.

I don't see more democracy as solving any of these issues.

Looking forward to our coming hashpower overlords taking over decision making.

The other was the electoral college, which the most progressive Democrats want to abolish. I would probably push back on the 90% in common idea the more I think about it. Rural life and city life are very different. I would estimate maybe 40% of the same issues between city and rural and 90%+ within each.

It has to do with reducing the influence of money on our politics. We have a system where a 1/3 of reps will always vote left, 1/3 will vote right, and 1/3 can be bought. Multinational corporations are able to buy that influence for practically nothing.

the purchased 1/3 only can be bought along indifference curves

When I say 90%, I'm not talking about only politics. We all want to provide a safe, comfortable place to raise our kids, to put food on the table, make sure they are erll educated and afforded all the opportunities they need to be successful. Recognize the commonality that is the shared human experience.

None of that translates to knowing the polices that would even create that, nor knowing who to even vote for in order to implement it.

No, but if we can't figure out how to get to a point of mutual respect, how do we move forward. What you have been expressing is that you feel that liberals don't share any of your values. You think that they don't respect anything about your values. Mutual respect comes from recognizing ourselves in others. It's a starting point.

I actually believe they share most of my values, they just don't know what would bring about those values.

I think that is an important issue but what does it matter if 3/3 of politicians in DC come from cities and have no idea of the unique issues rural Americans face and I believe conservative values probably are necessary (or at least ideal) in the type of environment and work that needs to be done in that environment. Vice versa for urban areas. Most farmers and ranchers can't image the challenges that come with living in a city. Practically speaking, the Green New Deals and other progressive platforms put a disproportionate burden on rural Americans. IMHO that mechanism is what originally got Trump elected and I don't see anyone trying to fix that. I do see people talking down to each other and having no clue the implications of what each thinks is a good idea. These are policies and ideas that may not impact the 90% you mention for some and devastate it for others and that isn't being represented by the federal government well.

I am 51 years old. I have lived in San Jose CA, IN, OH, Fairfield CA, Wichita Falls, TX, U.P Michigan, Bossier City, LA, Tampa FL, Athens Greece, CA again, The Dalles, OR, Klamath Falls, OR, Portland, OR, Chicago, IL, Virginia Beach, VA, Sasebo, Japan, San Diego, CA... While in the Navy, I was able to visit all over Asia, Australia, and Western Africa. I finally settled in OC. I am fortunate that I have a varied life experience. I come from nothing and have done alright for myself. I can appreciate more than most.

There are different paths to meet those goals in each environment. $6 a gallon gas may not be a big burden for someone who lives in NYC with public transportation but to a farmer in Nebraska or rancher in Colorado, or lumberjack in Wyoming, that is the difference between putting food on the table and going hungry if you get what I'm saying. Those two positions have not been represented well in our federal government and it is a driving factor behind the divisiveness in my opinion. There are people who are in great anxiety right now over Biden's election because it may very well mean the end of their ability to provide for their families or a drastic decline in their standard of living (not to mention the moral and cultural implications).

@linuxace, you just advanced to level 6!

Hmm. Military?

AF Brat and Navy

That's great. I also traveled all over the world. I was also lucky in that I grew up working on ranches and in the Colorado working as a lumberjack, joined the military, now work for a French company in a bigger city doing white collar work. I know many people who have lived in the same 5 mile radius of NYC or SF and some people who have grown and lived in the same town with a population of 3,000 or their whole lives. Those two groups do not understand each other.

@TaLoN132 I was an Army brat (dad was a Russian linguist). 33. Went to Germany, Russia, France, Italy, Spain. Lived in Syracuse NY, Houston TX, now Living near Seattle.

I did training in the AF at Wichita Falls TX so I recognized that as a military town. I would have guessed Navy from the other locations.

Air Force, Germany, Norway, France, Texas, California, Spain, Qatar, Iraq for me.

Shephard AFB... My Dad was in officer's training school there.

Those last two I could have done without but the rest was great. I appreciate now as I am getting older how valuable the experience of traveling and seeing different ways of doing things has been.

We were at Travis, KI Sawyer, Grissom, Barksdale, Athens, and MacDill.

Oh yeah, and Wright Pat for a while, too.