I suppose I am thankful you see me as having some sort of sickness and are not yet to the point of seeing me as something less than human. If you know your history then you know the change in your view is coming.
I am never going to view you as something less than human. On several occasions over the years, on this forum, going back to prior to the 2016 election, I have emphasized the need for the two sides to begin conversations where they could begin to truly understand the cause of their differences. I have been that person. As, for instance when I started a thread discussing if there were biological reasons, differences in the brains of liberals and conservatives. And why did I do that? Well, at the time Joe Bagadonuts wanted to discuss it and suggested I start such a thread. And I have always known, that honest dialog would be needed. To discuss things like this:
Scanners try to watch the red-blue divide play out underneath the skull
www.scientificamerican.com
Edit: a more recent study:
Research reveals that partisan views have biological roots. According to the largest study of its type, brain scans of individuals obtained as they engaged in different activities or even did nothing accurately indicated whether they were politically conservative or liberal. Researchers discover
scitechdaily.com
I am just so far removed from the change in my view you predict will overcome me. On so many occasions, in this forum, I have spoken of the need to talk. You? How often have you looked for common ground, how often have you recognized the need to sit down and put the lies and insults behind us? The above links are just one way I have sought to understand our partisan divide. It’s a far cry from the “final solution” you feel I am capable of embracing, which is how I interpret your quote above, where you are seemingly now doubling down on your claim that I will embrace a “final solution”.
I concluded, way back then, that the two sides were going to have to talk eventually, politics, after all, being “the art of compromise”.
If we get a reasonable and sane president in 2024, I think we need some kind of “national conversation”, in which we step back from all the internet and tweeted insults, and actually talk to one another. From the most local venues, upward. We need to recognize that the point at which we have arrived cannot, for the sake of the health of our body politic and the health of our social fabric, continue as it stands now. Of course, should that 2024 election be won by Trump, we cannot expect a man who sees himself as a president for all Americans, and he could never be someone who could lead us in the direction of reconciliation. And eventually, maybe not 2024, but hopefully in the not distant future, a transformational leader who we can all support. Someone who can lead us out of the death spiral to our democracy.
