It dawned on me, recently, that I have spent most of my life surrounded by people who shared the same, (or damn similar), social and political beliefs as I. Lately, maybe because the emotional polarity between conservative and liberal thinking has widened, I find myself face-to-face with friends, family and the occasional chatty stranger who are not part of my choir. What used to happen when I found myself in conversation with someone with vastly opposing views, was polite sparring, heated discussion or irrational screaming and chest thumping that rarely, if ever, led to a sway in either stand on the issues, but I seldom felt that the exercise was pointless or that my views or my opponent’s had no value in the debate. Nowadays…not so much. Something has gone very wrong with the Conservative side of the discussion:

Liberal Guy – “We need to care about everybody, and government is the system that civilized people have always used to implement that responsibility. The ‘freedom’ that is the cornerstone of our country does not begin and end with the unhindered pursuit of wealth but promises equality in health, education and opportunity. A smarter, healthier, fully employed America should be our unflinching goal at any cost. The informed and factual debate on how to best achieve that goal should be our primary political discussion.”

Conservative Guy – “I got mine…they can get theirs, (even though so many of the teetering toothless Tea Partiers have clearly not gotten theirs), and God, (somebody’s god), will take care of it. Oh…and everything that Liberal Guy said is Socialistic, (Commie), crap!”

Soon it will be time to chose.