Phrases heard around campus to describe politicians often include “f#cking liberals,” “pigs in suits” and “G*&da*n heartless conservatives.” I have something to say on this subject.
While I admittedly hold opinions that stray more towards one side than the other, I am a general believer in the good faith principle here — mainly, that people who care about politics care about people. Similar to the “spank vs. scold” debate, the members of our society who bother to weigh in want the best for the kids involved; in this case the kids are those affected by policy-making.
The biggest complaint I have relates to the incessant accusations by liberal-minded college students of the “heartless” or “evil” nature of a government by conservatives. I would argue instead that a conservative asking for deregulation of a market is not begging for evil corporations to take over the economy, but instead for what he or she sees as a way of making the market more efficient and helpful for all.
The idea here is not that one side or the other is doing something that is disgraceful or sinful, or whatever other propagandistic moniker one may choose to assign the opposing sides; in fact, each side is simply convinced of a different way to achieve the same goals. Everyone — OK, 99 percent of people — is not exactly trying to stomp the life out of future generations, but instead trying to uplift society as a whole. They just have different ideas of how to reach point B.
I think if we remind ourselves of the fact that we are all attempting to reach the same thing, we won’t confuse ourselves into thinking we are more polarized than we really are. That perceived polarization keeps our decision-makers from doing anything at all to help.
