It doesn't really surprise me to hear this. A solid majority of Republicans favor government-funded health care. Surprised? You shouldn't be. Republicans need help just like the rest of us. They're just more concerned about who gets it. So even though we have more in common than not, it shouldn't surprise us that we all assume the other side doesn't know that.
A survey published on Wednesday finds that when asked about core values including fairness, compassion and personal responsibility, about nine in 10 Democrats and Republicans agreed they were very or extremely important. Yet only about a third of either group said they believed the same was true for the opposing party.
Yeah of course everyone thinks fairness, compassion and personal responsibility are important. What the hell kind of a question is that? Here, let me share the results of my own survey:
About nine in 10 cannibals and non-cannibals agreed that food is very or extremely important. Yet only about a third of either group said they believed the same was true for the opposing group.
Of course everyone fucking agrees that fairness, compassion and personal responsibility are important. The question is how each of these groups defines these things. That is where they differ.
I am so goddamn tired of the press constantly trying to imply that this is all a big misunderstanding because we’re all the same or some bullshit. It’s a waste of everyone’s goddamn time, it’s disingenuous as hell, it’s irresponsible, manipulative, and more importantly, it doesn’t work and it will never work because most people know better.
Stop trying to make me shake hands with people who claim daily, publicly, proudly and openly that people like me are groomers or whatever the hell they’re saying this week. I will not “reach across the aisle” when the people on the other side are actively working to take my rights and the rights of other human beings away.
I'm not looking at this article in terms of so-called "enlightened centrism" but how one political faction (Republicans) have been hijacked by their extremist fringe. There's simply no correlation on the Democratic side. The majority of Republican voters want what Democrats offer, but can't accept it because of tribal identity.
How do we save them from themselves? I don't know. Maybe the only solution is to outlive them. But we have to keep trying.
As a gay Texan… no. They’ve always been like this. The only difference is that now they’re saying the quiet part out loud.
I’m 42. I grew up around Republicans, I went to school with them, I now work with them. I say this as someone who has Republican friends and family. They have absolutely always been this way, they just used to sugarcoat it a lot, hide it behind religion, claim it was about being fiscally responsible, whatever. What’s happening right now is they’ve been shown that they don’t have to pretend anymore, because someone who said the quiet part out loud literally became president of the United States.
They don’t want what Democrats offer. Or rather, they want what Democrats offer, but only for themselves. That’s the core difference between the average Democrat and the average Republican; Democrats want everyone to have the same rights, Republicans want all Republicans to have the same rights. There’s always some group of people that they want to exclude. Women, LGBTQ, black people, immigrants, Muslims, disabled people, poor people, whatever.
We can’t “save” them. There’s nothing to save them from. This is who they are. They’ve been showing us who they are for decades. Believe them.
They don’t want what Democrats offer. Or rather, they want what Democrats offer, but only for themselves.
Yeah, that's the point I've been trying to make. They're not against the services being offered. They're against people they don't like getting them too. They demand a tiered system of benefits in which they get what they need and anyone who isn't part of their tribe doesn't.
The problem is those values are so vague that there’s room for massive disagreement and distrust even if you agree on those values. For example, to a Democrat, “fair enforcement of the law” probably brings up images of black men being killed or mistreated by police. For Republicans, the same phrase brings up images of Donald Trump being indicted while Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and Hillary Clinton walk free. There’s not actually common ground there, since the two ideas of how to achieve “fair enforcement of the law” are so wildly different.
Because it's more important to them that such benefits are denied to the wrong people (read: minorities) than ensuring everyone gets their basic needs met. It's a zero-sum game to them. They'd rather lose than see people they don't like win.
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