Can't say this enough times

My political opponents are usually good people who I think are wrong. They are not evil.

I'm repeating myself, of course. I've written a few posts about this topic before, so many times I've exhausted my supply of pithy quotes to drag up, but I feel like going back to it one more time after a friend shared a Thomas Sowell clip about the different plans conservatives and liberals have for society.



I think Sowell did a good job of keeping things classy. He starts off by reminding us that government workers put in charge of helping the public will always have their own interests at stake as well. He then went on to say that hubris caused members of the left to ignore evidence when it contradicted their vision for society.

He did not say, as we often hear, that the left has bad intentions for society and just wants to control people. Sowell said his opponents are wrong, but never questioned their intentions.

This is what political discourse should look like, and while it's so much easier to write a negative blog post than a positive one, my focus here is the way Sowell presented his case instead of the nuts and bolts of his argument.

Beyond all other reasons, I do not write angry posts damning the American left because so many good people in my life are progressives - people I know to have nothing but noble intentions. These are the people I love, and I can't imagine myself making such awful sweeping statements about them.

It strikes me as so childish and short-sighted for people with anger-based politics to resort to character assassination against their opponents instead of engaging them. Surely they must have someone in their lives who disagrees with some of their cherished views.

There is something very sacred about ones world view. I know I'm very attached to mine, but may I never become infuriated by the idea of someone holding a different view.