Liberal Thinking is the Way

By Ron Signore

Maybe I have been looking at this all wrong. Laying in bed the other night, not falling asleep as per usual, the thoughts ran through my head on the complexities of the dichotomous approach to governing between the Democratic and Republican parties.

My common belief was always that I align with an agenda. Now, just because I lean left, doesn’t mean that I agree with absolutely every detail of every part of the agenda. Perhaps my favorite notion to this is the constant ability to approve that just because I am not a full-blooded member of the red wing that I don’t like guns. While I do not support the NRA, I do love firearms, probably shattering the glass inside most republican heads.

Then there is the idea of track you can pick after you selected the train to get aboard. Conceptually, either highlighting your allegiance to one side over the other, or perhaps confirm a type of moderate ism. The notion that liberals, or democrats, were weak, godless, gun fearing citizens almost always brought a fear to claiming an allegiance. The idea that conservative’s/republicans were bullies, anti-progress, war hungry blowhards hasn’t really been altered in my head. Even with the obvious bias and disdain for politicians and the rhetoric for the right,

I have come to find it offensive to not be liberal.

The right ideology in my head is that of a moderate. However, we tend to confuse ideology with verbs that align with the political parties we hear about every day. To be liberal and to be a liberal are different things. Then when we reflect on the metaphor of choosing the train, then choosing the track, you can start to break down and self-identify. It doesn’t matter if I think I am right, or wrong, it matters the outlook I take. It matters the outlook we all take.

Consistently, I have thrown out the failing education system here in the United States. While not universally true, we tend to have a correlation between those who support Democrats and college educated citizens. But this concept blows my mind: with over 330M people in the United States, by concept, there is no true black and white on so many topics that at some point, you will break your own mold to what you feel you identify as.

Let’s look at Kate Cox in Texas and abortion. There have been unconfirmed reports that Kate Cox is a registered Republican. Kate Cox had what doctor’s diagnosed as a non-viable pregnancy, where if the fetus made it to birth, it would live a matter of hours at most post-birth. Whether she was/is a registered Republican means nothing outside of potentially having a little less sympathy for someone who helped block her own abortion. Let’s say she was/is though. Hypothetically speaking, does this one issue change her whole ideology? Does she switch teams in the next elections?

Arguably the biggest change we see from people jumping from right to left has had something specific impact on them that they now find unfavorable from there previous way of thinking. It is hopeful that this concept helps them see the view from someone else’s situation. I must add, that was also something that just keeps hitting home, Republican’s continually show party over country, a lack of empathy for others, and like their view of what America should be, that the world stopped turning in 1776.

All that aside, this conservative now has a more liberal view of this specific issue. Maybe she won’t become a liberal, but it is likely she now has a slightly more open mind to possibilities around the issue. Someone who liberally thinks can separate themselves from the greater good of all. On the topic, there are people who hold a very real concept to the matter, me included, arguably President Biden, and most influentially to the public eye, Bill Burr. We get it. Abortion has many complexities. Scenarios like Cox’s, the unwanted result of a night with someone, to name a few, can make it muddy.

However, while I would be shocked there are many pro-choice people out there who don’t lack the empathy or feeling of terminating a pregnancy. I find it less likely abortions are desired just for the thrill of terminating a pregnancy. Religious beliefs (which shouldn’t be in law anyway) may be a deciding factor for someone to not have the procedure, but that is between them and their God. My alignment with the President, my alignment with Bill Burr is simple: I am not in favor of abortion unless in circumstances like that of Cox, or as a result of rape. It is indeed terminating potential life- and people can argue all day long when they believe life begins, it all becomes null with this simple concept.

Just because we/I don’t favor the procedure itself, A) we are men, we should have no say in any legal argument to allow or deny the procedure (slight variance if the father wants to have input on keeping the pregnancy, but that opens a whole other can of worms on father’s rights); B) It plain and simple is her body and her ultimate choice. If I am the father in the situation, my role should be to support the very likely incredibly difficult decision she is making.

For a party who wants less government intervention, they really want to put a government station in OB rooms around the country. There are so many more topics where a liberal approach could make the difference in the future of this country. Gun control being maybe the most impactful to the safety of our future. The desire to have firearms and how the 2nd Amendment should be interpreted can go on forever without any real resolve. There are people who are liberals that loathe and hate guns, but the lack of ability to compromise determines the ability to think liberally on the matter. Republicans correlate to the concept that having guns is a right, no laws should be in place denying them access to firearms.

The two ends of the spectrum are so conservative by way of thinking, stubborn with no grey area. Being open-minded by the reality of what we see all too frequently here in the States is the only way we can make progress to keep our future alive. Kids should not have to have this constant reminder that there seems to be regularity in mass shootings, many in the school setting. As a country, we have regulated alcohol, we have regulated driving with a need to have a license (of which you need to pass a test), why can’t we progress to realize that not everybody should drive, how can everybody be allowed to have a gun? Let’s also be honest, there is no militia in this country that is going to overthrow and replace the government. We live in an age where the most powerful military in the world could wipe out mobs of people just by pushing a button for a drone strike.

We could look at scenarios to hot topics all day every day and be right where we started by the end. Conceptually, we will continue to be stuck at status quo if we keep politicizing every topic, if we allow religion, or self-points of view with regards to experience dictate where we go from here. While it is the elected officials that turn the battles into political soapboxes, something is adding up differently for me lately. Who is really pulling the strings here?

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