One of my neighbors is currently in the process of remodeling his house, by himself. He's been at it for almost a year now so we're used to him occasionally showing up at our door asking for help removing nails or lifting some furniture, or what have you.
This most recent time, I went over with my stepdad and moved his queen size bed so he could replace the floorboards of the other half of the room. As we're walking back out, he happens to ask if I'm back from school, and which school I actually ended up going to, since this time last year I'd expected to go to Emerson College in Boston and quite clearly, that didn't happen.
As a conservative Christian, my answer of Western immediately gave him reason to warn me, because apparently Bellingham is about as liberal as you can get without leaving the state/country, and as far as colleges go, Western is right up there with Evergreen State in leading the Red rebellion. He was talking about UW when he said this but any college that has its main quad named "Red square" well, y'know.
He talked for nearly half an hour about how the lefties are ruining our country and that more corrupt government is not the solution to fix a country that is 3 trillion dollars in debt to a country (China) that treats its people worse than dirt. He further went on to expound about the downfalls of a system of Universal health care and how it has been the private industry that has created innovation and affordability without all the bureaucratic red tape to cut through.
Somehow he also worked in something about how creating a reasonable sized government with less taxation of the working man would help create a society wherein only one parent would need to go to work and the other could stay home and raise their children with the good values they were meant to have instead of the television and internet values the youth are so often exposed to.
It was a lot to absorb and kind of hard for me to follow. Especially since at this point in my life, I am very liberal, so we're starting this discussion from essentially diametrically opposed viewpoints. I mostly kept my mouth shut and smiled and nodded. I don't think he realizes this, since he keeps talking about how they will try to brainwash me with their leftist talk.
I want to understand though, so I don't judge him. From his experience and from what he knows, his beliefs make sense. I personally think he's generalizing and grossly oversimplifying some of the biggest issues we face as a country, but overall, I can understand and empathize with this man.
A universal health care system won't and shouldn't replace private industry medical. If I have to wait in line for medical attention like I have to wait in line at the DMV, I think I'll pass. At the same time though, and I don't think he explicitly said this, but my neighbor is making a distinction between big business and private industry. From the way he talked, they are not always the same thing and it is when they are, and their political interests outweigh the benefits they provide that they become a burden to society.
It's complicated and interesting to me, and quite frankly I want to see a calm, rational debate between him and someone with a more liberal point of view, which I guess says something about me. Namely, that I enjoy watching discordance. It's much more of a challenge to spot the patterns and similarities in somethings disagreeing than it is in two things already the same.
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