Conservative/Liberal - Democrat/Republican: Do we agree on anything?

I'm sure there are plenty political things both sides have in common, but those are the things nobody wants to talk about.

 

I have a more nuanced opinion. The people most politically motivated are those are end of the spectrum, who think that America is seriously off course. These people give the most money and are most active in politics. They end up favoring political actions that do not have the consensus.

For example, health care. Health care was known to be a huge problem since the early 90s. One side favored making insurance and hospitals richer. The other side favored national health care, which made the comman man healthier.

Similar arguments could be made for gun control, term limits, balance budgets, etc.

 

Here's my swag at this... i suspect both parties agree that national defense, homeland security, economic growth, job creation, simplification of the tax code, a more fair approach to taxes, importance of education, reduction in crime, a fair justice system, rebuilding of infrastructure, improvements in access top and cost of healthcare... are all things both parties place importance in.

The rub is the difference in how both parties approach all of these.

 

Similar to what @NewRoxFan said, I think for the most part "everyone" agrees on really broad goals, the disagreement comes into play when it comes to discussing how to best accomplish those goals.

An example being that "everyone agrees" that we should work to make the country safer. Some think the best way to accomplish that is by building a border wall to address illegal immigration, some think you do that by disarming the public and creating a police state, some think you do so by preserving the liberties and freedoms this country was founded on, some think you do so by stripping the people of their rights either with things like the Patriot Act which makes things easier for law enforcement or censorship laws that can fine or imprison people for expressing certain ideas that don't conform to what is acceptable.

For any given broad issue that there is agreement on, you could have a nearly infinite number of ideas when it comes to how best to achieve the goal that "everyone wants" and that's why there is so much disagreement.

 

I thinks that's nicely put.

OP, I was going to say that left, right, and the few in-between in America probably all agree that the American dream is on life support, but then there's little agreement on exactly why that is. One groups says b/c of too much government interference and because our country looks so different than it used to look. Another group says b/c our government is more responsive to big money than to the actual voters and b/c all the money is held by very few hands.

But the dreams of my father, rising from poverty to become educated middle class? Most people agree that's fairly rare now.

 

Same with education. One side favored for profit schools, vouchers, and siphoning education dollars for tax cuts while the other side favored strengthening and standardizing the national curriculum.

 

Pretty much anything that's not being debated, but either incurs a large amount of spending or was a massive protest movement once.

Domestic nuclear disarmament in particular, that was a huge constituency, even into the '80s, but even a quarter century after the Cold War is probably impossible.

 

I'm nearly certain there is broad consensus about a great many things, they are just so obvious that there is no point talking about it. Neither conservative nor liberal, for example, would support the government rounding up and murdering every person in the United States. No one thinks that the United States government should sell the entire country to Russia and give the money to Donald Trump. You could come up with any number of examples like this. There is simply no point to discussing those things though. A second category of things is the general ideas that people agree on, but which there are disagreements on the best course to accomplish those broad goals, several of which have been mentioned. There are also things about which there is genuine disagreement at a basic level. You could then further break down those categories or try to come up with things that don't fit neatly into any of them. So, yes there are things people agree on, there are things people partially agree on, and there are things people disagree on. The things people agree on do not motivate political choices because it doesn't matter who you vote for in those areas, all of the choices will be the same. Where there is disagreement is where we turn to politics to resolve which way to go.

 

The country needed an infrastructure bill in Obama’s second term. Rs would not pass and send that bill to Obama, since they did not want Obama to get any credit for it.

Everybody agreed on the infrastructure bill. If put to a vote, the bill would have easily passed and Obama would have signed it into law.

 

Yes

 

Unfortunately, Trump didn't prioritize infrastructure... as part of a jobs program, or even as separate initiatives. Instead, he chose the most divisive initiatives possible.

 

Most people people believe in a strong military. They only disagree how strong. Most people believe in investing in education. They only disagree on how much education. Most people agree on helping the poor, they only disagree on how much is enough or too much. The only reason you think people disagree on everything is because Politicians and the media profit from it. You've been played by profiteers.

 

As a No Party individual, I believe both of you all can suck a giant bag of dicks. I think many people agree with me on that so it's a good place to start.

 

I think vocal minorities, a large swath of the media, and many politicians have skewed some people's perspective on the United States, on life and on the world in general. In some cases, these attempts to skew, divide and mislead are intentional, as part of a broader business and/or political strategy (often involving $$$ as rockbox mentioned). The internet and social media has made it easier for unscrupulous groups to do such things. A disappointingly significant number of people are gullible and seem unwilling or unable to utilize critical thinking skills...thus they are easy to exploit and manipulate. They're "useful idiots".

I don't think the US as a whole is as divided (on a left vs. right axis) as some try to make it seem. Sure, the extremists at one point on the political spectrum are deeply divided and even hateful towards extremists at another point. But most people, even those that are solidly liberal, conservative or libertarian, fall somewhere in-between...they just don't get much attention; they're "boring" and lack drama. They'll agree broadly on a large number of social and fiscal issues, but just disagree (logically, emotionally or based on principle) on some of the specifics of those issues.

 

Well said.

 

Both parties are filled to the top with scumbag liars

 

Why in the world do you think the Congress is following Trump’s lead on anything? The legislative agenda this whole last year has been the Republican Congressional agenda and decidedly not Trump’s. In point, Trump ran against this agenda.

 

Weak...

 

This thread is one big passive aggressive swipe by each side.

“Yeah we agree just disagree on how to implement. One side wants to do it in a monstrous way that destroys humanity the other side wants to do it the right way. Respect!”