The Republican Party Needs Our Help

I got a message recently about one of my blog posts, saying that I was too nice to Republicans and telling me I didn't know enough about how they are trying to destroy our country. It's not the first time I've gotten a similar message. You can see my response to such messages in another recent blog post. This post, I'm sure, is going to make more people angry.

I watch the news and I read. I can't pretend I understand all the issues as well as some people but I see what's going on. What's going on is things have gone crazy. I think people have latched on to the crazy too much and I think that has the potential to hurt this country even more. It's important to know that the crazy is out there and it's important to refute it, don't get me wrong. But when we paint an entire party with the same color paint, we're making it less likely for ordinary voters to use their voices in ways that promote reason and we're making the country more polarized.

I know a lot of Republicans. I disagree with them on some of the issues. They aren't out there crazy talking and saying and doing the kinds of things I've heard from people like Ted Cruz. Actually a lot of these people are just as disgusted with what some people in their party are doing right now as I am. I also hear from people who say they don't even vote because they feel they have no one to vote for, and I get the feeling a lot of them lean toward the Republican side of things.

I'm not suggesting that my friends who are Democrats start campaigning or voting for Republicans. What I'm suggesting is that when we hear about Republican candidates who are acting reasonable, even if we disagree with their positions on some of the issues, we say, "Hey, that's cool." Maybe we could write letters to them, telling them that even though we disagree with them on the issues, we appreciate that they are not doing things like advocating laws to take other people's rights or ability to make choices away or do things like shut down the entire government. When we talk about candidates we support, and someone says they don't support that candidate for whatever reasons, we could suggest another reasonable candidate they could vote for.

I think if more of us start doing this, we might have a chance to help eliminate some of the crazy. But it's going to take time. We're in danger now of creating a generation of people who don't care. The government is supposed to represent the people, and when the people start appreciating reasonable voices, even if they don't agree, the government will start reflecting that. Fox News might not be fair and balanced but that doesn't mean we the people can't be.