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I think you may have missed my point. Whatever people you disagree with believe, is the business of people you disagree with. There is no need to "flip out" abo

I think you may have missed my point. Whatever people you disagree with believe, is the business of people you disagree with. There is no need to "flip out" about it. Someone wants to take a knee, that's his decision. Someone wants to fly a nazi flag at his own home, that's his decision. If a group wants to believe that America is fundamentally "good", that is the decision, and the right, of the people in that group. If a group wants to believe that America is "bad", that is the decision, and the right, of the people in that group. For instance, I believe the fundamental "goodness" of America is this ability to believe what you please so long as you don't bother anyone else and play well with others. As an example, people are free to dislike black people. That is what is "good" about the US. However, people should not be free to stop and frisk every black kid that comes along due to a bias stemming from that dislike. Why? Because that infringes on the rights of the black kid. Who, in turn, should be free to like or dislike you. It's a "circle of like" kind of thing. Or a "circle of dislike" if you prefer. It can be whichever! That's the beauty of America. I explained all that so that maybe you might have a better idea of where my belief that lefties and righties are problematic is coming from. You can believe that America is "good". You can believe that America is "bad". Where I part company with you is if you "flip out" and attack people who believe the opposite. As that is as clear an indication as any that you don't really believe in America as envisioned in the Constitution.

rayiner 6y ago
I understand the point of view, but it's one that makes no sense to conservatives. How can you have a democracy and agree to respect each other's votes if you don't have a shared view of the goodness of your basic institutions? Put differently, I tend to agree with you that this vision of extreme pluralism is closer to how America was intended to function, and I agree that would be preferable. But if you're going to force my kids to school where you're going to teach them A or B, and if people in California and New York are going to have so much federal power over people in Iowa, that makes that sort of radical pluralism hard to achieve.

rayiner 6y ago

I understand the point of view, but it's one that makes no sense to conservatives. How can you have a democracy and agree to respect each other's votes if you don't have a shared view of the goodness of your basic institutions? Put differently, I tend to agree with you that this vision of extreme pluralism is closer to how America was intended to function, and I agree that would be preferable. But if you're going to force my kids to school where you're going to teach them A or B, and if people in California and New York are going to have so much federal power over people in Iowa, that makes that sort of radical pluralism hard to achieve.