Five Fears of a Nervous Moderate (Part 1 of 5)

This is part one of a five-part series to be published over a two-week period. 

“If I were a lib, I would be nervous! LOL”

This is the quote that showed up on Facebook the other day—shortly after Paul Ryan’s speech at the Republican National Convention.

I consider myself a pragmatic moderate, not a liberal, and my voting record reflects that position, but I must admit that the poster was right. I AM nervous.  

And as I look at my Facebook wall and other media sources, it appears that I’m not the only one that’s feeling a bit jumpy about things these days.

While society may be divided on a number of issues, such as abortion, gay marriage, immigration, health care, welfare, foreign policy, what the “right” amount of taxation is and the role of government in a modern society, it does appear that we do have at least one thing in common after all –
a great collective fear about what the future holds.

This observation made me think hard about my own fears.  What exactly is it that I’m afraid of?  Are my fears based on a rational and objective analysis of the facts, or an emotional “gut feeling” that may be unfounded? 

I like to think I came to my fears rationally, but one thing that I’ve learned over the past few years is fear and reason don’t get along very well.  In fact it seems that they go in opposite directions.  More fear, less reason.  Less fear, more reason. 

In short, I’d like to know if my fears are reasoned and justified or not. 

Frankly, I don’t know the answer to that question so I’m going to lay them out here, to my Facebook and “Patch” readers, for your consideration, analysis and feedback.   I welcome your comments – especially those that can show me, with evidence, why my fears are unfounded. 

I’ll share them over a series of 5 posts.  Here is No. 1.

Fear No. 1 
I fear that we are attacking and destroying our greatest asset:
“E Pluribus Unum - From Many to One”
“We speak with pride and admiration of that little band of Americans who overcame insuperable odds to set this nation on course 200 years ago. But our glory didn't end with them. Americans ever since have emulated their deeds.”

RONALD REAGAN, State of the Union address, Jan. 26, 1982

America began with waves of immigrants, all with their own languages, cultures, religions and traditions.  Our vast and unique cultural and thought diversity is what helped made America the great country that it is today.  That great diversity was a great advantage for America and it helped propel us into a leadership position on the world stage.

Yet today’s society seems to be ignoring the strength of that cultural diversity, in fact, we are doing whatever we can to destroy the advantages that cultural diversity gave us. 

Instead of embracing our uniquely American “melting pot” of different cultures that all of us came from in our not so distant past, we are separating and demonizing those that look, think and believe differently than “our group”.

How many times have you heard or seen some type of blame placed against these “different” groups over the past decade? The Blacks, The Gays, The Mexicans, The Muslims, The Asians, The Christians, The Mormons, The Atheists, The Poor, The Rich, The Liberals, The Elites, The Environmentalists, etc, etc, etc. 

I’m pretty sure that we have divided and subdivided ourselves into just about every conceivable demographic – which makes it easy to point fingers in just about every direction except at ourselves.

Are “the Gays” (or any other out-group) really the cause of our societal problems?  Or, is blaming “the Gays” really just a diversion to keep us from identifying and focusing on the real problems?

Is it possible that we could stop blaming each other for the ills of society and focus our collective efforts on addressing the root cause of those ills?  Is this not what an educated and advanced society such as ours should do?

Should we not heed the warnings from the Christian Bible -just like Abraham Lincoln did when confronted with a divided nation?  "And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand” Mark 3:25

Do you agree that this is a valid fear?  If so:

Embrace those that strive to unite and avoid those that seek to divide. 

Part 2 Topic (in a couple days): 

I fear that we are abandoning the single most important principle on which our Constitution was created and on which our Democracy depends:  Fair and Reasonable Compromise