Thoughts about the polarization of American voters

You and I, Paige, have been friends through Pet Sounds for quite awhile now and I've always liked you and considered you to be an interesting, well educated, passionate, literate woman with good musical taste. I browsed past this post the other day and afterwards thought about it, then decided I would offer a different viewpoint. For the record, I am a progressive leaning moderate. Many of you who think the President is doing a great job would call me a "snowflake" or maybe a "libtard." I don't care what anyone calls me, I laugh about the insults.

But I don't consider people who support Trump to be stupid (of course there are some stupid people on all sides). I don't yell at, insult, or get into pointless Facebook arguments with supporters of the Pres. Like other liberals I respect, it's important to me to understand the issues that drive people on the other side of the fence. It's not hard to see that people who voted for and support Trump have some very legitimate complaints about both Democrats and Republicans of the mainstream.

Additionally, Hillary was the worst possible candidate the Democrats could have shoved on their loyal party followers. She really is an arrogant elitist. I wish she'd shut up. Her people were absolutely convinced they were going to win and they didn't listen to anyone who raised concerns about her or her campaign.

Now, me and my snowflake friends are patriotic and believe the USA must have a strong military and defend itself against foreign threats. We don't believe in "open borders," that idea is ridiculous. My ancestors were Confederate slave holders and I don't believe it's right to call Robert E. Lee a traitor. I was brought up to admire him.

But the main thing I want to say is, it's sad to me that there isn't a true dialogue between supporters of Trump and reasonable people on the left and center-left (if you would humor me that it's possible there are some). My next door neighbor is a very intelligent and good person. Our families are very close and would do pretty much anything for one another. He believes Trump is doing a fine job and doesn't see anything seriously wrong with his personality or adjustment. We have friendly discussions about our views and, though I disagree with many of his perceptions, I still love the guy and his family.

It's too bad so much money is being made by media and commercial interests that don't want the severe polarization of the citizens of the USA to stop. They are working to keep both sides hating one another. Finally, I will add that not one liberal I know, even the ones who do what I don't do- yell, insult, post demeaning cartoons, post fraudulent "news" pieces etc- not one of them thinks the government should take away the guns from responsible adults or prevent same from buying them. I have 3 adult daughters one of whom carries. I'd be happy for the other two to pack, as well. It's a jungle out there if you're female. I've thought about buying a gun but so far am not convinced I really need one. There are other ways to protect oneself that are less dangerous to the owner and his people. But that's just my opinion. I'm happy for any sane adult with a clean record to own as many as they want.

So, if anyone wants to make fun of me or other snowflakes, have at it. I don't take stuff like that personally. That's all, folks. Except I may post this on my own page to make a statement in favor of civil dialogue and mutual respect.