Rayven, thanks for the well thought-up post, and mature response. Hopefully some will understand that everybody's political views in the US are not simply black&white regarding whether a person is a liberal/conservative.
In my personal opinion, over the last 10-15 years, I have noticed an ever widening gap between the 2 main political parties, and the fault behind this I blame on the media. With Fox being mostly conservative, and MSNBC mostly liberal, we just watch the networks that agree with our viewpoints. Makes sense, right? Why would we watch something that does nothing but piss us off?
The downside to that, is these networks are constantly throwing attacks on the other party, and we as people get drawn into it. We start believing everything we see or hear on the TV, internet, some drunk guy with an opinion, etc. Well here is a shocking bit of news: Everything you see or hear on TV, internet, etc. is probably not remotely true, or have facts mixed up, taken out of context, and thrown together to create whatever fits the original maker's goals, which is usually to see how many people will follow his same viewpoint. I just like to call this, "The Alex Jones Theory," and the newer generation is growing up to believe everything they see on YouTube. Something we as adults need to correct, and NOW! If there's one thing I believe that will cripple this great nation, it's the great divide between the political parties. Not gun confiscation, UN troops, or any other bizarre theory I've not even heard about until Alex Jones and his followers.
For my own background, I grew up with a mostly liberal family, but there were some things I did not agree with my parents on, such as gun control. I am very pro-gun, anti-abortion, and pro-death penalty. From that stand point those are the mainly conservative values I hold, but I also support the health care reform, alternative energy, the President, and to a certain degree, limitations on weapons available to the public. You have heard me say before that I am not very keen on everybody to walk in and buy fully-automatic machine guns, RPG's, MANPADS, etc.
Now, I did not write this post to incite a political debate, just merely to show that even as a pro-gun supporter, I disagree with a lot of what people believe in on this site. However, you never will hear me condemn either party. You can call me a communist, socialist, ****ing liberal, or any other words I have heard expressed on these forums, but I do not hate conservatives. I think a fine balance in our society is good, but as I have said before, at the rate the gap between both parties has increased, there can be no good that can come from it. I am also sure this post will anger some of you, but as I've said, I'm not looking to debate politics on this thread.
leasantry:
