Thanks for your comments. I’m gonna try and respond to some of them in order.

Everyone prefers that other people agree with their life-philosophy. Prager is not unique in this. The difference is that Dennis spends three hours a day, five days a week, openly espousing that philosophy and engaging those who disagree.

You attacked my statements about how it is ridiculous to pretend to be ok with things or people you disagree with if you really don’t. You are missing the point I fear. I am not saying that I feel intense pressure to condone other people and their behavior. I AM saying that there is a pervasive attempt in this country to get people to stop “bickering” and to just accept not only every person, but everything other people do or say or believe. This is ridiculous. It is the pro-multiculturalism, relativism of (predominantly) the secular Left. The big joke is of course that they themselves want you to believe their ideology. So I am saying we need to stop pretending we disagree and start actively debating and discussing what we specifically disagree on and how we can better co-exist with one another. Unity is not possible, but humanity and civility are.

I’m not sure what you mean by your critique of my thoughts on compromise. A balance must be struck between compromise and defending the things you care most about. For example, I believe in keeping the government out of our lives as much as possible, but I also favor policemen and much of the Patriot Act. That doesn’t make me unreasonable or hypocritical.

As far as the process that goes in to voting, it is different for every person. You seem to be an informed participant in the political process, and that is wonderful to hear. I am in my mid-20’s and have been eligible to vote for three elections now. I find that even when I was 18 and not sure about politics and economics and all that goes in to casting a vote that there were forces in my life exerting influences on me. My faith, my family, my admittedly limited life experiences, etc. all played a part in my support of George W. Bush over Al Gore that year. Certainly there are dumb people in the country, and people who dont vote, and people who vote straight party line without thinking, and a million other variables. But even the person who votes “blindly” is still being influenced by other forces besides pure politics on how to vote. Plus, the point of what I am trying to do is get people (especially those near my own age) to see that we have a duty to vote and be informed and to utilize all these other forces (religion, morality, history, economics, etc) in making the final decision in that process: a vote at the ballot box. I’m not sure why this is a bad thing. Would it be better to say “You’re all idiots out there and suckers for partisan hacks so our country is doomed and its all your fault”? I have hope for my generation.

Next you went after my intent to build a stronger coalition of like-minded voters and citizen-activists….These things I will be writing about in the coming weeks and months are not “RJ’s truth”, they are the ideas, ideals, and values that I have come to find are, in my opinion, the best around. I believe in them. I look to wiser men and women in my life and in my studies and throughout history and collect the things I agree with and think are true, good, and beautiful. Take what I say, or leave it, but I will not feel personally attacked because the truth I believe I’ve found is not my own. Perhaps you are mad at the ideas, and that is fine. Share your own. Start a blog. Write a book. I’ll read it and gladly engage you on where I think you are wrong. I think more Americans share common values than we are led to believe. I think most of those values could fall under what is today known as “conservatism”, but they can also bleed over into libertarianism or the value-systems of independents and moderates.

My intent is not to convert you to Republican or even conservative…it is describe what I believe is the basic framework of a conservative worldview, and ultimately, to discover and discuss and debate real, hard and objective truths and insights about our world. That’s all.

Stick with me and keep responding with your thoughts. Don’t dismiss me because you have negative experiences with other conservatives or Republicans or whoever. Thanks and God bless.

The reason conservatives believe their opinions are better than liberals, is because conservatism is how the greatest country in the world got started, and liberalism is how socialism got started. If you don’t think your opinion is better than one that opposes yours, why have an opinion at all?

Conservatives say, “some opinions are better (or much better) than other opinions, so we have to seek the policies that have worked best in the past. I do not deny your right to have an opinion and I won’t deny my right to say it’s bad.” Liberals say, “all opinions are equally good, unless they are contradict with mine, in which case they are worse.” The irony is, in the end, we are saying the same thing.

“How can I be unified with my neighbor if I am continually forced to pretend that I agree with his lifestyle”

Why in the world would you feel obligated to pretend that you agree with your neighbor’s lifestyle? YOU don’t need to keep anyone for a friend or accept their lifestyle if you don’t choose to. Have you no backbone Moeller? YOU make choices and YOU allow your acquaintances to make theirs. YOU either make allowances for the differences or choose new acquaintances. You then follow up by saying: Any relationship, whether with a spouse or a political party, involves compromise. It isn’t a question of “if” you will have to at times cede a portion of your individual preferences, but “how much”. Aren’t you contradicting your earlier statement? Of course we all compromise, and for various reasons. Doing so is OUR choice.

The fundamental reason we argue over the socio-political issues of our time is because we all have ideas about the way things should be. Everyone believes in something. Everyone has a value-system that impacts how they look at the world. No one is a true relativist, for even the person who touts that all truth is equal has made a distinct truth-claim. This is true whenever people assemble. Not everyone can have his or her way. COMPROMISE, and/or Majority Rule must come into play.

“The actual votes we cast at the ballot box are only the last, or most recent, steps of a moral, intellectual, and often spiritual journey that began years earlier. The right itself to cast a vote does not exist in a vacuum, and carries with it certain implications regarding the duty we all have to ensure future generations have access to that same right.”

You really believe this? My take is that there is a small percentage of the population that votes with any intelligence–that votes for the person, not the party. Among my acquaintances, even my family members, I find that males are more apt to carry on the political preference of their fathers. Women are more apt to vote as their husbands tell them to (although this anomaly is diminishing, thank goodness). And let’s not forget the questionable election results of the previous two elections.

“My second purpose is the hope that out of an open, honest, and thoughtful dissemination of what I believe the core, basic tenets of conservatism to be, a stronger coalition of like-minded voters and citizen-activists will emerge.”

Yep, there you go wanting to insinuate “what [you] believe the core, basic tenets of conservatism to be” as the guideline. Why are your tenets better than any others?

“The service I hope to provide for my liberal readers is a thoughtful discourse and disclosure of what the “opposing side” believes, and how we came to believe what we do. Stick with me as I post these columns, and I urge you to engage and challenge my conclusions. Perhaps if nothing else my treatment of these ideas, ideals, and values will encourage you to re-assess why you believe what you do.”

Uh, thanks, but no thanks. If these flighty arguments are supposed to persuade me to become a conservative, you have failed. They only make me appreciate being an Independent all the more. And don’t you dare say your appreciation of America is any greater than mine is! You are twenty years old? Maturity is yet to come.

Happy Dae·
http://ShoeStringGenealogy.com

You’ve set yourself up here for something potentially big, so don’t blow it.

But seriously, thanks for defending what you and so many of us believe. We stand with you. I look forward to the columns you will print and to the hopefully engaging dialogue that can be opened (yes, even with liberal or just disagreeing readers).

Just My2 cents has made some interesting observations about the ultra far left and how it is almost sacreligious to post ANYTHING negative about Obama or the
left. It is almost impossible to have a rational discussion with these people as I have tried time and again, but it always ends up with name calling and accusing me of being racist, an Islamophobe(that is true and I will NEVER deny that), anti American. capitalist war monerging pig among other pleasant names that I have been called. We have friends who are ultra liberals and even when they know they are wrong, the FACTS are against them and their arguments, they still refuse to acknowledge my point of view, backed by facts and history. The conversations always go downhill from this point on. I always try to listen to the other side. The opinions and positions they are taking, trying to defend, and all I ask is that I, we get equal consideration. Depending on which site I have posted comments on, the attacks on me have been extremely vitriollic(sp) and downright vicious. Every word is taken personally but I refuse to alter my comments or beliefs to please anyone, period.

Just My 2 Cents: I stand with you and how you feel. There was only ONE time I regretted what I had posted and that served me well as a lesson to learn from.
It was a very long time ago and I was eventually banned from that site not once but three times. My regrets and apology were never published on the site. The owner of that site knew if that was done, my continued villification and trashing by his readers would have no standing or merit. True discussion and discourse are hard to find rhese days and that is why I appreciate RJ and VIW so much. I will be dropping by your blog in the very near future.