A word to my liberal friends of whom I have shared many discussions on various topics over the past few years. We disagree on many issues and I'm sure this book will also be contentious as well. Over the years, I have learned something profound. Our communications are often miss-understood. This applies to all avenues of our lives, between parents and children, between colleagues, between spouses, between friends and between family members and friends. This is especially true when it comes between a liberal and a conservative.
I am reminded of the movie "Cool Hand Luke" where a warden of the prison spoke the famous line to the convict played by Paul Newman "What we have here is a failure to communicate"

Let me start by defining some common grounds on goals which I hope we all can agree upon.

1. We all want to live in a free society where justice and equality of opportunity is the atmosphere.
2. We all want a chance to achieve wealth and happiness for ourselves and our family.
3. We all want to feel safe in our homes and our neighborhood and our country.
4. We all want to have some basic safety net for all citizens so that the disabled and the sick and the infirmed and the elders and the innocents are protected.
5. We all want equal justice under the law so that no one group are discriminated against.
6. We all want our children to be educated so that they can grow up to become responsible and productive citizens.
7. We all want to help our fellow citizens in need.
8. We all want to protect our environment so that our resources are not wasted and our health is protected.

Can we agree on these basic goals and objectives?

If the answer is yes, we have a starting point.

The next step deals with how we get there as a group and as a society and as a sovereign country.

Here is where we diverge. Liberals have one policy in achieving these goals and conservatives have a different policy. In addition, we must abide by the framework of our Constitution and work within the law to achieve these goals.

Unfortunately, we are all human and we have come to the table with some preconceptions of the opposing side. Not all preconceptions are accurate. This contributes to the miss communications.

The top 3 items in my judgment that leads to confusion and miss understanding are:

1. The problem with identifying and classifying the issue at hand.
2. The interference of human emotions when dealing with complex issues.
3. The lack of focus in dealing with a particular issue by bringing other topics into the mix which only complicates the issue and not help with resolution.

According to EF Schumacher, in his book "A Guide to the Perplexed", he identified two basic types of problems. He classifies them as convergent and divergent problems. It is important to first realize that there is such a thing and second to classify a given problem correctly. If you don't realize this, you are doomed. He gives clear examples of the different type of problems and why they are important when trying to come up with solutions.
A sample convergent problem is - How to make a two wheeled man powered means of transportation? - a bicycle.
A sample divergent problem might be what is the best method of education?

Another item to be aware of is making decisions based on emotions rather than facts. It is common for a human to bring emotions into play when dealing with any issue. However, we realize that is a mistake and that is why in many cases such as legal and medical arenas, we insist that people who have a vested interest in the case be excluded from the decision process. That is so that their judgment won't be influenced one way or another by their personal emotional connection to the case.

Finally, the focus on the issue at hand. Invariably, in the course of a discussion, one party or another will bring up a different topic to either justify or support or defend their position. This is a red herring. It does not contribute to the discussion and merely clouds the issue with distraction.

Some common miss understanding of Conservatives:

1. Conservative sees issues in simple Black and White terms and therefore do not appreciate the various gray zones on many complex issues.
2. Conservatives do not want change and wants everything to stay the same (keeping the status quo) and in the process discriminate against certain populations.
3. Conservatives are judgmental and in some cases hypocrites.
4. Conservatives are influenced by their religious beliefs and try to impose them on the rest of the public.
5. Conservatives are selfish and wants only to preserve their power and wealth and won't share their wealth with the less fortunate.

My responses:

1. Conservatives tends to recognize the various types of problems and thus classify them as B/W and as grays. By doing so, we don't confuse one with the other and in some cases make a problem bigger or harder to solve.
2. Conservatives do not want to preserve the status quo but wants to keep traditional values that were long tested and stood the test of history. Changes can come about slowly and with popular support and through a process dictated by the Constitution and not by unelected judges.
3. Conservatives believe in personal responsibility as the primary mechanism to maintain order in society. In order to achieve this, laws must be created and judgement made. It is not to say we are perfect. It is a recognition that man is imperfect and that we need to abide by some laws that transcend our own existence.
4. Conservatives recognized and believe that our nation was founded on Judeo-Christian principles and that our laws also follow these framework. The separation of Church and State was devised by our founding fathers to protect us from a State mandated religion but not intended to keep God from our public conscience.
5. Conservatives believe that everyone should have equal opportunity to succeed but not a guaranteed outcome. We believe in helping our less fortunate neighbors but not via public assistance bureaucracies but rather through personal and private contributions and non-profit agencies.

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