This may come of no surprise, I really have no clue what a conservative or a liberal is. (Hangs my head down in shame.)

Social media has become a plattform in which people seek to get approval and likes. They do anything to get these

Lorelei, I tend to agree with you that many Conservatives are really not all that open-minded. Yes, I have met some rather fundamentalist Liberals who tended to push their personal political agenda on everyone they met. But in the main, the ones who attempt to legislate morality and aggressively push their religious or political agendas, tend to be Conservatives.

Barb,

First of all, thanks so much for taking the time to leave such a thoughtful response! And I heartily agree with you that if we can’t actually enter into reasoned discourse, we aren’t ever going to understand one another. The whole insistence on talking points and accusations is what makes having those conversations so difficult.

I notice that your response seemed to focus a great deal on federal vs local government, and on the way the constitution in the US is interpreted. I probably don’t appreciate the nuances of what you’re saying there, as I’m not American and Canada is run very differently from the US. A good example is that here in Canada, we don’t have a problem of federal interference in education. Interestingly, we still have many of the same problems our American neighbours face with respect to budget cuts, curriculum reform, and often even teaching to the test.

Another point that I found piqued my interest was your claim that most of the federal and international agendas were pushed by progressives. I believe that for the most part in Canada, those same agendas were pushed by Conservative governments.

i think I would agree with a free market too, if that market consisted mainly of small local businesses that dealt fairly with their employees and filed an honest tax return. The corporations that currently have a stranglehold on politics in both the US and Canada, tend to favour the Conservative approach and don’t have much interest in progressives. I find that very telling, too.

I refuse to do the ” dirt slinging” with all the parties. Here in the USA we have to right to vote for whoever we want.

good points. sometimes Liberals do get a bad name. I shared this post too via Twitter