What can the left an right agree on?

Machjo

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It would be interesting to find points the political left and right can agree on, and then see how we can build constructive bridges from there.

Any ideas on where we can start?
 

Ocean Breeze

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The earth is round (ish)

Water is a clear liquid.

the moon is not made out of green cheese.

Money (or lack of) dictates most of humaniods actions.
 

Ocean Breeze

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Re: RE: What can the left an right agree on?

Haggis McBagpipe said:
Ocean Breeze said:
The earth is round (ish)

Water is a clear liquid.

the moon is not made out of green cheese.

Money (or lack of) dictates most of humaniods actions.

Well... but it's a moot point about item 3, eh?

http://moon.google.com (zoom in to max)
:wink:


just "knew" someone would take issue with THAT one. :wink:
 

Machjo

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OK, then let's try another question.

Let's say you wanted to join a community organization to do volunteer work, promote some cause, or what have you, but you also wanted to join one with which both politically left and right leaning people might be interested in joining, which organization would that be?

I would assume that any political organization would be out of the question. And as for religious organizations, well, except for the more fanatical ones, they tend to like to stay out of politics anyway, so right or left would be irrelevent there. But of course you'd then have to believe in the faith in question.

So I guess it would probably need to be an a-political and secular organization. Feel free to disagree here; I'm just brainstorming as I go along. So among secular a-political organizations, which do you think could be attractive to both left and right wingers as well as those who are generally a-political and which could be attractive to people of all faiths?

So what organizations might fall in that list?
 

Cosmo

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Jul 10, 2004
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RE: What can the left an

Machjo ... MOST excellent question!! Finding points of agreement is probably a huge step forward.

I shall have to think on it ... I have found several, actually.
 

Vanni Fucci

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Dec 26, 2004
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Machjo said:
So I guess it would probably need to be an a-political and secular organization. Feel free to disagree here; I'm just brainstorming as I go along. So among secular a-political organizations, which do you think could be attractive to both left and right wingers as well as those who are generally a-political and which could be attractive to people of all faiths?

So what organizations might fall in that list?

Amnesty International

Human Rights Watch

Doctors Without Borders

International Committee of the Red Cross/Crescent (even though they are evil :twisted: )
 

mrmom2

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Mar 8, 2005
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Amnesty International

Human Rights Watch
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Yea the right loves those orgs. :p They don't exactly fit in with their plans of raping the earth for profits :p
 

Vanni Fucci

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mrmom2 said:
Amnesty International

Human Rights Watch
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Yea the right loves those orgs. :p They don't exactly fit in with their plans of raping the earth for profits :p

Well that's beside the point though Mom...

You see, George Bush has set a precedent now, in that any time a leader of a country is in violation of the globally guaranteed human rights of its citizens, we can launch an ad hominem invasion to kick their asses into compliance...

Isn't that swell... :p
 

Machjo

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Vanni Fucci said:
Machjo said:
So I guess it would probably need to be an a-political and secular organization. Feel free to disagree here; I'm just brainstorming as I go along. So among secular a-political organizations, which do you think could be attractive to both left and right wingers as well as those who are generally a-political and which could be attractive to people of all faiths?

So what organizations might fall in that list?

Amnesty International

I have come across right wingers criticizing AI, saying it had left wing bias. I'm not saying I agree with that statement, but merely that I have come across such opinions.

Human Rights Watch

Maybe. I've never heard any criticisms of them from any angle. But I wouldn't mind reading comments from any others on this.

Doctors Without Borders

I've never heard any criticisms of them either.

International Committee of the Red Cross/Crescent (even though they are evil :twisted: )

Nor the Red Cross.

Three out of four. Not bad!
 

I think not

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The right and the left are extremists in every way, this is the reason there is no reasoning or understanding. It's a mindset, its as simple as that. One hand doesn't trust the other.

There always appears to be some hidden "agenda" on either side. The more extreme they become the more they fuel people to become more center and more flexible.

As far as an organization goes, I can really think of none except "perhaps" anything with an educational goal or objective, they both seem to agree the significance of it, even though they disagree on certain issues about it.
 

Machjo

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I'm sure any UN organization is out of the question because for some right wingers, the UN is the AntiChrist foretold somewhere or other in their interpretation of the Bible.
 

Machjo

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But I know some churches have sometimes supported teaching American Sign Language. I'd suspect this is one thing most people could agree with across interfaith and ideological lines.
 

Machjo

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Tree planting projects? Maybe. They don't invovle any government, and don't say anything about whether or not companies can cut trees down.
 

Reverend Blair

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Apr 3, 2004
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RE: What can the left an

I think you'll find that things are polarised enough right now that you won't find anybody admitting to common ground. It's not that there aren't things where common solutions don't exist, but the rhetoric from both sides has been so ugly for so long that politicians are afraid to be seen agreeing with their opposition.

Consider the budget. Paul Martin and Ralph Goodale carefully sculpted a conservative budget. It is something that Martin has been doing all along, but he extra-careful to make sure to do it this last time because he needed support to pass it. Since the economic policies of the Martinites and Harperites are basically the same, we got a conservative budget.

Harper loved it. He didn't even wait for the House to rise for the day...he rushed out into the foyer to say how great it was. Within a week he was backing from that position and was soon willing to bring the government down on a budget vote.

That brought about the so-called NDP budget. The Conservatives had previously signed a letter, along with the NDP and BQ asking for more money for foreign aid. The Conservatives have at least paid lip service to more money for education. They have been pushing for more money for cities. The only thing in the NDP budget they had consistently opposed was money for childcare. They agreed, according to statements made only months or weeks before, with 3/4's of the NDP amendments. They opposed all of those amendments with predictions of absolute doom.

What drives that kind of flip-flop is negative rhetoric. Harper can't very well call the Liberals and NDP complete incompetents when it comes to budgets, then turn around and agree with them. He's calling them complete incompetents because he wants to get elected though...and that has more to do with his social agenda than anything else.

We aren't as bad as the US yet, but we're close. Forget about bi-partisanship, it's all zero-sum politics now.