I just watched a segment on the Rachael Maddow show featuring Meghan McCain. It was interesting to hear her explain her perspective on the Republican party and where she thinks it needs to go to be an effective sustainable party. I believe that her thoughts resonate with many Republicans and non Republicans alike that are sick and tired of steering far right even when life's road is straight or takes a turn to the left. In all fairness the same can be said for the Dems that steer far left, even when reason, logic and the betterment of America calls for a different direction than hard left.
I am not a member of either party, I am simply an American, and for me that is all I want to be. I feel this way because in my life, like most Americans I am confronted with experiences that will sometimes have me be conservative in my thinking and other times liberal. Not only that, but in my years, life and experience, knowledge can and will change some of your views. While I am not a party member I do believe that it is healthy to have parties that balance the scale, challenge, and test us in our plight to love our nation and make the world a better place. If you had to place me at this time in my life based on an average, I would say, TODAY, I am center left. But it depends on the issues. There was a time in my life when I was two, three clicks to the right of John McCain. Life happens and things change :)
Meghan McCain's position as a Progressive Republican is interesting to me because, of several points.
#1. Out here in the world of blood, sweat & tears, Americans from every walk, with every hat come together and make it happen. It works! We work. We make products together, the UPS man picks them up. The pilots fly them, etc... We make our jobs work, even when we don't see eye to eye on all the issues. Maybe it's because we are to busy working to fight about differences, instead we are connecting on common pourpose. Actually the fights do happen, but in most every case the job continues to it's fruition. So when I hear about people interested in maintaining their core foundation whether it be conservative values or liberal values, but those foundations not eliminating the probability of expanding/embracing difering views for a common pourpose, then I think it is great and is what brings us together to do incredibly wonderful things. It is what America is. We are different but come together for many a common poupose, hence we are "The United States of America."
#2. One of the biggest challenges that I see that face our nation is that our problem solving skills are lacking. Many people solve problems the best they can with the tools they have, I get that. I too do the same. What is different for me is that I am a process improvement guy "Lean Manufacturing guy" Six Sigma Black Belt guy (problem solving, continues improvement stuff kind of guy.) I have had a bit of exposure to various initiatives through out my working career. Some might suggest to much exposure! It has been very enlightening and I cannot imagine effective problem solving without the experience. Just like I can no longer imagine raising a dog minus active & dillegent obedience training. To me it is like raising a child without teaching him to speak. And what i know is that things change and new ways of problem solving are continuesly evolving. Also the one that gets you is continues improvement. Guess what it never stops, that is why they call it continues improvement!
OK, let me get to the point. My point is this, from generation to generation we are becoming better equipped with life's problem solving tools, and I am of the belief that in our efforts to solve problems we are coming closer and closer as a society with every solution and every failed attempt. We are migrating to the center rather than going to the fringes and I believe it is so because that is where the data is driving us. So I find it exciting to see young Meghan McCain holding to her principles but not being blinded by the reflection that can shine from what we hold dear, whether it is conservative or liberal cores. I find it encouraging because I, like most everyone wants to live in a country that truly lives up to the name it has been given. The UNITED States of America. I see a future where we are able to have our foundations and yet respect and work together to make life better. I believe it is inevitable because we live in a world that has information at lightning speed. Every word can be dissected to determine validity. That alone has the ability to drive the population to more consensus, it takes time, but not as much time as it used to!
#3. I do not think that anyone should fear that we will just become one big gray mass. What will happen is that we will still have different points of view but the things we differed on years ago we are more likely to agree on as the data & time reveals it's nature. We will magnify and find new things to differ on. i liken it to the saying "every coin has two sides." Well yes it does when you look at the coin from two feet away, but when you look at the coin through a loop you will see that the coin now has many sides, it has sides on it's sides! So will it be with our political views. As we come closer on issues, we will find new different issues, and we will always have issues to improve upon! And we will become better partners on dealing with and solving problems.
#4. While young people love their parents and can easily hold to various family values, they usually do not want to wear their parents bunched up old underwear. They want their own, rightfully so. Young people will inherently take the info/values handed down and they will make their own way. More and more with every generation. Why? Resources, info, knowledge & life coming at you fast. I don't think that we have to worry about babies picking parties, but certainly the younger generation is older in many ways then the previous similar generations. So the days of hand me down politics gets taken with young grains of salt and will be shaped accordingly. My hope is that it is not just Meghan McCain with her views and position of being a Progressive Republican but young people all over the world in all their beliefs and political perspectives!
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