Welcome to 2 Sides and Mine, a unique approach to political discussions where I share the left and rights view on a topic and then share my view. My hope is that people can stop with the trench making long enough to just listen to the other side. Each side thinks they corner the market on the truth, morals, and the right path for this country.  So this is my attempt to turn DOWN the political noise and yet remain true to my own voice while not insulting any peculiar side.

At times it can seem that the forces pulling us apart are stronger than the forces binding us together. Argument turns too easily into animosity. Disagreement escalates into dehumanization. Too often, we judge other groups by their worst examples while judging ourselves by our best intentions — forgetting the image of God we should see in each other.”  George W. Bush on Oct. 19, 2017

The Problem with our current politics is people are being ignored. I’ve talked to the poor Republican in a small country town who has worked hard and has nothing to show for it.

I’ve talked to the poor Democrat in the city who works full time but still can’t afford rent and to provide a decent life for her child. Both people are mad. Both people blame the other side. The poor Republican sees their paycheck and blames the freeloaders, the people on food stamps, welfare, and Medicare getting what seems like a free ride on their worn out back.

The poor Democrat who works part-time at McDonald’s and Walmart because neither of them wants her to be full time because then they would have to provide health insurance so working two part-time jobs and can’t support herself and her child so they are on food stamps and other assistance.

The poor Democrat sees Corporate America as the problem, the rich CEO’s with their houses and Yachts while you work every hour they will give you. The Republican in a small country town doesn’t have many employment options so it is those 1%’s with their factory is the only reason they can provide for their family. They want the company to do well so they can do well.

Both feel Washington isn’t listening to them, the establishment cares only for themselves and their donors. This is why Populism politics have grown… well so popular. Trump on one side, Bernie Sanders on the other side of Populism, both promising big ideals. Many voted for them because of their energy, their voices echo our hearts. We simply want a better country. What that looks like and how you get there depends on what “side” you are on, welcome to politics.

Politics can be complex, people do switch sides throughout time as I did. Family upbringing can play a big role, it is of little wonder that most people from Republican households are Republicans and same for Democrats. Also, the nature of life can affect your position, you may be anti-LGBT until someone close to you comes out as gay or trans. You may be against Obamacare but when you realize it saved your life when you got cancer, it can change your mind. You may be pro-union but when your factory job is lost when they move to Mexico, you rethink your stances.  Also the social circle we surround ourselves with, many Democrats have little to no Republican friends or family in their close circle, vice versa with Republicans.

E pluribus unum Latin for “Out of many, one” our motto and one we shouldn’t forget that we are a melting pot of many cultures.

For me, I was strongly Republican but when I ended up laid off from 3 jobs in a row in 2007 and was on food stamps temporarily and was told I was lazy and yet I was applying for every job I could get. At one point I was working two jobs, 8am to midnight and working 7 days a week and still couldn’t afford living expenses. I was living in HUD subsidy housing and being told I could always apply for the projects. All the hard work and nothing to show for it started to change my mind with politics.

People are angry in politics. Why? Because rulings like Citizens United and crony capitalism has allowed corporations to rule us via the very powerful lobbyist and the average American on either side of the aisle is not being listened too.

The truth is, the government isn’t listening to us common folks on either side.

In 2014, a study titled “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens”  Gilens & Page found that the number of Americans for or against any idea has no impact on the likelihood that Congress will make it law.

“The preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”

One thing that does have an influence? Money. While the opinions of the bottom 90% of income earners in America have a “statistically non-significant impact,” economic elites, business interests, and people who can afford lobbyists still carry major influence.

To win a Senate seat in 2014, candidates had to raise $14,351 every single day. Just .05% of Americans donate more than $10,000 in any election, so it’s perfectly clear who candidates will turn to first, and who they’re indebted to when they win.

In return for campaign donations, elected officials pass laws that are good for their mega-donors, and bad or irrelevant at best for the rest of us.

Both sides are guilty of this. Our elected officials spend 30-70% of their time in office fundraising for the next election. When they’re not fundraising, they have no choice but to make sure the laws they pass keep their major donors happy – or they won’t be able to run in the next election.

You can watch an excellent video of the problem below.

The Tea Party and Occupy Wall street tapped in this anger of people feeling ignored and beaten down by an overreaching government they feel aren’t listening to them.  The GOP often talks about free market but under the hood, it is often corporate welfare or crony capitalism—cozy relationships between government and business designed to thwart competition (being easy on mergers the left might see as anti-Trust) and ease the way toward success for a favored few. Americans have had a long history of cronyism going back at least to the Boston Tea Party.  Many times they write regulatory policies and tax benefits if a company keeps jobs here. In the last 5 years alone, the 200 most politically active companies in the U.S. spent $5.8 billion influencing our government with lobbying and campaign contributions.

Those same companies got $4.4 trillion in taxpayer support aka corporate welfare – earning a return of 750 times their investment.

Many governors, for example, have huge taxpayer-financed economic development funds used to lure businesses to their states—in exchange for new jobs. Even when these incentives fail to deliver promised results, as is often the case, they still benefit well-connected business executives and their companies.

A free market is by definition a business environment in which companies produce products and services valued by consumers at a cost they are willing to pay, free from special advantages created by government. In such a market, not only will a business fail when it doesn’t create value for consumers, it will be allowed to fail. But well-meaning politicians often can’t resist interventions into the free market through bailouts, subsidies, government loan forgiveness, or other lifelines. And of course, companies have every incentive to go after such special treatment, both in terms of lobbying for them and flocking to them once they are created. This is corporate welfare found at every level of government in America and in nearly every realm of government policy.

The key here is competition. Corporate welfare assaults the very concept of competition by giving selected enterprises government-sponsored advantages or privileges that fall into three fundamental categories: financial support through spending subsidies, tax incentives, special government financing, or bailouts; regulatory preferences such as monopolies or mandates; and protectionist policies such as tariffs or quotas.

In a truly free market, the government doesn’t seek to protect jobs, industries, or firms. Rather, it merely fosters contract enforcement and protects individual rights—including property rights—under the rule of law. The government must also, of course, punish and deter fraud. And governments also have a regulatory mission, but that should apply equally to all businesses in any given industry. Under this concept, there is no tilting of the playing field, no rigging of the system. Markets are allowed to work, failed businesses allowed to actually go under.

All real social change comes from being visible, being loud, though many on both sides criticize marches like the women, tax and many other marches/rallies but these marches are often the catalyst of change. It is staying active and making your voices heard to those in politics. When enough people talk about it, the government can’t ignore you anymore and must respond. As long as we are angry with each other we can’t unite for real change, we need to use our voices, listen to people who disagree with you and see if a way forward can include their grievances, and most importantly use our votes to change the rules.

It isn’t free market vs government overreach as each party paints, both sides policies aka rules influence businesses either for the good of the business often at the cost of the workers or for the workers at the cost of the business themselves.

This is how Populism rose in popularity as it is a reaction to those in power and years of crony capitalism, after many years of voting for someone and feeling ignored, people got fed up. In Populism politics, people are attracted to a strong man or authoritarian style which uses scapegoating to generate support such as Trump. They didn’t want establishment figure anymore, they wanted someone who talked big and who they felt would deliver that.

Another side of Populism politics is reform, we will rebuild, we will restructure this program or these policies, and Bernie Sanders hits this with his platform of reform of health care to single-payer universal health care, for education to make public college free and his mantra of not working for the top 1% and fighting for the middle class.

On the left, Bernie tapped in the same frustration from those in Occupy Wall Street who felt they work a full-time job and can’t afford a living. Both sides frustrated then turned against each other. In my talks with many Trump supporters, many actually liked Bernie as well. They didn’t choose Trump because of his crazy tweets and off the wall comments, they chose him because he said what they were thinking. They felt a businessman would be better than a politician, hence many don’t care he isn’t presidential acting, that is part of why they liked him. When Hillary stole the election from Bernie, a sizable percentage of Bernie supporters went to Trump.

Each side blames the others for the downfall of America or at least their personal struggles. The left blames the right for bailouts of corporate America using tax money, for laws that keep the rich getting richer and corporations while many work at minimum wage and can’t afford very basic living.

The right blames the left, they see the corporate America as their way of making a living, they see the low-income people getting free medical, free phones, free food, and checks in the mail while they work 1-2 jobs and can barely pay their bills so they want to see the business succeed so they can have keep a job so they can provide for their family while seeing social welfare programs and policies are attacking there progress to a better live. That is why many poor Republicans seemingly vote against their own good will when the Democrats would seem like a better party for them.

Each solution to one side is seen an attack on the other side. Happy Holidays to please everyone is seen as an attack on Christmas. Healthcare for all is an attack on your free markets and capitalism. Gay marriage is an attack on traditional marriage. Being supportive of other religions is seen as an attack on Christianity. Even common sense gun laws are seen as an attack on gun owners. The rights for a baker to make cakes for who they want is an attack on LGBT rights. Each side sees the progress of the other side as an attack on them.

Sure there are differences of opinions and that is fine to debate about but there is a lot of similarities as well. Some of the most conservative people out there actually sound like Bernie Sanders in wanting to get rid of crony capitalism and corporate welfare. There are ways we can reach across the aisle.

First, we must be willing to listen to each other and look for common ground, if possible. In many pollical discussions, the goal is the same but the method is sharply divided along political lines. A guy on the left wants to gun control to keep people from getting shot, a guy on the right says the more guns then it keeps a bad guy from shooting people. The goal is neither side wants people to die from guns. The policy to get there creates our political fighting.

I encourage you to look through the articles and share your own viewpoints as well. Try to keep an open mind and be willing to listen to opposing viewpoints as you read. Politics is often painted black and white but I find it is often in the middle. There are conservatives that are against crony capitalism and there are progressives that don’t agree with NFL football players kneeling. There are Trump supporters who support gay marriage and liberals who don’t like ObamaCare.