No. I will not meet you halfway. You must change.

 

No. I will not meet you halfway. You must change.

Dear Trump supporter,

Let’s make a deal.  I will not accuse you of being evil as Satan or stupid as a bag of rocks if you show you are capable of learning from the experience of the past 4 years.  President-Elect Biden is going out of his way to embrace you and offer you a pathway to humanity.  I am not feeling so generous.  Here’s what I am willing to do:

You cannot support Nazis.  You cannot support a person who says Nazis are “very fine people.”  You cannot support a person who gasses citizens who are peacefully protesting.  You must change.  I will not meet you halfway, as in you can only support Nazis on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  No.  You can’t do that.  There is no halfway.

Now, if you can pull yourself away from the Nazi crowd, I am willing to have an intelligent, respectful discussion about what immigration policies are in the best interests of our country and in the best interests of your family.

You cannot support people who objectify or molest women, or worse.  You cannot have an attitude that it is OK for anybody to grab a woman by the pussy without invitation.  You must change.  I will not meet you halfway by saying that it is OK to molest women on Tuesdays and Saturdays.  It is not OK.  You must change. 

If you can find your way to condemn the abuse of women, then we can have an intelligent discussion about whatever underlying concerns might have led you to think molesting women is a good idea.

You cannot support crazy people owning a veritable arsenal of military-grade weapons.  I cannot meet you halfway by saying it is OK to own street sweeper guns as long as you promise to only shoot 100 rounds per day max.  You must change. 

If you can find a way to put down your “security blanket” weapons, we can have a discussion about gun policies that allow hunters and sport shooters to pursue their hobbies and allow you to reasonably defend your family.  80% of Americans have already come to terms with this.  You must also.

You cannot demand that government should dictate all reproductive decisions in the name of “pro life”, while at the same time supporting capital punishment, supporting policies of deliberately snatching babies from their mothers, and fighting policies that aim to provide a humane quality of life for everyone.  I cannot meet you halfway by saying it is OK to snatch young boys from their mothers as long as we let the mothers keep their daughters.  You must change. 

If you can recognize your essential hypocrisy, then we can have an intelligent, respectful conversation about what we can all do to minimize the number of non-essential abortions.  After all, none of us want abortions that are not medically necessary if there are other things we can do to address the root problems, such as poverty and lack of education.

You cannot support people who oppose science.  You cannot claim that climate change is a hoax.  You cannot claim that COVID is a hoax or that interventions like masks are “fake news”.  I cannot meet you halfway on any issues of science.  Science, by definition, has its own systems of challenges and proof.  You are welcome to offer challenges and proof, but you are not welcome to simply deny well-accepted facts and to impugn those who have done their duty under the scientific method.  I cannot meet you halfway.  You must change. 

If you can find your way to accept the scientific method, then we can have reasonable discussions about the certainty of consensus scientific positions and, more importantly, what policies make the most sense to meet these great problems.

I could go on and on, but let’s just leave it there.  I cannot meet you halfway if you insist on a position of ignorance or intolerance.  If that’s the only way you can live, then we are going to have hard times ahead.  I sincerely hope that you can learn something by what has transpired over the past 4 years and find a way to make the basic changes in your approach to living in a civilized society.  You must change.  I hope you do.  I will welcome you, fully understanding that we probably won’t agree on everything.  But nothing can happen until you commit to moving from the intractable positions you have locked yourself into.  You must do that.  I cannot do it for you and there is no “halfway” where we can meet.

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