Tiffany Bond  🦞 🇺🇸Verified account

I'm un# to add this. This is not about bothsiderisms. This is about when I talk to people and they know I'm not the other, I hear the same thing. We have a manufactured two sides, and an individual responsibility to fix that.

I literally can have a near verbatim conversation with a D or R. It goes something like this... Them: I'm worried that I can't afford to get medical care for my family. Me: me too, the current law has a lot of problems that need to be improved.

T: I'm concerned my children won't have a good financial future and can't afford college. M: me too, we've been defunding colleges for eons, and student loans are out of control. We need to provide a range of training options for the next generation.

T: There is so much greed and corruption in DC. They are all so bad, I don't know who to trust. They all sound like they kind of care, but I feel left in the dust and like I am begging my government to not harm me. M: me too, the job interview sucks and doesn't show real skills

T: I'm really worried about social security and medicaid. I'm not sure who to trust, all the politicians say the other party is trying to kill it. M: me too, we've worked our whole lives paying into it. It's insurance not entitlement.

...almost any issue, you can strip out the party and get the very same responses. There are certainly differences, but what we want from government, particularly at the federal level, is not that different - and not mutually exclusive in most cases.

To run for office, you make a point of creating how you are different. To stay in office, you perpetuate how you are different. Which needs an enemy, it needs another side. Otherwise we get lazy and don't bother to vote because government seems fine.

We need to start rewarding common goals and ostracizing the ridiculous, even if it's our side. We need to still show up if people are thoroughly adequate so the ridiculous, once rooted out, does not again take hold.