“This post is from an 9/92022 article by Steve Corbin, originally written for “Fulcrum,” a nonprofit, nonpartisan news platform:
“Thanks to tainted social media, prejudice-laden cable news, biased left- and right-wing think tanks and the disinformation and misinformation provided by politicians and their parties, one can only surmise Americans are greatly divided.
”The surprising reality is Democrats, Republicans. and independents agree on more issues – about 150 – than they disagree.
”Here are some examples:
- Abortion: 61% of Americans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases [Pew Research Center, June 13}
- Gender issues: Gallup notes in a 2022 report..71% of Americans support marriage between people of the same sex.
- Gun control: Background checks are favored by 89% of the public. Banning assault weapons has 63% support, while
64% want to ban high-capacity magazines and 60% want a nationwide database to track gun sales [ABC News, May
27]- Immigration: 62% of Americans feel immigrants strengthen the country; a complete reversal of the position
expressed in 1994 [Pew Research Center, Jan. 3l, 2019]
- Voting: Data for Progress reveals 66% of voters want to prevent state lawmakers from overturning elections, while
60% support universal vote-by-mail and a majority want to make it easier to vote [Sept. 24, 2021]
- Health care: Providing Medicare for all Americans to ensure everyone has health care coverage garners 69% support
[[The Hill, April 24, 2020]
- Cannabis: NORML reveal from its April 8 research that 69% of Americans support legalizing cannabis, plus 60%
favor expunging cannabis-related convictions.
- Racial justice: 86% of citizens agree that racism is a problem and 87% believe books that discuss race or slavery
should never be banned. [CBS News, Feb. 22]
- Taxes: An Oct. 16, 2021, Vox article notes 71% of voters support raising taxes on the wealthiest 2% of Americans.
”The Program for Public Consultation at the University of Maryland released an Aug. 7, 2020. report identifying
nearly 150 issues on which trhe majority of Republicans and Democrats agree, including:
- Social Security: Raising the cap on income subject to the payroll tax to $215,000 or more.
- Poverty programs: Increasing funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
- Energy and environment: Reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2% a year and providing tax incentives to
promote clean energy.
- Government reform: Overturning the Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision and regulating campaign
financing.
- International trade: The U.S. should continue participating in the World Trade Organization and rejoin the
Trans-Pacific Partnership that former President Trump abandoned in 2017.
- Federal budget: Roll back the tax cuts from Trump’s 2017 tax bill, impose a 4% surtax on income over $5 million
and add a 1% surtax on corporate income over $100 million.
Consider a 12/30/21 article by Dave Anderson: ”The truth is that our citizens are not polarized.” “The picture that emerges is on where everyone feels conflicted about many policy issues, but only about 60% of the country fits nicely on the red side or the blue side. Our conflicts therefore do not add up to a polarized country; they add up to a conflicted country in which well more than a third of the people do not have representation in Washington, which is extremely polarized.”
Conflict sells – gets people to click on, gets people to listen to fear mongering and demagoguery, gets people angry – which means they’re likely NOT thinking rationally gets people to think in terms of “us-versus them” - whoever “them” happens to be this time.
So – what”s. YOUR. “trusted source” ????? Does it tell. YOU. what you want to hear ? Does it try to get YOU to believe conspiracy theories and lies that have been disproved, things not believed in other democratic nations? What’s the long pattern of the party YOU. intend to vote for ? Have they done things to “promote the general Welfare” ??? [Constitution’s Preamble] Is that party promoting tolerance or hate? Would Washington, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower. vote for this party? Are. YOU. being manipulated? Please think. Please look at those lists provided above – most Americans agree on almost all the major issues. Where do YOU stand compared to them?op
With Justice For All 