I write about Ethics for those who already do share my core values but who, like the rest of us, do not always manage to live up to the best they know. At times they, and I, need a little reinforcement, and encouragement, and reminding.
I believe it is useful to strengthen those who already are, for the most part. of good character. They need to build on, and perhaps add to, their cognitive assets.
Further, maybe someone who holds the word “liberal” low on their scale and I, [who avoids using such an ambiguous word] do agree on some important values, and on the policies that might follow from those values. One way to learn if this is so is to engage in a dialog with them.
My impression, currently, of many Republicans is that they don’t care to protect the vulnerable, the poor, the handicapped [–aren’t we all, in some way ?!] and the unlucky. Their attitude is: “hard work, merit, make lots of money, and in this way earn my respect! We are superior to those weak lazy bums …the commoners, the unskilled, the menial workers, the simple ones.” {Note the Us-versus-Them meme…}. These “conservatives” may likely deny that they feel this way but they do.
The intellectual Republicans - whose who can actually think - are now “never Trump” - for they do care a bit, they do share some values with Democrats. The wisest of the Rs - treasuring the value and the privilege of the franchise - even voted last time around for Hillary (a D). They knew their ethics to the extent that they early on recognized Trump as the conniving conman that he is.
Now they are appalled at the tremendous danger to the democratic way of life that he has caused. They are shocked at all the damage he has done to trust, to respect for government, to belief in law and order, to democracy itself.
I am for the Green New Deal, as vague as it now is, for I am keenly aware of the harm that The Climate Crisis brings. …fires, floods, tsunamis, typhoons, extreme hurricanes, polar vortices, rising sea levels, release of Methane into the atmosphere that previously stayed in the oceans. I can, so far, take the oppressive heat, but many people now will wish they lived in a cave, where it is cooler. T
hat mentally-disabled guy in the White House pulled the U.S.A. out of the Paris Climate Accords, which, as inadequate as it is, at least got the world a teeny-bit closer to a solution to this problem: of near-extinction of the human species and the desecration of our habitat.
The problem of Greenhouse gasses itself results from our slowness to convert to Renewable Green Energy. Pres. Carter pushed for this conversion way back, in the 1970s (in a 'fire-side chat from the Oval Office), but virtually-no-one listened.
Holding up to view an ideal, as something at which to aim, is not such a bad thing to do. Even if we fall short of reaching such high goals, we are at least able to make some progress - by keeping our eyes on the prize!
— Thomas Jefferson
p.s.I got this Jefferson quotation from this site, a page very-much worth reading and supporting:
marianne2020.com/issues/education
I believe in providing more opportunity. Let’s help others to rise !!!
Please tell us your views on these matters…