Policies we can Debate

[Phoebe]

I'm making a list of policies I am capable of having a sincere, friendly debate about with today's Republicans (not the ones who are unhappy right now, but the ones who love all the current goings-on), which do not call the proponents' moral character, moral reasoning, patriotism, or basic humanity into serious question. Feel free to make suggestions. I'm doing this so that when I go to a series of upcoming family events I can occupy comfortable middle ground on the issues, or divert the conversation into something more pleasant for all to discuss. I like and even vote for particular Republican candidates from time to time, so obviously I think some of them are decent lads and lassies. The issue is that I have to communicate with some people who have really bad beliefs right now in a way that makes me question whether they are in fact decent lads and lassies. It could be this is an ill-starred mission from the get-go, given the number of my relatives bitching about female Dr. Who. Nevertheless:

1) Don't want women to be drafted or have to register for the draft.
2) Support investment in transportation infrastructure. Maybe not what I'd do with it, but again, a friendly debate can proceed on such a topic without anyone's ethics being questioned.
3) Support some interventions to help the opioid addiction epidemic. This is a close one due to pulling out the rug with health care, but again, at least most Republicans seem to be on board with this.
4) Are not bothered by the fact of sexual difference, though this is a close call because they may be bothered by gender fluidity and transgender identity. Depends whether you're dealing with one of the bathroom police, I guess. But I also dislike the current liberal orthodoxy around erasing sexual difference and insisting gender is totally separate from biology, and you don't get that from most Republicans.
5) Believe that free markets spur innovation and better trade, though again, close call because against regulation and Trump is switching up the party orthodoxy on trade. We can debate these things though - they're not morally suspicious to me.
6) Possibly, depending on who we're talking to, a reluctance to be too interventionist in foreign policy.
7) Don't think guns are inherently evil. I realize there are some close calls here because some people add up the gun deaths and the patterns of victimization and believe this is a serious moral failing, but good people can be comfortable with owning or using guns and not wanting them to be totally restricted. Gets dicey around the edges, but I wouldn't cast aspersions.
8) Some of them sincerely believe nonsense, like that building pipelines in the US on behalf of a foreign company yields thousands of long-term jobs and multiple millions surging into the economy. Wrong, but if they really think so, we can debate and maybe they have bad info.
9) Oppose strong affirmative action programs. We stop here because they often oppose weak ones too, or don't know the difference, but at least we can go this far down the road without enmity.
10) Some of the pro-life conservatives are sincere about wanting to save the lives of babies and are consistent about this when it comes to supporting care for pregnant women, babies, young children, not opposing the use of contraception, etc. Maybe it's a minority of them who are consistent about it, but it's a good common ground to work within.

OK, that's all I got. Anything else?

[Phoebe]

Okay, I am told (don't have the heart to investigate the newspaper for myself at this point, so forgive if this is inaccurate) that the Republicans in Congress just attached a proposal to bring in the Charlie Gard family as permanent US residents to a bad immigration bill. So translated into Human, this means that they are willing to make a special, personal exception for white people from the UK whose case appeals to the Schiavo-type prolife crazy segment, but they are unwilling to favor applications from other children whose arrival in the US would surely enable vital medical treatment, and they are unable and unwilling to implement health care policy that maximizes the number of US citizens who can access health care, including children. Lord Jesus I am unable too. I'm not kidding when I say I have to converse and relate to Republican human beings all the time - I mean, this is a thing I must do, very often. It is important that I'm able to be fair and reasonable with them. But I am doubting their basic human decency in a very big way. For real, I am struggling to come up with reasons why people who support all this shit are decent human beings inside their hearts. That's a problem. Even the basics of courtesy depend on thinking other people worthy of a minimal kind of care and respect, right? What do you do when other people are like, well, absolutely FUCK the people I dislike for racist and xenophobic reasons, let them actively suffer and die for all I care.

Edited to say I can't fix the grammar of my own post; fuck it, this whole story has rendered me non-functional. I'm trying to focus my mind on the fact that one of the worst political-views-holding Republicans I know is a pediatric nurse. So she is saving and caring for babies and is a deeply good person. Yet honest to God, she feels that taking any of her tax dollars to make sure that those babies can actually access the care, or offering some kind of legal pathway to citizenship for DACA kids, is a total outrage. And I cannot reconcile it, people. She is the best of the lot, too. Past that it's just... I can't come up with a reason to tolerate any of it.