Have you hugged your flag today?

I have had a long standing belief that the major difference between Democrats and Republicans (Liberals and Conservatives if you like) is the ability to put ones self in someone else's shoes. In my personal experience Republicans are almost incapable of such a feet. (If dick Cheney's daughter wasn't gay do you think his stance on homosexuals would be the same?)

As a Democrat I find this ability an important step in formulating an argument. It's the devils advocate of being able to understand and argue the opposing point of view.

Having experienced the Fourth of July recently with some conservative family members I decided that I could make these observations a regular part of this blog, starting with Republicans who wrap themselves in the flag.

I found a poll from a few years back that I think describes the situation fairly well:

By self-report, Republicans are more patriotic – last year, 76 percent of them said they were very patriotic, compared with 53 percent of Democrats. Self-described conservatives were 24 points more likely than liberals to describe themselves that way.

Conservatives were more likely than liberals to see differences in patriotism between the two groups. A quarter of conservatives believed liberals were less patriotic than they themselves were, a percentage nearly four times as large as the percentage of liberals who felt conservatives were less patriotic.

While I'm not surprised by the numbers I think the information is very telling. The Conservative assumes that being a Liberal makes you an arch enemy of America (ie Communist or Socialist). While the Liberal assumes if you live in the country the odds are you support this country.

This is where the "putting yourself into someone else's shoes" comes in. As a Liberal I understand showing up to a World Cup soccer match in head to toe red, white and blue, but what I don't understand is showing up to a BBQ down the street with the same outfit on. I really don't care about your level of patriotism on a day to day basis. I don't think the number of times you sang the National Anthem has any bearing on your level of Patriotism. Because of this I understand that Liberals wouldn't feel the need to identify themselves as patriotic.

I also understand that to Republicans things are black and white and you are either for us or against us. This is why they need to identify themselves as patriotic and hang American flags every where to prove how patriotic they are. The point being, I get it; I don't do it myself, but I get it.

Where the problem lies is that they don't understand how I can be so non-committal. They don't understand how you can be of Mexican decent in America and be just as proud of your heritage as you are of being American. For them it needs to be one or the other. This is why when I debate with a Republican we both walk away mad for different reasons. I'm upset because they can't understand my point of view and my Republican friend is mad at how wrong I am.

These poll results are an example of the underlying problem. The only trouble is my Republican friends won't understand this post, other than that it will make them mad and prove that they are a better American than I am.