Conservatives, liberals in Lassen County agree!
The conservatives of Lassen County are always 100 percent opposed to anything a liberal might propose. That is not actually true. When I talk to people who ‘claim’ to be conservative, we often agree about things and stuff. According to the last election stats, there are something like four Republicans to each Democrat in this county, and that is compared to an almost 50-50 split in the national election where many contests are won or lost with fewer than 1 percent of the votes cast.
But when I speak with people about guns, or welfare or abortions or any other issue that Americans are divided over, it is easy to find a compromise to solve a problem we all acknowledge exists.
I can’t find a conservative who supports allowing just anyone to have a gun, and we have agreed that better enforcement of gun laws would help to keep crazy people from getting one. We agree on that, but the idea of “better enforcement’ seems to be the real problem. One fellow said if his ex-wife could have a say on if he should be allowed to have a gun, he would oppose the idea, and that is the end of the discussion.
And when the debate about increasing the minimum wage was the issue, I had to point out that if working people made a living wage at any job they held, there would be no need for welfare and out government assistance programs, which would cut government spending and reduce the need for higher taxes to pay for assistance programs. My conservative friends would agree with that idea, and I had addressed their concern about the government taking too much tax money out of their pay checks.
There are ways to get around differences and make things better, if that is the intent of doing anything at all to make this a more perfect union, with liberty and justice for all.
James Ausmus
Leavitt Lake