Workable balance of liberals and conservatives needed for society
I was amused by a letter in The Tribune on Saturday claiming that conservatives use common sense and not emotion when they vote (“At least conservatives have their heads screwed on right,” June 25). It is funny because that is exactly what liberals claim that they do.
Most people have what can be called a liberal or conservative personality. Studies show that our environment creates some of this, but much of the rest comes from our genes. In the United States, this translates into a whole list of political positions that a typical conservative will adopt, and a different list that a typical liberal will support.
In other words, our political positions tend to be grounded in emotions. It is very difficult for persons to be dispassionate about their beliefs. If a hot political button is pressed, both liberals and conservatives equally will resort, if necessary, to the most fantastic violations of reason, logic and common sense to advance their cause.
Liberal and conservative personalities have their respective strengths and weaknesses as far as governance is concerned. Nature and evolution seems to have distributed these traits among humans in a workable balance. Without this balance, it is doubtful that advanced human societies, as irrational as they are, could have evolved at all.
Gerald Manata, Paso Robles
This story was originally published June 30, 2016 at 8:38 PM with the headline "Workable balance of liberals and conservatives needed for society."