https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism_in_the_United_States

Got some bad news for you and them. We all have far more in common than we know.

We are all .. pretty liberal. The United States is founded on .. liberalism. We progressed due to .. liberalism. The robber barons were made rich by .. liberalism.

Surprised Pikachu - "We're all liberals?!" .. yes. In different degrees, yes. The idea of "conservative" has shifted .. very far from what it once was. All along .. we have been fighting with friends, and friends have lost their way because they no longer see OUR perspective: empathy has died in internet echo chambers. < This is an idea I first heard on NPR - and, of course the story has been BURIED and is invisible. If I try to find it now, I get: "Echo chambers are a myth" --- no, they're not.

Democrats and Republicans aren't a threat to democracy and rule by the people. Echo chambers are.

https://www.fairobserver.com/devils-dictionary/has-democracy-become-a-threadbare-reality/

>Democracy has always been about debate. But debate has all but turned away from its original model, human dialogue aiming at the intelligent sharing and exchange of information. Dialogue implies seeking some form of mutual understanding to mitigate conflict, a state that if allowed to fester can only be resolved by the victory of one side and the defeat of the other. At a time when the White House and the official theoreticians of security in the United States evoke a “battle brewing between authoritarianism and democracy,” the confusion about what democracy means and how it translates into government has never been greater. Contemporary democracy appears to have cultivated a taste for conflict and the minimizing of dialogue.

We are all headed down a dangerous path. Like our need to vote - our need to resist the temptation to be ignorant of the opinions of others .. is equally important. It is how our nation was founded. It is how our nation became great.

Straying from our core values is how we die as a civilization.