The great tragedy of our time is that liberals vote left.
Virtually every value liberals have held for a century is now held by conservatives and scorned by leftists. Therefore, America, in serious jeopardy of being lost, will be saved when people convince the liberals in their life that the left, not the conservative, is their enemy.
This process begins by establishing whether a friend or relative is a liberal or a leftist. If it turns out that he or she is a liberal, it is worth engaging in respectful dialogue on the issues of the day. If the friend or relative is a leftist, you can probably only talk about innocuous subjects such as the weather (though not about global warming) or sports (though not about players taking a knee during the national anthem). If you talk about the great issues of the day with a left-wing friend or relative, that could be the last time you talk to each other. Leftists generally do not dialogue; they dismiss.
Here are questions you might want to pose to friends/relatives to determine — as much for them as for you — whether they are liberal or left.
Race
1. The University of California has declared this statement racist: “There is only one race — the human race.” Do you agree with the University of California, or do you agree with the statement?
2. Is the goal of being “colorblind” — doing one’s best to ignore a person’s color and concentrating only on the person’s character and personality — a noble goal or a racist one?
3. Do you agree that all white Americans are racist?
4. If your answer is yes, would you tell the millions of blacks in Africa and the Caribbean who wish to emigrate to America that they would be making a poor decision? If not, why not?
5. Is it racist to claim that Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed the greatest music ever composed?
6. Is the national anthem racist?
7. If your answer is yes, what would you like to put in its place?
America
8. Do you agree with The New York Times’ “1619 Project” that America was not founded in 1776 but in 1619 with the first arrival of black slaves in North America, and that the Revolutionary War was fought in order to preserve slavery?
9. Should statues of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln be taken down?
10. Has the United States, overall, made the world a better place?
11. Would America be better, worse or the same as now if all Americans dropped their religion and became secular?
12. Has capitalism been a net-plus for America and the world?
13. Could a good person have voted for Donald Trump in 2020?
14. Do you believe that CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times and the rest of the mainstream media are biased toward the left or try to present the news as accurately as possible?
15. There are between 11 and 30 million people in America who entered the country illegally. Should they all be put on a path to citizenship?
16. Do you believe police departments should be defunded, or at least have their budgets severely cut?
Men and Women
17. Should it be legal for a teenage girl to have her breasts surgically removed because she identifies as a male — or should there be a minimum age of 18 or 21?
18. Schoolteachers have been told to stop calling students “boys and girls” because a student might not identify as either male or female. Do you agree with this policy?
19. Should biological males who identify as females be allowed to compete against biological females in sports?
Speech
20. Do you believe that free speech allows for hate speech, or should hate speech be banned?
21. If you believe hate speech should be banned, who do you believe should determine what is hate speech?
You might want to send these questions to the people in your life whose views are to the left of your own. At best, you (and they) will realize that you have more in common than either of you previously thought. At the very least, their answers will bring you both clarity. And at worst, they will explain why there is a rift between you — and why you might want to restrict communication to weather, sports, recipes and warm memories.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist.
