Political Similarities

As I watched the State of the Union address this evening, one thing that struck me was how many of the current president's priorities matched very closely the priorities of the previous president. Both presidents talked about how the nation isn't doing so well in some respects anymore, and we should be doing better. Both presidents spoke of the need to improve the economy and create more jobs for our nation instead of outsourcing. Both presidents discussed the need to secure our borders and better regular immigration. And both presidents had some harsh words to say against our nation's enemies and potential enemies. Despite their political differences and the strong support for one and antagonism for the other, they had far more political similarities than I would have imagined.

I suppose it just goes to show that maybe people aren't as different as they seem. Maybe we have more common ground than we realize, once we learn to look past the few actual differences. We're all human. We're all trying to get by. The vast majority of us are trying to do what we believe is right. And most of us agree on many of the same basic principles of morality. While people disagree on some specific political issues, there are a number of matters on which we can agree. The more we focus on our common goals, the more progress we can make toward them.

While there are still important differences and important discussions to be had, I think there is a certain amount of wisdom to finding and focusing on the common threads between us, especially since there may be more of them than we imagined.