ASHE IN AMERICA

If you follow my #Parler, then you have likely heard me talk about my #bestietheleftie. My best friend in the whole world is about as far left as you get.

She believes in a huge government, with state power and control exercised in favor of the leftist belief system (but Donald Trump is a fascist). She is opposed to killing babies as they are coming out the birth canal — common ground! — but she supports abortion in all other cases, believes that it is healthcare, and sees the fetus as a parasite — not a human with human rights — until it is physically independent from the mother.

She believes that most people who speak of “Freedom” are really just trying to retain their rights to take advantage of and oppress others due to their own greed and power hunger. She isn’t wrong on this as it relates to many (see: Global Corporate Capitalists and Communists; see also, Politicians). But she gets her ratios wrong.

She is a surgical robotics nurse, and wants the government to mandate healthcare the way she wants it. And she’d probably be fine with a vaccine-dependent, Westworldesque existence.

Now I am more of an Articles of Confederation, Bill of Rights gal. Yes, I know the national defense and trade. I am loyal to the US Constitution and the Republic she establishes. But I am radical on the cause of Freedom.

Bestie and I have different worldviews.

I know lots of people who say, “I have liberal friends but we never talk about politics or religion.” Bestie and I talk about politics and religion all the time. We debate. We change each other’s minds, both of us, on certain points. We find common ground. We love each other and treat each other with respect. When it gets heated, and one of us has had enough, we talk about the hockey, our families, our work, our passions, our goals. We never name-call. We respectfully debate ideas.

I assert that it is impossible to be truly friends with someone and NOT talk about politics or religion. First, because everyone’s relationship with religion is deeply a part of who they are. Second, because the past twenty years have succeeded in politicizing every aspect of life. Thus, human nature and trends of human behavior inhibit our ability to separate them in our daily lives and interpersonal relationships. Politics and religion are synonyms in 2020. And everyone worships something.

Other people tell me, “OK, you can succeed in arguing with an insane leftie, but why would you want to? Why keep that relationship?” I love this line of questioning. Bestie and I became friends over 20 years ago, Freshman year at University of Colorado. She was becoming a scientist and I was becoming a Journalist. Spoiler: I left journalism after one year and went into professional services. But that’s a story for another day.

Bestie was a vegetarian, activist, and raging liberal loyalist. I was a conservative, God-fearing, meat-eating, flag-waving patriot.

We are both still these things.

In college in the late nineties, it was very different than it is today. Debate was the thing. It was everywhere and people weren’t afraid of it. A savage’s goal in the late 1990’s was to intellectually better your peers. We debated hard, summoning Socrates, finding and building on common ground, point, counterpoint. Winners, losers. #gasp

Don’t get me wrong, during this period the left was rising. We saw early birth pangs of modern conservative self-censorship, but the public square wasn’t the liberal vacuum it is today. Fox News solidified their market share for 20 years during their coverage of the 2000 election, which occurred during my Junior year of J-school. Poetically, they destroyed their legacy with leftist propaganda exactly 20 years later. Clearly, Americans need more #vigilance with regards to the news.

We were friends with all kinds of people back then. We got to know each other as individuals with dreams and goals and passions and convictions. And back in the good old days, life wasn’t yet corroded by the oppressive campaign to infiltrate and politicize everything. It was a simpler and freer time.

Bestie and I became friends during these times. And she is one of the most loyal, justice-driven, kind-hearted friends that a person could ever ask for. She is wickedly smart, witty and hilarious, with a dark sense of humor. We share that last bit. She has never left me during hardship, never failed to bail me out of a jam, always been my person with whom I share my deepest secrets. We agree on most of the problem statements and principles for a moral and just world. We just disagree on most of how to bring that world about.

The other day, I said to her, “Maybe I should run for office.” She responded, “You totally should. I won’t vote for you.” I love that girl.

Here is the other thing. God gave her to me. I remember back in 1998, sitting at our kitchen table, in our downtown Boulder apartment, I first told her about my God. About the depth of joy I have in life. I told her about end times prophecies and what to watch for in the world relative to what God said was coming. I told her about the Jerusalem treaty that will allow the Jews to resume sacrifices on the Temple Mount, a treaty that is becoming more likely in the Trump era. I told her of the lock down of society, the new world order and the prophecy that we will need to take a Mark on our skin to buy and sell and move throughout society. Like on airplanes. I told her of all the signs and wonders — many that we are seeing come to pass, today.

That was one of many conversations over many years. And that foundation of discussion and debate makes for very cool conversations today. God wouldn’t have had me focus on planting seeds for this soul for this many years if he wasn’t gonna do a Big Thing. God always wins. Listening to and following the leading of the Holy Spirit is a skill to be crafted, like any other. That is the relationship we should all be nurturing the most!

The final point I want to make is that, because we love each other, idealize the world differently, and don’t shy from the debate, we understand each other. In turn, I understand the left and their arguments more deeply. I can engage them more successfully, because I know where we can find common ground.

Most people are not evil communists. But evil communism has influenced most people — successfully through politics and religion.

But I repeat myself.