Election: Still hope for a civil process

Some perfectly reasonable citizens sincerely believe that creating wealth is as important as redistributing it, nurturing small local businesses is a better engine of economic growth than over-taxing them, and massive federal engineering of the economy only works until bureaucrats run out of other people’s money.

My good friends on the left need to realize that economic conservatism does not necessarily mean sexism, racism or hatred of the poor. A socialist may respectfully disagree with a conservative, but when one attacks the other as an “evil capitalist” or “oppressor,” then it is the socialist, not the conservative, who employs fascist tactics, belying a deep insecurity driven by resentment.

I plan to vote for Bernie Sanders. But if you are an economic conservative, you have a candidate that I deeply respect, one who is neither an emotionally disturbed narcissist, a religious fanatic nor a hireling of the arms merchants, but a sound seasoned executive named John Kasich.

A sane election is possible in this nation. I can imagine a civil, intelligent debate between Kasich and Sanders, if both sides would only abandon childish stereotypes of “capitalist” and “socialist.” The better way might just be a combination of the two.

This story was originally published March 4, 2016 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Election: Still hope for a civil process."