I was always a conservative, but Josh Hawley’s absolutism ignores Missouri’s majority | Opinion
Growing up in the 1970s and ‘80s in rural Southern Illinois in a family feed business, I was raised fiscally conservative. Our family believed in limited government, pure and simple. Back then, social issues were primarily handled at the local level. Abortion, transgender issues, homosexuality — these were all topics that people debated or ignored at a family level or behind closed doors with like-minded individuals.
One notable aspect of my upbringing is my peer group, primarily white Christians.
Having lived my adult life in the Kansas City area, I still hold to the conservative values of limited government. On social issues, however, I have come to embrace a “live and let live” position. Who am I to tell others what to think or how to feel? To do that would be dealing in absolutism — an all or none approach to public policy.
“If I told you once, I told you a million times: Stop exaggerating!” I do not know who deserves credit for this statement, but it illustrates today’s political discourse.
The world is flat. The Washington Generals will beat the Harlem Globetrotters someday. And everything you see on the internet is factual. Of course, these statements will come true if repeated enough.
Things are not black and white. Gray should be our national color. Let us concede there are loons on both ends of the political spectrum — 20% neofascists on the right and 20% communist hippies on the left. That leaves a large number in the middle — 60%. The big 6-0. It is this majority that should be the loudest.
Let us move forward following the will of that big 6-0, and not a bloviating, orange-faced toddler. Let us consider the multiple layers of a particular issue and not simply say, “My way is the only way.” Within the big 6-0 reside Republicans and Democrats. These individuals are pragmatic and open to commonsense laws.
People in the big 6-0 own firearms, but do not need fully automatic weapons. Like me, Lucas Kunce teaches responsible gun ownership to his sons. This makes sense: a father teaching his sons right from wrong.
The 6-0 bloc abhors the thought of abortion as a means of birth control, as it also reveres an individual’s right to make personal decisions with medical providers.
Sen. Josh Hawley co-sponsored a federal abortion ban. That is all. What Hawley says must be the law. Hawley believes he is speaking from a moral high ground, and that he and his Republican Party hold the answers for us common folk. Never mind the fact Hawley is a career politician controlled by people whom he allows to direct him. Or never mind that he makes blatantly false statements, such as the assertion that Kunce purportedly backs giving Social Security to people in the United States illegally. Really? Come on.
Hawley is the 2-0 camp: absolutism.
Kunce is practical. He is a military veteran, and I believe if elected, he would serve the residents of Missouri with a moderate voice, and not simply follow a leftist Democratic Party playbook. Kunce would do his duty, regardless of who sits in the Oval Office.
We need to get back to the day when our politicians can argue the merits of an issue, but still enjoy a meal with the opposition. President Ronald Reagan and House Speaker Tip O’Neill were often seen together in social settings. Back then, civility was the rule and not the exception. It was not a time of us versus them.
Absolutism is our enemy this election year. Please cast your vote for someone who sees “us.” That someone is Lucas Kunce.