I have a friend…we’ve been friends for maybe 5 years, known each other maybe 8 or so. They are good people, intelligent, sharp as a tack, and just a nice person.
However, we disagree politically in some areas, not all. And when I say we can disagree…I mean we can really disagree. But, most of our underlying principles are pretty dang close.
The political differences weren’t always a problem. But somewhere along the way they almost started becoming more important than our friendship. Things I wrote bothered them. Some of their responses bothered me. Emails went back and forth. And eventually I realized something…
We were doing exactly what I think is happening all across America.
Two people who actually have a lot in common were allowing the things they disagreed about to define their relationship.
So I asked them a question…Would they be willing to let me turn our private email exchange into an article?
They agreed.
I am not going to use their name. That’s not important. And I’m not publishing this so you can decide which one of us is right.
Actually…that’s kind of the whole point.
Here is what happened…
It all started with this article “The Biden Crime Family… (May 4, 2026)” < click here to read >.
The article starts out talking about the Biden family as a criminal organization. Then I morphed the article into talking about the Trump family as a criminal organization. In my defense…all fact-based but strong opinion and statements on my part.
They are a big Trump supporter…I am not. And there was the foundation of the “issue” and my article inflamed passions.
They disappeared from the site and no more comments or emails. As I was finishing up the redesign of the site I realized they had “disappeared”…and it bothered me. I had enjoyed our exchanges in the past…and besides we were friends.
On July 23rd I sent them a brief email…”Did I lose you???”
Their response 10 days later was…”Well, mainly there’s this… To me comparing the Trump family to the Biden family is apples and oranges. Very rotten, moldy oranges. That aside, how are you guys doing??”
Through a series of email exchanges we ended up here…
“Yes I’m sorry I did sort of disappear from your mailing list, i sort of unappeared myself! I don’t agree with some of your political leanings, (😵) and I certainly don’t want that to ruin our friendship. You have been the most wonderful friend and neighbor, and I just want to keep it that way! It’s pretty rotten how politics is tainting everything nowadays.
When we get up there next with a little time we’ll have to catch dinner together!”
This is the part that really struck me hard…”It’s pretty rotten how politics is tainting everything nowadays.”
And that stirred me to write “This stirred up my curiosity…big time!” < click here to read >
And here was their email back to me after the article appeared…
THEIR EMAIL…
“I think Chat did a pretty good job of nailing your political/philosophical underpinnings. And I would say that you would have made a great contemporary of our founders and would have thought very much like they do and been very instrumental in setting up our ideal constitutional republic.
I guess where I tend to be, is more of a hardened cynic at this stage. Having seen life “from both sides now,” traveled my journey from a liberal Democrat, card carrying member of Greenpeace and the Sierra club etc, to where I am today where I consider myself a very conservative right wing extremist by today’s standards. Strangely, I haven’t moved. I am neither Republican or Democrat anymore, I’m very fed up with both political parties. That said, I am very much a pragmatist. We don’t live in an ideal world, much as I wish we did. None of the people that we have to choose from are ideal people, not even close. And, in my opinion, it’s foolish to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
We are so far from being able to achieve perfection by any metric on any topic. We are struggling for the very life and breath of what is left of our constitutional republic. As has been said, it is not D versus R, or right versus left. But we are in the home stretch where it is flat out good versus evil. The trick is, praying for the gift of discernment. Because so often today, evil masquerades as good. And the father of all lies makes very sure of that. There is no more important spiritual gift that any of us can pray for or aspire to in this age of universal deception, than that gift of discernment. And for starters we need to realize that we’re not looking at a field of unlimited choices. There is one versus the other. Period.
All we have to work with are very broken humans, for one reason or another. My feeling about Donald Trump is, at first I hated him. I thought he was an obnoxious, loudmouthed, New York street fighting reality TV star. But when I saw how quickly, before the ink had even dried on the ballots, his enemies went after him, it didn’t take me long to see exactly who all was fighting him, and that was enough for me to throw all my loyalties to him. I look at him kind of like Cyrus the great. Certainly not a godly man, certainly not a member of God’s people necessarily, having his own baggage so to speak. But I look at the good a Trump has done to stand for America, when the devil and all the forces of hell behind him are aligned to try to destroy America, and all that I treasure and hold sacred. I look at what he has done to stand for and protect the unborn innocents. I look at how he has brought the mention of God and the name of Jesus Christ not even just back into the public square, but into the halls of power. I look at what he has done to try to help the little guy in America. The stories of kind things he went out of his way to do, off the record, for years, say a great deal about his character, to me.
The Democrats couldn’t give a rat’s rear about Mr. or Mrs. America anymore. They have become the party of the elites, of corruptocrats, of the Establishment – they have become everything that we liberal Democrats back in the 60s hated and were fighting against. Entrenched, big-monied, corrupt, deep dark pocketed Gadianton Establishment all. Question establishment, we used to believe. Question everything.
And now that increasingly they are putting Communist, Muslim Hamas and Hezbollah supporters in the driver’s seat of their bus, it should be clear to anyone with half a brain, that they are the worst enemy this country has ever had. And as far as I can see, the only one with the balls to stand up to them, the majority of the time, is Donald Trump.,
So, no. I am not one looking for perfect principles, perhaps I should be. I look at myself more as a dirt under my fingernails, in the trenches warrior type. And for my money, that’s where Donald Trump has positioned himself. For all of his faults. And thus, I feel like anyone that starts to dogpile on the TDS bandwagon, is only throwing in with the Gadiantons. I wish there were an unlimited number of positions we could set up in. And stand behind. But I an a believer, that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Politics, like war, can make strange bedfellows.
I just think the nature of our times, and these last days, makes reality much more down and dirty and compelling. I am much more Porter Rockwell than I am Mahatma Gandhi, sadly.. 😓 Throughout history the Lord has used some really unlikely and broken men to defend his people and serve his purposes. Just for one, David was an adulterer and a murderer. Yet look how he served the Lord from beginning to end, led Israel to victory over her enemies numerous times, and amassed the fortunes and the treasure his son would go on to use to build the temple, which David sadly had too much blood on his hands to do. And as aforementioned, Cyrus was a king of the enemies of Israel. And yet he allowed the Israelites to return to their Homeland and rebuild their Temple.
Speaking of Israel, that is also one thing about Trump that I appreciate. It sickens me to look around and see how quickly we have forgotten what we said we would never forget. The Holocaust, and the horrors committed against the Jewish people. And now I look and see some of the most influential people out there are espousing at first a soft and then an increasingly harder antisemitism, especially as the left and the Democrats are tripping over themselves in their eagerness to get into bed with terrorist Islamist sympathizers. That to me is straight up Satan. Don’t even get me started on red herring arguments about the government of Israel and their corruption blah blah blah. They certainly don’t outpace the corruption of our own government, and yet I still love America. I love the principles upon which she was founded and that kept us the safest and freest and most prosperous nation on Earth for a very long time.
At the end of the day, time is running out. For all of us. All I can say is, be careful. Be very careful what you believe and whom you believe. And realize that every time you make a choice, you make its consequence as well, and there is a price to be paid. Be sure you don’t throw the baby out with the bath.”
When I received that email I knew I had to respond…and I knew there was an article there as well. I honestly felt that maybe this was something more than either of us expected…and a good learning opportunity for all.
I asked them if I could publish their email and my response. They agreed…as long as they could read my response first. Of course!
MY RESPONSE…
This is a perfect example of what is wrong with our country right now. No, not what they wrote…not at all. It’s that so many people, on both sides, would dismiss what another person has to say simply because it doesn’t match their own beliefs. Sad. Think of what both would miss.
If you didn’t “feel” what they were writing…read it again…then again if you need to. What I’m talking about is the difference between what they wrote and what they were “feeling” when they wrote it. I felt it…I hope you did too.
Here is a person who deeply loves their country and who is deeply concerned about what is happening right now…which is not good at all. You can also tell they have deep spiritual beliefs…they are obviously a Christian. You can tell they believe that America is in peril and that they must do everything they can to save America from destruction. Amen!
Oddly, and surprisingly, they nail me in their opening statement…yes, I am an “idealist.” And they pay me a very high compliment that I would be a “contemporary” of the Founding Fathers. Wow! I can’t even imagine meeting that standard…but I will take it. It’s an honor.
In the old days, a year ago, for sure 5 years ago, I would break down the email and dispute it…rail against it…line by line. I would castigate the sender one individual statement at a time till there was a clear winner…at least in my mind. Back then it would have been far more important for me to be right than to acknowledge the truth or value in anything they said. I would surely not have looked for common ground. I must be right…and I must prove it!
Yeah, and what would that solve? What possible good would have come of that kind of inappropriate behavior? Nothing and nothing are the obvious answers.
So now what?
Well, first off…there are a lot of points where we match up in our views…some are pretty close matches. Others…well, not so much. So what? Does that mean we have to be enemies?
Obviously not.
Bottom line…we both see problems in America right now. And we see different solutions. But our perspectives are not mutually exclusive. There are points where we can disagree on the underlying issue…but agree that it needs to change…and probably come to a consensus. Meaning, both of us can genuinely support a solution. And consensus is far preferable to compromise.
Now, for the points where we disagree…maybe even drastically so. Let’s take an example: ‘Trump is a good man.’ I get the idea that they think he is. I don’t. So what?
What honest difference does that make? Is it worth fighting over? Is it worth losing a friendship over?
Not in my opinion. It just isn’t even worth discussing, right?
Honestly, what would be the point of even having a discussion…or worse, an argument? It’s obvious that we have differing views on Trump. Okay, and so? My attitude…there doesn’t need to be an agreement…pick another subject to talk about…like the heat and humidity around here lately. Or, better yet…how soon can we get Christ to return and fix it all?
In other words…
Why would we allow our disagreement about Trump to prevent us from discussing and working together on things where we agree?
Neither of us is changing the other’s mind. Fine. What do we agree needs fixing?
Let’s go back to something they said and use it as something to learn from…they called me an “idealist” and I wear that label with honor. And they called themselves a “pragmatist.” Fair enough.
- An idealist might say, “Maybe that’s how the world actually works, but that doesn’t mean that’s how it should work.”
- A pragmatist might say, “Maybe that’s not how it should work, but this is the reality we have to work with. So what will actually work?”
What’s wrong with that difference? Better yet…why not just accept the other person’s perspective and not worry about the difference? Even better, talk through the solution trying to incorporate part of the other person’s perspective.
Two people can look at exactly the same situation and reach different conclusions because they’re looking at it from different perspectives. Their experiences, values, priorities, assumptions, and knowledge all influence that perspective.
Why not benefit from both perspectives and arrive at a consensus?
So now what do we do?
That’s a rhetorical question far beyond a simple email exchange between friends with differing perspectives.
Here’s my thought…in the world today we find chaos, confusion, conflict…a true battle in so many ways. I doubt many could find fault with that statement. But here is where I am going with it…what if instead of choosing between two political sides…there is actually a third side…the true enemy.
And what if that enemy intentionally uses chaos, confusion, and conflict to keep us fighting each other instead of fighting the true enemy?
Here you go…what if we talked about principles vs politics?
Would that cut through the fog of war that has enveloped political differences in America?
Why not give it a try.”
I would love to hear what you have to say about this topic…
