Tibs, your family history is to be applauded.
The American values that you claim are different, in part, than mine. Over the past 60 years, I have seen liberal policies turn most of our large cities into crime ridden cesspools, of baby mommas and hyena kids running amok. Here in Pittsburgh, there are shooting deaths every night, and it has nothing to do with legal gun owners. It is the underclass, spawned by LBJ's Great Society, where nobody ever, ever takes personal responsibillity. Where we have an immigrant class that has no intention of assimilating, but is here for the free stuff......and to call them out is considered racist. We now live in a country where our Gov't(Rep and Dem) overstep their legal authority, with impunity. Our national debt........well....just **** it.
If you are spreading the values of the US liberal class,in our society, then stop it , right now. You aren't doing them a favor.
There are alot of holes in this, but I want to focus on your targeting of "liberals".
I agree that the left's welfare state has done poor Americans a great disservice. But so too has the right's war on drugs.
I agree that some of LBJs policies have harmed the country. But so did Nixon's.
I agree that personal responsibility is a problem politically, but blanket deregulation has the same effect as welfare: it gives wrong doers impunity.
Viewing our problems as you do, that one side is good and the other bad, is much of WHY the problems themselves persist. You are being USED by the right. To attack your fellow American rather than to problem solve. We two major theories in politics today:
1) Pie in the sky liberalism. Everything can be had and had for free.
2) Easy Answer conservatism. Even the most complex issue can be boiled down to a three word slogan.
Neither side is productive or helpful to the overall success of our nation, which is largely coasting on it's previous successes having become the world's only super power. The politicians are universally emotionally uninvolved and profiteer from the conflict rather than seeking resolution. In places like Brazil or Sweden, people see their fellow citizens as "us". Americans see their fellow Americans as "them".
The problems we have are absolutely fixable. But people would rather get on a forum and call each other names than try to fix things. Bigots, feminists, hate mongers, socialist hippies, and other useless characters (or opportunists) gain center stage while responsible critical thinkers are shoved into the background. Thus the Faustian Bargain of Hillary/Trump is all that's in the offing. No
REAL solution oriented choices are made available because any reasoned discussion is stifled by the **** hurling monkeys.