I have mixed feelings about this. My politics are primarily based on my morals. That's why I fall into that American Blue Dog/European Christian Democrat category. I assumed that was normally the case.
Are you saying that most people's politics are not based on their moral views, or advocating for a more libertarian, to each his own stance?
I'm advocating a more libertarian stance. I don't see why I should condemn someone else as morally bankrupt for disagreeing with me. Even if my stance is based on morals, I need to be able to understand that someone could reach a different conclusion than I did with decisions that were not immoral.
The best example I can think of is abortion. It's a debate that people get vicious, even violent over because both sides are basing their position on morality. However, each side made a decision (maybe not even consciously) on a question that is completely a personal judgment without an objective answer. That question is what is the status of a fetus?
If you believe a fetus is a human life like any other, the decision to terminate it is morally abhorrent. People who take this view often get very angry at those that disagree with them because they see these people as making an immoral choice to support the right to destroy a human life of equal status to any other.
However, those that support abortion aren't even making that choice because they took a different fork in the road before even getting there. They made the decision that a fetus does not have the same status as any human and so we do not owe the fetus any moral duties. Once you make this choice, attempts to restrict abortion appear to be people deciding that the government should oppress women. This elicits a strong and often violent response as such a choice would be immoral. However, this side, like the other, isn't grasping that their opponents aren't making a choice to oppress women as they too took a different fork before reaching that point.
So both sides see their opponents as morally bankrupt without realizing the true difference between them is a decision that was made on a question without any provable right or wrong answer.
So you can believe your stances are moral, just don't take that extra step and automatically assign dissent as being immoral. Try to understand that another person's different values and priorities can lead them to an entirely different position without any moral fault.
