Gods, Gays and Guns

Today I was listening to the end of the Diane Rehm show and she had Robert Reich, secretary of labor under President Clinton, talking about liberalism in the United States.  One of his best points is that America is so diverse in it's culture, religion, and ideas, so we should just accept that we are going to have different values and we should accept the fact that we have these different values and move on to more important things.  He said that we should agree to disagree about "God, guns and gays" and focus on domestic issues like healthcare and jobs, and international issues like Iraq and Israel.

I think that it's a great point.  I think that if we just agree to disagree about opposing values then we can move on to important issues that affect all Americans and people everywhere regardless of race, religion or gender.  Most liberal (coming from the same root as liberty) Americans are willing to accept different values and strive for equality for everyone despite a difference in opinion or morals.  However, many neocons (new conservatives) and radcons (radical conservatives) insist on regulating and oppressing values that do not match their own.  Due to the constant attack on values, the true issues affecting the US are not able to be discussed.  Intense debates are initiated full of hatred and will never be resolved because both sides are not willing to change their values.  We are fighting a losing war.   We must rise above these petty, unrelenting arguments in order to tackle the bigger issues.