An article of conciliation

At year’s end, I want to offer a word to my conservative and libertarian readers whose patience I try regularly.

Perhaps you read me to have someone to yell at, or in search of evidence for how dumb liberals can be.

[...] more fundamentally, people disagree because they have honest differences over what matters most.

Some liberals can be rather intolerant when it comes to religious people.

Liberals can be too quick to jump to the conclusion that someone who disagrees with us is a bigot of one kind or another.

Maybe because I’m Catholic, I know that people can be anti-abortion without being “anti-woman.”

When I hear someone speak about “economic liberty” or lower taxes, I may well leap too eagerly to the conclusion that my interlocutor is protecting some special interest — or a large fortune.

Can we all admit that the side we oppose includes a lot of smart people — some of them smarter than we are — and that more education does not necessarily translate into wisdom?

Many of us who have come to support gay marriage see the conservative argument on its behalf as decisive:

If we believe in fidelity and commitment, shouldn’t marriage, the institution that promotes both, be open to us all?

[...] as a policy matter, I share the view of my conservative friends that the breakdown of the family is a social problem that both left and right should care about.