Opinion: Differing politics don't make some people more American than others

I've searched unsuccessfully to learn who authored the below observation, which I'm paraphrasing:

The battle among men is not between good and evil, but different ideas of good.

I recall that wisdom when considering larger political and cultural conversations. Few actors believe themselves to be in the wrong.

Of course, we know that some are. Third party perspective — evaluating ideas and actions for their general impacts on peoples and values upon which civilized societies agree — allows for appropriate estimation.

It is understood that global actors sometimes pursue limited, personal benefit in full knowledge that greater welfare would suffer. They are indifferent. The caustic opprobrium accorded them speaks well of the general morality.

Most citizens, whether they did or did not support President Donald Trump and the America First cause, surely are good-hearted and possessed of positive intentions.

I caucused for Trump here in Iowa, and was enthusiastic in my 2016 and 2020 votes for him. I variously agreed or disagreed with specific actions he took, but understood compromise and long-game strategic ideation.

For example, his Supreme Court appointments of Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh will for generations preserve traditional constitutional principles.

I wasn't born in this ideological circumstance, though. Many in my thoughtful and creatively inclined family are Democrats. I was, too. For decades, I fought on the progressive side, even eventually leaving the Democrats to become an Independent. I later helped found the Iowa Green Party, and served as paid 2004 Iowa coordinator for independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader.

From those Nader days, I developed heartfelt sympathy for the public interest, electoral system integrity, and a belief in citizens' duty to participate democratically. The passion for equality I'd felt while in the Democratic party was further strengthened.

I shake my head, then, when I hear voices on the right slur all Democrats and progressives as wicked and un-American. I know better. My own familial and activist experience tells me that is not so.

Neither is it the case that every Trump supporter is a splenetic hate-monger yearning for national return to the ugliness of legally codified bigotry.

Each assertion is misrepresentative, advancing only propagandists' moral posturing. Worse, these deceitful characterizations deny that genuinely decent people can hold different viewpoints.

Most injurious of all, so despoiling adult conversation makes impossible reasoned, fully inclusive dialogue through which greater comprehension might be got and necessary solutions found.

We are one American people, possessed of a common welfare.

Gratuitous name calling is not a tool of serious thinkers. It is relied upon by those incapable of or not inclined toward substantive argument.

The reasonable person might mock screamed foolishness. But Malcolm X put it well: "Don't be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn't do what you do or think as you think, or as fast. There was a time when you didn't know what you know today."

Waterloo writer DC Larson counts among freelance credits Daily Caller, Western Journal, and American Thinker.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Opinion: Differing politics don't make some more American than others