Liberals and conservatives are neighbors too

Let me tell you a story, which I think makes sense to the rest of my thoughts here.

When I started dating my now-wife – we’re celebrating our 17 year anniversary and have been together for 22 years – I hadn’t even turned 18 yet. But, at 18, it was very obvious to me that I knew I was going to get involved in politics. I liked business, computers and politics, that much was clear.

So at 18, I registered to vote and I chose to register as Republican against the advice of some of my mentors in life. They said, “Look if you’re ever going to run for office or be involved politically in our community you really need to be registered as a Democrat.”

Historically, in our state, that has been the case. But I said, “No, I identify more with the Republican party than the Democratic party, for better or worse.” And that’s what I chose.

Fast forward 7 years; I ran for mayor as a Republican and I lost. I ran again at 29 and I won, becoming the youngest mayor in our town’s history and the first Republican to win the position.

Why is this important? When it gets down to it, it’s not. My political identity matters to me, but it doesn’t affect the way I interact with my fellow people. This is especially true when it comes to the way I run my business.

A little over a year and a half ago, I started Neuse News, a hyper-local news organization that is completely free to its subscribers.

We’ve got regular columnists, local news, politics, sports, and we do everything a local news organization should do. There’s even more I want to do.

Of our regular columnists, they tend to be fairly conservative-leaning, not because I, myself, am a conservative, but because, to be quite honest, it’s been very difficult to convince some of my liberal-leaning friends to put their thoughts in a column. Yes, conservatives can have liberal friends and liberals can have conservative friends. People are people.

The conservative-leaning columnists we do have, I don’t even pay them for it. They want to share these thoughts, and these are people who are respected in their community and have constructive arguments. Sometimes I agree with them, sometimes I don’t. Their views are their views, but when it comes to news, news is news.

All of our correspondents at Neuse News do a good job of reporting the news and getting the facts, no matter the story. That’s their job as reporters.

I reached out to one of them, Kristy Bock, who has mostly liberal political opinions, and asked for her to share some of her ideas when she got the chance, and I’d love to read it and publish it.

I asked Kristy to write a column, and she did. She gave her opinion on the president and some of the bullying she sees going on, and I published it.

Seeing some of the online comments in response to this column is the reason why most good people stay out of politics. You can be a liberal and like conservatives and you can be a conservative and like liberals, but the hate and the vitriol is something that is certainly uncalled for.

When I see people saying they’re going to unsubscribe, I say okay. The views are the views of the columnist, not necessarily of the staff or the entity as a whole, and the same thing goes with our conservative colleagues that write pieces. It’s just the way it is folks.

And guess what? Our publication is still free.

Our goal has been to share the typical day in the life of someone in our area. So that means we’ve got a little bit of news, a bit of sports, crime, a little bit of it all. And a typical day in the life of our community means you live next to a liberal or a conservative.

Wake up America, it’s okay! We can still love each other!

We’re not going to change because that is who we are. Our forefathers wanted us to have a republic that is representative of the people, which means that you’re going to have to put up with other peoples’ points of view.

So for those who are leaving, I’m sorry, but I wish you wouldn’t do it over one piece. If you look at the total body of work, I think it’s very reflective of the vast majority of the people who live here.

If you want to share your opinion, send it over to info@neusenews.com and I’d be happy to look it over with the team and talk about publishing it.

I don’t take it personally. It is a sad state in our country that has been developing for a few years now. I just think more people need Jesus and need to stop worrying about the national political scene. There are more important issues.

At the end of the day, I’m wearing a hoodie, I’ve got a TikTok account, I published a liberal column, and I’m still a Republican. I’m sorry if that offends people.

I still love you.