Can opposing viewpoints co-exist?

We are walking contradictions. We often say one thing but do another. We want to stop smoking, but still light up. We tell ourselves we’re going to start an exercise regimen and never do. We preach about the importance of honesty, and yet we often lie to ourselves (and others) about why we vote the way we do or why we otherwise believe what we believe.

For example, some say they want to save the planet by reducing their carbon footprint (as well as yours), but they fly around the world in their own private jet. Some go to church on Sundays for an hour each week praising God and then spend the rest of the week doing everything but. Some complain about the lack of finances yet spend money recklessly. We take the credit and say, “I made that happen,” when it’s going well but make excuses and blame others whenever it’s not.

Can you have it both ways, kind of like when a Weight Watchers opens right next to a Baskin-Robbins or a Dunkin’ Donuts? I guess you can have it both ways, but what good does it do? After all, in the Bible it says, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”

In other words, pick a side and go with it. One example: Many folks are voting for Kamala Harris because (they say) she is good for women. But is she? She advocates for policies that effectively communicate to women they can’t succeed on their own unless the government supposedly levels the playing field for them – as if women are perpetual victims, rather than strong and capable individuals who can compete on their own merits.

Of course, she’s also unabashedly pro-abortion, and some say this is good for women, but this stance also silences the voices of millions of women who are prolife, not to mention the fact that more female babies are killed in utero than male babies in any given year. How that is “good” for women (or humanity, for that matter)? Seems contradictory, right?

Closer to home, consider the newly drawn 6th Congressional District that stretches from Shreveport to Baton Rouge. The NAACP said this minority-majority district was needed because “Black voters in this state have been deprived from justice and equity for far too long.”

And the federal judge in Baton Rouge, whose ruling caused the 6th Congressional District to be re-drawn, said it was because of “Louisiana’s long and ongoing history of voting-related discrimination.” After all, some would say that black Louisianans — who make up about one-third of the state’s population — should be the majority in at least one-third of Louisiana’s congressional districts also.

As it turns out, there’s a former state senator named Elbert Guillory running for the new 6th Congressional District. He happens to be black. But he’s also a Republican, which means the NAACP, the Southern Poverty Law Center — or just about any of the groups who advocated for a second minority-majority district in Louisiana — aren’t happy about Guillory running. Even though he’s black, you see, they say he’s not the “right” kind of black because he’s not a Democrat. Seems contradictory (and racist), right?

In fact, when he left the Democrat Party over a decade ago, Democrats called Guillory a “modern day slave,” that he was “bought and paid for,” that he was “puppet,” and much worse (as you can imagine). None of that is acceptable in a country where we believe all men are created equal.

But this is the hypocritical culture of politics we live in nowadays. Women aren’t important until they are victims — and their “right” to an abortion must be protected. Children aren’t important unless you are wanting to indoctrinate them in our schools, separate them from any parental decision-making, or mutilate their genitals. Latinos aren’t important unless they are here illegally. White people don’t matter unless they are extolling the so-called “sins” of other racist white people. Black people are only important if they are Democrats.

F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, “The test for a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” At one point, that described most Americans, but not today — and it shows.

So yes, as you can tell, many in this country are walking contradictions — and it’s running our country into the ground.

Louis R. Avallone is a Shreveport businessman, attorney and author of “Bright Spots, Big Country, What Makes America Great.” He is also a former aide to U.S. Representative Jim McCrery and editor of The Caddo Republican. His columns have appeared regularly in 318 Forum since 2007. Follow him on Facebook, on Twitter @louisravallone or by e-mail at louisavallone@mac.com, and on American Ground Radio at 101.7FM and 710 AM, weeknights from 6 - 7 p.m., and streaming live on keelnews.com.