Granados Column: I'm no longer to be trusted

Tomorrow, I turn 30.

Given the popular admonition not to trust anybody over this age, it seems apparent that I can no longer trust myself.

This has become obvious to me as I have witnessed a late-20s metamorphosis from idealist youth to realist adult, culminating in my recent propensity to identify with more conservative points of view.

Now, I have never considered myself a sharply ideological person — at least not since I was a teenager. Then I was ignorantly liberal. As I aged, I remained more idealistically liberal, but gained a sense
for the lack of balance that comes from embracing one side over another. I was quick to see where liberals were wrong and conservatives right, and I was intensely vigilant for liberal hypocrisy.

Nevertheless, it seems that tightrope walking that thin line is harder than I thought, and now I am often finding myself on the “right” side of things . . . so to speak.

As I have had to become more fiscally responsible personally, my desire for federal and state fiscal prudence has grown; as I have pondered the justifications for abortion, I increasingly find myself unable
to come up with any; and as I consider issues of private rights — such as those provided to bear arms — I find I want them to stay.

My overarching desire is to have government’s role in my life be limited. After all, power corrupts, right?

One area where I can’t see even remotely eye to eye with the predominately conservative point of view is when it comes to homosexuality and the right to gay marriage. I fail to see how people who want
the government to stay out of people’s business can then say that the government should prevent gay people from getting married. And as for homosexuality itself, mind your business, just as you ask
liberals and others to mind their own when it comes to matters affecting your privacy or finances.

Nevertheless, my see-saw is tilting right, and as it does so, I find I’m in the interesting position of actually understanding both sides of topics. Of course, intellectually, that has been the case for a while,
but experientially, it’s a relatively new predicament.

I still applaud the sentiment toward helping one’s fellow man or woman, and welcome liberal attempts to make that a part of the heart blood of our country. Alternatively, I also welcome the conservative
attempt to quell liberal idealism. In the conflict between the two, balance is formed. I wouldn’t want one without the other.

My growth has been facilitated to a large extent by my job first as a reporter and then as an editorial page editor.

As a reporter I came to see how little labels such as Democrat, Republican, liberal or conservative bear on local governing bodies.

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors does have its fair amount of in-fighting, but for the most part it get things done with relative peace.

The Manassas and Manassas Park City Councils, though short on Democratic members, are long on pragmatic solutions.

The members of these councils often make decisions and take actions in ways that couldn’t apparently be considered left or right, mostly because such considerations don’t come into play nearly so
often on the local level.

From them, I learned that we are all people trying to live together and make decisions that are best for our communities, irrespective of our abstract ideas.

As an editorial page editor interviewing leaders with varying levels of political responsibility, I have learned that most views held are not done so in blind obedience to some ideology, but because of values
born of experience.

Values have their roots in the human condition, while politics are a construct of human culture. Unfortunately, as individuals, we don’t always relate to others based on our inherent humanness; we choose to separate ourselves by our politics instead.

That is not as it should be. Cultural traits are transient. Our state of existence is permanent. Best we find our relation to each other in that which is long lasting rather than that which is subject to the
whimsical winds of time.

The United States was founded by men and women who had common aspirations. Though their viewpoints may not have agreed, they worked together for a shared resolution. Their struggles, with and
against each other, are the story of our nation. But we cannot lose the central fact of our beginning: It was a collaboration to promote life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — a collaboration that was
sparked by human desire.

To continue this collaboration, we must abandon dug-in positions and identify with what we all have in common: humanity.

So, yes, tomorrow, I will be 30, and I find myself miles away from the Alex of 10 years ago. But at the same time I find myself closer to my human roots, and as a result, to my neighbors — liberal or
conservative.

Editorial page editor Alex Granados can be reached by e-mail at agranados@insidenova.com or phone at 703-878-8069.