One of my favorite television shows is Last Man Standing. If you know anything about the show you know that the main character, Mike Baxter, has strong conservative political views. And if you know anything about me, you may be thinking it is weird that I would enjoy such a show as my political beliefs fall on the more liberal side of the spectrum. So why am I watching a show that more often than not pokes fun at my beliefs? I could respond to your question with a long explanation of why I enjoy the show, but I’ll save you some time and recap one scene from an episode of the current season.
The setting of the episode is meant to portray the present-day position that the United States is in. Although Mike is conservative, some characters in the show are the exact opposite. Mike’s Canadian son-in-law is extremely liberal, and he starts discussing the idea of moving his family to Canada; he feels as if he has no control over his life in the U.S. since he cannot vote. Although Mike doesn’t agree with his son-in-law’s thought process and beliefs, he says that he respects his right to have an opinion and gives him an application for U.S. citizenship.
This scene is just too perfect, and as simple as it is, it left me completely speechless and emotional. I think too many of us are trying to present our views as the “correct” views, and convince people who we disagree with that our common sense should be theirs too. I admit that I have made this mistake before, and I think we all do. It’s just important that we recognize when we’re doing it and take a step back. People are always going to disagree and be angry, and I understand the need to show your anger as a way of promoting what you believe is right. It’s when people stop listening and anger turns to ignorance that we must draw the line.
So the reason I love this show so much is how it represents people. No matter how much Mike disagrees with his son-in-law, he always listens. And I think that it shows so much more strength to respectfully listen to somebody you disagree with rather than blindly promote your beliefs as being the “correct” ones to have. In reality, if you aren’t listening to others then your beliefs are of poor judgement. So besides the fact that the show is just hysterically funny, it is refreshing to see something in the media that is presenting politics in its simplest form: people who disagree, listening to each other.
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