Why Conservatives and Progressives Both Miss the Point

I’ve noticed something interesting lately: that both conservatives and progressives are both trying – in their own way – to bring people together.

Now, if you’re chuckling at that statement, I get it.

On the surface, it sure doesn’t look like either side wants anything close to “unity.” But hear me out: beneath all the shouting, the name-calling, the culture wars, and the endless outrage machine, there’s this subconscious pull both sides are feeling.

They know we’re supposed to be one. They feel it, even if they can’t name it.

The problem? Both camps are going about it in entirely misguided ways.

The Conservative Fantasy: Back to “The Good Old Days”

Conservatives want to unify humanity by taking us back to a mythical golden age that never actually existed.

They say, “If only we could get back to when America was godly…when families prayed together…when everyone respected authority…”

Sounds nice on paper. But here’s the deal: that world they want to drag us back into is just a carefully curated nostalgia reel. It ignores systemic racism, oppression of women, economic injustice, and the countless people who were excluded from that so-called idyllic vision of America.

They’re right that we do need to return to something. But what we need to return to is not a political system or an era in history.

What we need is a return to our original consciousness—the childlike awareness of wonder and connection we all had before someone taught us to fear the Other.

That innocence, that natural sense that “I belong and you belong too,” is what Jesus pointed to when he said, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom.”

The Progressive Illusion: Forward Into Utopia?

Progressives, on the other hand, want to unify us by pushing forward into a vision of the future where education, equality, and shared resources fix everything.

And again, that sounds good. Who wouldn’t want better schools, universal healthcare, and fair wages? I’m not against any of that.

But here’s the thing: even if we solved every economic problem and gave everyone everything they needed, humanity would still miss the point.

Why? Because abundance alone doesn’t awaken us to our shared humanity.

You can’t legislate compassion into someone’s heart. You can’t educate someone into seeing the divine spark in their neighbor.

Progressives are right that we need to move forward. But what we need to move forward into is not a political ideology. It’s an awakening to the truth that we are already One.

Our Only Hope

The irony is that both sides sense the same thing: that humanity is fractured, divided, and in desperate need of healing.

Conservatives imagine the answer lies behind us.

Progressives imagine it lies ahead of us.

But the truth? It’s been right in front of us, all along.

We are already one. We always have been. We always will be.

Quantum science says everything is connected through the Quantum field.

Quantum theology says the same thing in a different language: Christ is all, and Christ is in all.

The Apostle Paul says we are filled with the fullness of Christ who fills everything in every way.

Jesus says that one day we might all wake up and realize something marvelous: “The Father is in me, and I am in you, and you are in me.”

That means the illusion of separation is exactly that—an illusion.

Our senses may trick us into thinking that we are different. We start to believe that anyone who looks different, believes different, or votes different is actually separated from us in those ways. But at the deepest level, you are in me, and I am in you, and we are all One in Christ.

And that changes everything.

Tribalism Is Too Small

The real enemy isn’t the other political party. It’s tribalism itself. The moment I define my tribe as everyone who looks, acts, or believes like me, I’ve already excluded most of humanity.

Jesus shattered those boundaries. He said love your neighbor. And just in case you wanted to define “neighbor” as someone who looks like you, he made the hero of his story a Samaritan—the very person his Jewish listeners despised.

He even said love your enemy, because in God’s eyes there are no outsiders.

Our tribe is humanity. Our family is everyone. Anything less is just another illusion.

Why Both Sides Keep Missing It

Here’s the irony: conservatives already hold in their hands a book filled with Jesus’ and Paul’s words about radical oneness. Progressives already value science and education, both of which now affirm our interconnectedness through Quantum physics.

Both camps are so close they could touch it. But both are blinded by their methods. Conservatives can’t see beyond their nostalgia. Progressives can’t see beyond their utopia.

And both miss the deeper truth: unity is not something we achieve. It’s something we awaken to.

Building the New (and Not Fighting the Old)

Socrates once said the secret to change is not fighting the old but building the new. The problem is, we keep forgetting that.

At least, I know I keep forgetting it.

I get sucked into the outrage machine. I doom-scroll. I cheer when “my side” lands a punch on “their side.”

But every time I do, I lose sight of the new. I lose sight of the bigger vision.

What if instead we lived every day as if we are already one? What if I chose to see the image of God in the person I most disagree with? What if I stopped labeling the person driving faster than me as “insane” and the person driving slower as a “moron,” and instead remembered we’re all on the same road together?

That’s the invitation. That’s the real work.

Awakening Together

So here’s where I land: conservatives and progressives both want to unify us, but neither of their strategies will ever work. We can’t go back. We can’t engineer our way forward.

The only way we’ll ever truly come together is if we wake up.

Wake up to our shared divinity. Wake up to our shared humanity. Wake up to the reality that we are already one.

Because the truth is, you and I were never separate to begin with.

And once we see that, everything will change for the better.

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My new book, “The Quantum Gospel of Mary and the Lost Gospel of Truth” is now available on Amazon.

The book from Keith Giles, “The Quantum Sayings of Jesus: Decoding the Lost Gospel of Thomas” is available now on Amazon. Order HERE>