A radical idea . . .
Actually, an anti-radical idea. What if, instead of ranting about middle America and how white bread and lemming-like it's gotten, we found a way to accept that the rest of the world has different priorities than we do? That's not to say I'm not horrified by the MSNBC thing. I am. (Kittens, bad! Tsunami victims, good!) But it seems, at least to me, as if many of the problems we're bemoaning today - like, say, the fact that the Democratic Party is incapable of running a decent national campaign, or the fact that George Bush is dismantling the New Deal, or the fact that many people would rather look at pictures of clouds and puppies than destruction and disease - aren't going to get solved until those of us on the left stop being so condescending toward the right. We can throw up our hands and be frustrated at how stupid the rest of the country is . . . or we can acknowledge that part of the problem here is our own unwillingness to bend our worldviews even a bit.
You scoff at the George Washington biography on my side of the bed, but my recent refusal to read fiction has reminded me of a few things that have helped pull me out of my post-election funk. Most importantly: We need to accept God and faith into our political lives, or at least accept that there is a whole slew of smart, well-educated, well-meaning people out there -- Hi Dad! -- for whom the notion of 'character' and 'values' in our elected officials means an awful lot. We're rolling our eyes at them and talking about specifics like Roe v. Wade and Yucca Mountain. They're going with their gut reactions: "This guy is a snake," or "This guy talks like he's thinks he's smarter than me." That doesn't make them stupid, but all too often we act like it does -- even when we don't intend to.
The blame cuts both ways here: We're all too quick to call those Bush-loving red staters dummies. And they're all too quick to label us all liberal elite know-it-alls. But - and here's where I will get radical for a second - the onus is on us. WE are in the minority, at least in how we make up our political minds. We have to go out of our way to show the other side some respect, to give them their kittens and their clouds and their surfing dogs -- and to slip in some actual content while we're at it.
If anybody knows how to do that, please let me know.
posted by AnnaRay at 9:27 PM
2 Comments:
In looking at the reasons given by those who spoke out about why they voted for W, what i remember hearing more than anything else was a big ol' hallelujah shout out to "moral values".
Moral values of course being defined by hate of anything from single sexed coulpes to brown people we bomb for their natural resources, to any action that doesn't reflect good christian behavior, or to science, and all of the different theories that exist in the world explaining in vain how it is that we as a people came to be.
How do you give in and bend towards a side that believes that a single parent is better than two same sex parents, to the end result of banning same sex adoption (Florida)? How do you bend towards a side that looks to throw money at an abstinence only education that has been proven to not work and agree with a policy that only offers federal monies to states that set up such a program? How do you give in and bend towards a side that can admit no wrong (i know i know pot calling the kettle black), and that revises history to suit the current cause (what WMDs?)?
I guess the point is, do we give up on what it is that we see as right, or do we attempt to educate those that aren't helped by this administrations economic policies, that aren't served by this administration's foreign policy, the families of the more than a thousand dead soldiers, the children confused by why their foster daddies can't be their adoptive daddies, the prisoners serving mandatory minimums for relatively innocuous drug offenses who watch rapists get out in half their time, the victims of three strike regulations, serving 20+ years for shoplifting offenses, the confused teenager who's hormones yell louder than his health teacher and who hasn't heard anything about condoms other than lies about their effectivenes; i could go on and on. And maybe that's the problem. I don't know how to look past all the things that make me angry, and i don't think i should.
I believe that most feel the same way I do, and that the majority of the population voted for W, not because he likes God, or that he speaks with the eloquence of a third grader, but because he makes them feel safe. To me that's the greatest irony of all, and the first point we need to prove wrong.
sorry for the long reply. keep up the good blog, and cheers.
All good points. I guess I would equate the challenge the Ds face in winning back the hearts and minds of the American people with the challenges we as a nation face in this "war on terror." So much of it needs to be about education: We must show the rest of the world that we respect their right to believe something different and don't think it makes them savages. We must show the Bush lovers that we respect their right to think Judybat and I are going to hell, even if we disagree.
I guess I sound a little defeatist. But we're not going to win any friends, or any votes, by simply dismissing the other side as a bunch of Bible-thumping idiots.
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