Reply #10: Well, I certainly don't think it's too much to ask...

[TygrBright]

....but I would respectfully (and provocatively) suggest that while GOPpies have made an art of mean and stupid, we have a few Warhols and Kandinskys of our own.

Some of the posts I have seen here on DU from self-avowed liberals/progressives are quite as spit-frothingly hateful and thoughtless as anything Free Republic can show. Others, while not descending quite so far into the hate-filled rhetoric bin for their language, express sentiments just as stubbornly close-minded, jingoistic, and certain of their own moral superiority. It sends goosebumps up MY spine, anyway. Like a funhouse mirror.

I'm not embracing any "go along to get along," "kumbayah will save us all" beliefs here. Evil has been done, in the name of the American people -- in MY name, dammit! -- and those who have done that evil need to be exposed and experience the political, legal, and social consequences of their actions. We will ALL feel some of those consequences because our system of government is intentionally and thoughtfully designed to share responsibility among all of us. Saying "I didn't consent, I didn't support, I didn't vote, I'm not part of it, therefore I am morally superior and not smeared with this shame and entitled to tell everyone what we should do to punish THOSE OTHER AMERICANS --the guilty-- and polish my halo in public and everyone should go along with me because I'm right" simply perpetuates the problem.

Being "right" (in the sense of moral/political correctness/superiority) isn't enough. Americans are waking up to the realization that our nation has done evil and is on the path to becoming something we don't want it to be. But that realization isn't going to change human nature. Hateful rhetoric, blaming, excluding those we consider "responsible" or "complicit" in the evil will not make them wake up some morning and say "Oh, wow, I was wrong and stupid and mean and everything bad is my fault and those other people are right and I must instantly convert to their beliefs and find salvation in the arms of the Democratic Party!"

Half or slightly more than half of American voters have bought enough of what the GOPpies have been selling for the last thirty years to keep them more or less in power much of that time. We need to look at the hows and whys of that. If we just write off half or slightly more than half of American voters as evil drones complicit in wrongdoing, who must be shoved to the sidelines and not allowed to participate in our noble attempts to restore truth, justice, and the American Way to our government and its policies, what's going to happen?

I can tell you. They're going to sit over there on the sidelines where we've penned them, and they're going to fester, and hate, and plot, and pour money into subverting everything we do. And they'll succeed.

We cannot simply write them off as "all evil, all wrong, all incompetent, all malicious," or even "all misguided, all stupid, all sheeplike, all deluded." We have to recognize that while we believe our liberal and progressive beliefs and ideology and policies will have better success in cleaning up the current mess and restoring America's strength, we aren't necessarily one hundred percent correct about that. Liberalism and the progressive agenda, unexamined, untested, and unchecked, can create evils of a different sort. I'm not saying anyone has to abandon any of their beliefs, nor yet subvert them to others' beliefs, but that we MUST commit ourselves to giving those who don't share those beliefs an opportunity to participate fully in the reconstruction of our nation, without relegating them to the back of the bus.

And yes, I know that's what they've done to us. Isn't that enough to demonstrate how stupid it is? Turning ourselves into the liberal version of their self-righteous "we know best so shut up and let us get on with it" philosophy will only keep us on the downward slope.

Here's the tradeoff: If we ignore them, repudiate and undo everything they've done, trample on their sincerely held (and of course WRONG) beliefs, and totally sideline them to "keep them from fucking things up," we will indeed be able to take advantage of this narrow window of opportunity to make some big changes, fast. Changes we believe are positive and good for America. We'll feel good about it, and be able to "show them" just how wrong they are.

Guess what? They won't buy it. And because the reality is that no matter WHAT we do, we will never be able to make everyone happy, make everyone better off, make everyone "see" that we're right, they'll ALWAYS have plenty to support their ideology and feed their hate and selfishness. And they'll nurse their grievance and hold their grudges and plan ways to retaliate, and continue appealing to the worst in just enough of our fellow-citizens to get their chance. And the only way we'll be able to stop them is by permanently disenfranchising them, exactly as they're trying to do to us. We'll have to become them. Liberal authoritarianism is no prettier than conservative authoritarianism.

If, on the other hand, we accept that we can't make all the changes we want right away, that we have to live with some of the horrors they've perpetrated for a while, and keep them involved in the process and give them a voice in choosing where we go from here, we will prolong some (maybe much) of the suffering and misery and injustice. But we will deprive them of the most potent thing that empowers them, and we will lay the groundwork for lasting, positive change. If we focus on restoring the Constitution and restoring the integrity of public discourse, in the long run we might win. No guarantees. But we will not have subverted our own beliefs to the evil of "the end justifies the means."

So yes, we must proceed on the assumption that all GOPpies are not despicable sociopathic vipers. We must not attempt to silence them or marginalize all of them simply because they are GOPpies. We must look for, seek out, and enable those whose ideological beliefs may differ from ours but who share our value of a robust Constitution and a genuinely participatory democratic process. We must advance our views with passion and oppose theirs with principle, and reach an accommodation of both with grace. There is no other way we can make lasting progress toward the goal of finally making America's actions congruent with the noble principles our Founders professed and which we've never quite managed to live up to.

Okay, I'm wearing my asbestos longies, flame away.

firmly,
Bright