AntoniaMax at DK gets right to the heart of it all. Beautiful analysis:
Watching the news these days makes me physically ill, and I’m sure I am not the only one.
We on the Left look at people like Donald Trump and feel that his “let’s make them wear labels” approach to the Syrian refugee crisis is so obviously appalling, that all we have to do is point at it and people will see him for the fascist that he is. The problem is, that while conservatives have spent the last 50 years dominating the public debate, we have failed to make the case for basic human equality.
In part, this is because we believe in basic human equality so deeply in the core of our beings, that we can’t fathom why we would have to defend it to any sentient human being. It should be obvious. But it is not.
In fact, conservatives have been making such a strong case for inequality, for so long, that it has seeped into our thinking as a country in ways we don’t even realize. The reason the Right can slip seamlessly into outright fascism is that our entire public debate is already perilously close to that edge.
Some time ago the American Left stopped talking about “equality” and started talking about “opportunity”. This, in retrospect, was a really bad idea. Opportunity is part of the frame of “meritocracy”, which is nice in comparison to say, “oligarchy”. Meritocracy is focused on what makes us different, and how we can provide some manner of fairness in a world where people are not all the same.
In doing so, we fell into a conservative trap. They deliberately confuse being equal with being identical. We, when challenged with the fact that people differ, just bailed out on equality like the big fat chickens we are in the face of the slightest hint of criticism.
According to George Lakoff’s models of conservative and progressive worldviews, conservatives genuinely believe that people are not equal. Conservatives believe in a hierarchy where God outranks Man, Men outrank Women, Humans outrank Nature, White People outrank People of Color, Christians outrank Non-Christians, Bosses outrank Workers, Police outrank Civilians, American outrank Foreigners and so on.
Focusing on “opportunity” narrows the agenda of the public debate and leaves out of the frame, the entire discussion of what people in a society owe each other by mere virtue of being human.
Here’s just one example:
In the “opportunity frame”, the public debate is about how Unions are an obstacle to “fair” or merit based job advancement.
In the “equality frame”, the public debate is about what every person who works deserves in terms of fair compensation, safety, rights, and so on.
By narrowing our focus to “opportunity” we have allowed to focus to fall on how we differ, not what we have in common.
As the “Left” we are supposed to believe that what makes us the same, far outweighs what makes us different.
Ironically, our constitution is all about what makes us the same.
The right to equal treatment before the law is central to our society, yet we as a society have failed to deliver this for all people of color, and particularly our African American brothers and sisters.
We are guilty of letting this bedrock of fundamental human rights slide, perhaps because we don’t want to believe it is really as bad as it is, or because we don’t know what can be done to fix it, or because we think it is an individual and not an institutional problem, or because we assume that police actually have the right to intimidate people as part of their jobs. For whatever reason, we f*ed up.
<Snip>
While we all know violence by officers of the law is wrong, what we are missing is that the violation of human rights starts way before that.
Again, according to Lakoff’s models, conservatives believe that morality is adhering to your place in the hierarchy. Therefore civilians should behave as subordinates to police. The failure of people to “subordinate” themselves, is seen as immoral, and justifies use of any means necessary to put people “back in their place”.
If we fight for equality, we can make the case that the entire strategy of intimidation practiced by law enforcement should be stopped. That police should be trained to deal with every human they encounter, whether a person at a traffic stop or a suspected criminal, as an equal. Or better yet, treat everyone they encounter as they would want their mother treated in that same situation.
The question shouldn’t be, “did this person deserve to be beaten/shot/humiliated?” as the discussion often is about cases of violence by police against civilians, but “does anybody ever deserve to be beaten/shot/humiliated?” The answer is no.
The debate should be about service, empathy, mutual respect, de-escalation, and so on.
Human beings should be treated with respect and treated like they are innocent until proven guilty. Black people are human beings, therefore… Logic 101.
But for many conservatives, black people apparently don’t qualify for full “human being” status. Apparently neither do women.
If you ask any conservative about who has the right to tell them what they can or can’t do with their body, you will get fairly absolute answers about keeping the government’s hands off, and individual liberty, and freedom. But when it comes to women? All those rights go straight out the window.
How? Because for many conservatives, women, like minorities, don’t rank as fully human, they just don’t “matter” as much.
Hierarchy for some people leads to a paternalistic attitude, “we want to help/protect them” usually accompanied by “we know better what’s right for them”.
But for others, hierarchy leads to dehumanization. Dehumanization removes empathy from the equation.
If you can put people in a box and label that box sub-human, you are then free to exclude them from the category “human being” and in doing so allow everything from violation of their civil rights to outright murder.
One step further down the road from dehumanization, is demonization, which attempts to justify this horrible behavior.
All they have to do is associate Syrians or Muslims with terrorists, and it’s your duty to protect “us” from “them”, and if you fail to do so, we will crucify you with our SuperPAC’s hundreds of millions in attack ads.
The only way to fight creeping fascism, fear mongering, violations of the basic human rights of blacks, women, immigrants or anyone, is to grow some guts, start talking about “equality” and not stop.
We have to bring back the debate to what we all have in common, to basic human rights, to basic human decency, to empathy for our fellow human beings, no matter what religion they practice or what country they come from.
That means welcoming refugees.
That means criminal justice system reform.
That means a living wage and quality health care for all.
That means reproductive rights.
That means immigration reform.
That means taking basic progressive stands, which by the way, the majority of the American public support, and fighting for them like they are central to our beliefs as a country, not scampering away from them as though they were as far out on the Left end of the spectrum as Fox news claims they are.
That means addressing the American public in general and saying, it is no longer good enough for you to stand by and let the political people fight your battles for you. A line has been crossed. You need to get in the game. Because if you don’t, “it” could happen here.
http://m.dailykos.com/stories/1452653
  
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