I’m so fucking sick of everyone just assuming that getting along with conservatives is something that you have to do, in order to be a good political citizen. That the correct way to function around right-wing racist homophobic nutjobs is to be polite, to discuss your differences calmly and rationally, and at the end of the discussion, hug it out. To always leave on a good note, to always end with some variation of “well, let’s just agree to disagree, then. How ‘bout them Red Sox?”
Some of us cannot afford to be so polite.
Its not a sign that I’m closed-minded or do not play well with others because I don’t have any close conservative friends. Its not a sign that I am a leftist looney radical who is a slave to MSNBC and who is “just as bad” as those wing-nut Fox News viewers. I don’t have any close conservative friends because those people want to see the borders closed to non-white immigrants, and I am the daughter of non-white immigrants. Because those people believe in “traditional man-woman marriage” and I’m a queer woman. Because those people want America to be a Christian nation, and I’m not a Christian. Because those people defiantly and enthusiastically defend the institution of whiteness in all aspects of our society, and I am a person of color.
I don’t choose to stay away from conservatives, I have to stay away from conservatives.
I can’t engage with them on these issues, I can’t have a civil debate with them at a cocktail party, because the personal is inherently political for me. Because they have chosen to make me the subject of their politics — because they rely on demonizing me and people like me in order to define themselves.
Commentators who like to write about the “unbridgeable” red-blue divide also like to point out the “irony” that in the essentials, conservative America and liberal America are the same. That if we could just get over all this rhetorical nonsense, we could once again be the strong, united country we used to be. That the media is the true culprit behind the division, not actual philosophical differences. That if we just tear down the pundit-spun window dressing, we’ll find that we have more in common than we think.
And that may be true, for white people.
Because there isn’t much of a difference between liberal white people and conservative white people. Both get the same advantages in society that white people have always benefited from. For them, the question of what to do with the immigrants, the people of color, the achievement gap, the unemployment gap, the prison over-crowding problem — is an intellectual exercise. Its something they like to engage in as a hobby, its entertainment. They like to watch cable news pundits while eating dinner, not to gain information, but to pass the time. At the end of the day, other things matter more. Paying the bills. Running their businesses. Impressing the boss. Helping the kids with homework. They don’t have to think about systematic inequality or oppression unless they want to.
And the rest of us?
Well, we don’t have a choice. We’re “blue”. We’re Democrats. We have to be, no matter how diverse our political opinions really are. No matter how socially conservative some of us may be, no matter how anti-capitalist some of us are — the vast majority of us end up voting for the Democrat on the ballot, because we have no other choice.
And let me tell you, it is telling that the commentators who always, always spin the same tired-old-tale about how we’re “really not that different” have never even stopped to think about how people of color fit into this equation. Have never stopped to ask why one side seems to have all the melanin, and the other side is so lily-white. We matter so little to them that they fail to account for us (who will soon be a majority in America!) while they’re busy theorizing about the essential nature of Americans. We only matter to them as a problem to be argued over — we’re not political agents, forging our own American identities, bringing our experiences and our viewpoints to the national table.
So no, I’m not going to be shamed into getting along with the Texan redneck whose father was in the Ku Klux Klan. I’m not going to worry too hard about thinking good thoughts about evangelical Christians who support preachers who spout antigay nonsense overseas. I’m not going to pay lip service to “the good Republicans” out there, those mythical moderate beings who “aren’t as bad” as the Rush Limbaughs and the Michael Savages.
I don’t have the damn freedom to even give them an inch.
Remember that, the next time you write some bullshit about how we should “all just get along”, no matter our political beliefs.
“You, who are so liberal and so humane, who have such an exaggerated adoration of culture that it verges on affectation, you pretend to forget that you own colonies and that in them men are massacred in your name.”
—Jean-Paul Sartre, preface to ‘The Wretched of the Earth’
“I have never really understood exactly what a ‘liberal’ is, since I have heard ‘liberals’ express every conceivable opinion on every conceivable subject. As far as I can tell, you have the extreme right, who are fascist, racist capitalist dogs like Ronald Reagan, who come right out and let you know where they’re from. And on the opposite end, you have the left, who are supposed to be committed to justice, equality, and human rights. And somewhere between these two points is the liberal. As far as I’m concerned, ‘liberal’ is the most meaningless word in the dictionary. History has shown me that as long as some white middle class people can live high on the hog, take vacations to Europe, send their children to private schools, and the reap the benefits of their white skin privileges, then they are ‘liberals’. But when times get hard and money gets tight, they pull off that liberal mask and you think you’re talking to Adolf Hitler. They feel sorry for the so-called underprivileged just as long as they can maintain their own privileges. ”
—Assata ShakurThe Complete Idiot’s Guide To Political Extremism | Addicting Info
addictinginfo.orgBut is it true? Let’s take a look at several issues and how both mainstream liberals and mainstream conservatives respond. I will be adding links to the conservative side to forestall the usual “Straw man” complaint.
1. Abortion: Can a woman abort a fetus and if so, up to what stage of development?
Liberals – Currently, there is no way to know when a fetus/zygote becomes a person with the same moral weight as a “post-uterine” individual. In the absence of anything more solid than, “That’s how I feel about it,” liberals are willing to let the choice belong to the woman up to the point of viability. No one is comfortable with a 30 week abortion except under dire circumstances.
Conservatives – Not only have they declared that a single celled zygote is the same as a 10 year old child but have tried to pass laws to allow civilians to kill abortion providers and arrest women suspected of trying to induce a miscarriage.
Who is more extreme?
2. Religion in school – Should religion be promoted in school through teacher-led prayer and religious iconography or should schools be “religion neutral?”
Liberals – They would prefer to keep religion out of schools so no one religion is promoted over others in a country with literally hundreds of different faiths and sects (or none at all). This way, no one is ostracized or pressured.
Conservatives – They want Christianity, only Christianity and a particular brand of Christianity (No Catholics or Mormons!) taught in schools. At the same time, they do not want objective and verifiable science taught because it runs counter their very specific brand of fundamentalist Christianity. No evolution and no six billion year old Earth.
Who is more extreme?
3. Banning religion – Should the United States pass laws against unpopular religions in direct contradiction of the First Amendment?
Liberals - Militant atheists, not all of whom are liberals, talk about banning religion but they are a minority and no lawmaker has tried to seriously do this.
Conservatives – Conservatives talk about banning Islam all the time and have passed several “anti-Sharia” laws.
Who is more extreme?
4. Guns – Does society have the right to limit certain kinds of firearms and accessories like semi-automatic assault rifles, extended clips and fully-automatic machine guns while requiring all purchases of guns to be subjected to a background check to weed out criminals, the mentally ill, potential terrorists, etc.?
Liberals - Militant gun control proponents would like to ban all guns like many other industrialized countries have done with no ill effect. They are a minority and no lawmaker has tried to seriously do this. Liberals, in general, believe that background checks will reduce gun crime and banning certain kinds of guns and accessories will reduce, but not eliminate, the ability of killers to commit mass murder.
Conservatives – They have suppressed gun control laws so much that anyone can buy almost any gun at anytime with no oversight whatsoever and want to continue to do so. Conservative lawmakers have pushed laws to allow guns in churches, pre-schools and bars that serve alcohol. Some towns have mandated that every household MUST have a gun. They even want people just released from mental health facilities to immediately be able to buy a gun as well as convicted violent felons. They believe more guns make them safer in direct contradiction to evidence that show states flooded with guns have a high level of gun violence.
Who is more extreme?
5. Marriage – Can the definition of marriage be expanded to include homosexuals?
Liberals – Considering marriage used to be prohibited between blacks and whites and nothing bad happened when we changed it, liberals would like for people to be able to marry the person they love regardless of their sex.
Conservatives – They insist that marriage has remained unchanged for centuries despite all evidence to the contrary. They also insist that same sex marriage is no different than bestiality and pedophilia despite it being between two consenting adults.
Who is more extreme?
6. Voting – Should we require citizens to obtain special ID in order to vote?
“Big government” Liberals – Everybody should be able to vote with a minimal amount of interference.
“Small government” Conservatives – Everyone should be forced to have “Voter ID” that costs time and money to get in order to fight wide-spread (but strangely impossible to find) “voter fraud.” Curiously, if you ask these same people if guns should be subject to the same kinds of rules to combat the well established tens of thousands of gun deaths and hundreds of thousands of gun crimes a year, they get very upset at this “infringement” on their “freedom.”
Who is more extreme?
7. The President – Does the office of the President of the United States deserve unquestioning respect and obedience in a time of war?
“Totalitarian” Liberals – No. No president should have carte blanche to wage war in our names or be immune to criticism. The right to to petition the Government for a redress of grievances is in the very first amendment in the Bill of Rights. Yet, anyone that criticized President Bush in any way, including about about non-war related policies, was labeled “traitors” by conservatives for “not supporting the president in a time of war” as if he were the God-Emperor of Arrakis.
Conservatives – During the very same war in which Bush was not allowed to be criticized, President Obama has been accused of being a secret Muslim from Kenya, a Nazi, a Communist, a Socialist, a homosexual, a gangsta, a traitor, a terrorist and racial slurs have been tossed around like confetti at a KKK gathering. The calls for impeachment haven’t stopped since almost his first day in office.
Who is more extreme?
8. Taxes – How should the broken tax code be fixed?
Liberals – We want tax loopholes closed for the rich and corporations and for them to pay what they actually owe. Hiding money in tax havens should be aggressively discouraged with confiscation and jail time (just like the rest if us face when we dodge our taxes). A modest tax hike on billionaires wouldn’t be so bad, either but not terribly necessary if the previous steps are taken.
Conservatives – They want to pay no taxes at all (but not a penny to be taken from their Social Security and Medicare) because they’ve been taxed enough already despite having lower taxes than at any point in the last 30 years..
Who is more extreme?
9. Rhetoric – Whose rhetoric displays a disconnect from reality and/or violence?
Liberals – We yell about the banks stealing our money with bailouts and being “Too big to fail,” getting money out of politics, the rich not paying their taxes, no more warmongering, no more rape, no more discrimination, respecting women’s rights, feeding the poor and hungry, stopping Climate Change and freedom of, and from, religion.
Conservatives – While they happen to agree with liberals about the banks, getting money out of politics and no more warmongering, they also say that liberals are violent thugs that are planning on putting conservatives into concentration camps, regularly talk about secession, revolution, Second Amendment remedies, shooting liberals and pray for Obama’s death.
Who is more extreme?
10. Rape – Is rape…rape?*
Liberals – Yes. It doesn’t matter if violence, drugs or coercion were used. If the sex was not consensual, it’s rape.
Conservatives – Well, it depends. Was it legitimate? A Gift from God? Did she get pregnant? Was it forcible? Was her vagina shredded by the rape? If not then it wasn’t “real rape.”
*I’m leaving out all of the slut shaming and “she was asking for it” because that is a product of rape culture and is almost entirely independent of political affiliation. While it is more prevalent among conservatives it’s not remotely confined to them. I’m not even sure they represent a majority in this regard.
Who is more extreme?
Now, conservatives will complain that I’m “misrepresenting them” or “using straw man arguments.” This is why I included all of the links to actual quotes from actual mainstream Republicans or conservatives. These are not fringe beliefs for the right. This is what their elected officials and media representatives say. When a conservative uses the most extreme of left wing positions (They want to ban all guns!), they have to find a blog no one has heard of or random Facebook comments to support their accusation. It certainly isn’t a part of mainstream liberal ideology.
