To my conservative friends
Nov. 6th, 2004 05:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
substituteI listen to the local grandees slapping their knees and chortling as they talk about shooting a few liberals so we get the point. I look at the paper and I see an editorial saying that people with my opinions aren’t American and should leave the country. I look at the TV and I’m being called a traitor, a liar, a sympathizer with our enemies. I see nice clean smart educated middle-class people in sweaters agreeing with each other that homosexuals and liberals and non-christians should be excluded from our schools and government jobs because “they just don’t share our values”.
I see this more and more, and a hundredfold again more since this election.
And then I look at my conservative friends, who vote and donate and support these people. I think about people who are very nice to my face and share food with me and appear to enjoy my company, and call themselves my friends. And then I look at their friends. And I think: “What do they say when I’m not around?”
Do they stand up for me and mine at all? Does anyone ever say “No, those people are Americans, too; their viewpoint is legitimate”. Or “Don’t be silly, this country has room for more opinions than one.” Or even just “live and let live”?
I was raised to build bridges to others; to find points of agreement; to share values when I couldn’t share politics; and to agree to disagree. I can’t do that any more, because they’re making total war on me. When I do it with you now, I feel like an idiot, because no one on your side plays that game now.
My father and his father and his father before him back to the founding of this country have fought in all our wars. I am an American or I am nothing. The liberal values we have are Kennedy’s, and FDR’s, and Jefferson’s. But your friends say that’s all a lie, or at least it’s all over with, and it’s time for me to leave and let them have their way.
Is that how you see me, too? Is that what you want, too? Because if that’s the case, please tell me. Then I’ll know who isn’t my friend, and never was. I’d never thought I’d say this, but I don’t feel safe around you any more.
I see this more and more, and a hundredfold again more since this election.
And then I look at my conservative friends, who vote and donate and support these people. I think about people who are very nice to my face and share food with me and appear to enjoy my company, and call themselves my friends. And then I look at their friends. And I think: “What do they say when I’m not around?”
Do they stand up for me and mine at all? Does anyone ever say “No, those people are Americans, too; their viewpoint is legitimate”. Or “Don’t be silly, this country has room for more opinions than one.” Or even just “live and let live”?
I was raised to build bridges to others; to find points of agreement; to share values when I couldn’t share politics; and to agree to disagree. I can’t do that any more, because they’re making total war on me. When I do it with you now, I feel like an idiot, because no one on your side plays that game now.
My father and his father and his father before him back to the founding of this country have fought in all our wars. I am an American or I am nothing. The liberal values we have are Kennedy’s, and FDR’s, and Jefferson’s. But your friends say that’s all a lie, or at least it’s all over with, and it’s time for me to leave and let them have their way.
Is that how you see me, too? Is that what you want, too? Because if that’s the case, please tell me. Then I’ll know who isn’t my friend, and never was. I’d never thought I’d say this, but I don’t feel safe around you any more.
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Re: WAIT
Date: 2004-11-07 08:54 pm (UTC)How is contributing to society better than doing nothing at all ? This seems backwards.
Is this unrelated? I dunno.
I am just a person, with tons of love for ALL my friends, No matter their political leanings. I chose to be an example of an understanding, open-minded person, who just happens to see things a little differently due to my personal experiences.
Also
Not all conservatives are Christian. trust me.
Re: WAIT
Date: 2004-11-07 09:42 pm (UTC)"Not all conservatives are Christian. trust me."
I know, I know! And one of the sad things about the aftermath of this election is that conservatism is sort of dead right now. The actual conservatives -- the people who wanted less government and lower taxes and less government intrusion and more business opportunity -- are not much in evidence. The "talking points" are endless war, intolerance, and a police state instead.
The closest I've heard to an acknowledgment of that has been a couple of conservative friends of mine who said "Yeah, I know, that's really too bad it had to be this way".
When the Soviet Union was unavoidably demonstrated to be evil and dangerous in the 1930s, most leftists remained in denial. Despite their wretched behavior in Spain and the purge trials of 1938, otherwise sane people kept making excuses for Stalin's actions while things got worse and worse. Nearly alone among his colleagues on the Left, George Orwell had the guts to write and speak out about the horrors of Soviet Russia, giving us Animal Farm and 1984 and giving the world a powerful warning about ideals gone wrong.
American conservatives need an Orwell about now. If you need me, I'll be in Room 101 with rats chewing on my face.
Re: WAIT
Date: 2004-11-08 08:45 am (UTC)That's just so not getting it on the level of a president claiming to be a uniter and then saying he will work with those who share his agenda.
-W (not that one :)
:: bang head against brick wall ::
Re: WAIT
Date: 2004-11-08 08:47 am (UTC)my bad.
-W