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Republicans Are Mean. Right.
Your typical, non-political, nice Democrat Photo by shutterstock.com
Imagine a 50 year old soccer Mom picking up her son in her Volvo to take him to an off-campus restaurant for a decent meal. He’s a sophomore at The University of Wisconsin, and she graduated from Kenyon back in the 80’s. Neither have read or thought a great deal about philosophy or politics, since they’re both interested in other things. But both vote Democrat, because they’ve both been told their whole lives by everyone they looked up to that Republicans are mean. They’re not mean, so they vote Democrat. They sit down at a hip bistro in Madison, and the Mother takes her mask off and makes some comment about the impact of Coronavirus.
Now, just imagine this. Imagine that her son looked a little uncomfortable, then responded with this: “Yeah, well, I’ve been thinking about that and stuff. But just talking totally hypothetically, what if the COVID lock-down thing is just an effort to win the next presidential election?” His mother attempts to hide her shock as he continues. “What if that Russian collusion investigation with Mueller and Strzok and all really was all a hoax? What if they knew from early on that there was no evidence, but they pushed it on for years, in an effort to win the next presidential election? What if local politicians across the country are encouraging Black Lives Matter and Antifa to break stuff and hurt people, just in an effort to win the next presidential election? What if we shut down the economy and destroyed all those lives and businesses just to make it look like the economy wasn’t as good as it seemed under Trump, all just in an effort to win the next presidential election? What if…”
His mother looks very concerned for him, and interrupts him with, “Um, honey, what are you saying?”
“Yeah, well, nothing, really. But just think of all those people who’ve lost their jobs, had their property destroyed, had their businesses burned, and lost everything. Think of all the high school and college kids who didn’t get to play their senior season in whatever sport they do, never getting the benefit of all the hard work they put in over the years. Think of all the widows whose husbands died alone, because the hospital allowed no visitors due to COVID. Think of all the family vacations and lifetime memories that just never happened. Think of all the people who can’t support their families right now. Just think of all the pain and suffering that’s been forced on so many untold millions of people…”
President Donald Trump Photo by shutterstock.com
She asks again, “Um, Trey, um, what are you trying to say?”
“Yeah, well, Trump is a really bad guy, obviously.”
She looks relieved and says, “Oh, obviously!”
“Yeah, but suppose we hurt all those millions of people so bad. Lost jobs. Didn’t get to be with their loved ones as they die. Losing lifelong memories, and so on. Suppose we did all that just to win the next presidential election. And after all that, suppose we manage to get Trump voted out.”
“Right honey! Trump is horrible!”
“Well, yeah. Obviously. But then what do we get?”
*pause*
“Yeah, Mom, what do we get? We get one of the most corrupt politicians in the last 50 years, who was a little slow before and now doesn’t know where he is. He’s lied his way to the top, made one racist comment after another, he’s fondled little girls on camera, he’s made his whole family rich with his corruption, he’s…”
“Um, Trey?”
Joe Biden Photo by shutterstock.com
“Mom, look. My point is, we didn’t get Thomas Jefferson or Alexander Hamilton. We hurt millions of people. Real, real bad. In millions of different ways. We didn’t destroy Donald Trump’s life. He’s rich. He’s fine. But we destroyed lots and lots and lots of other people’s lives. For what? For Joe freakin’ Biden.”
*pause*
“All those people we hurt. All those people. All that pain. Was it worth it? If this even works. Was it worth it? Man, I don’t know.”
*pause*
“I mean, whatever happened to debates and town hall meetings? Do we really have to hurt so many people to get the right guy elected? Is this the only way to do this? And if this is the only way, is this the right thing to do? And even if it’s right to hurt millions of people to get what we want, is Joe Biden really what we want?”
*pause*
“I … I just don’t know, Mom. I thought Republicans were mean … “
His mother looks very concerned as she gazes off in the distance. Then she orders a double appletini and remarks on how beautiful the weather is, other than the global warming.
I don’t know if everything I mentioned was purely political, although the longer all this goes on, the more suspicious I get. And I doubt that most Democrats really want to even consider this possibility.
But suppose just one Democrat, somewhere, stops and thinks. Just for a moment. And he thinks, “Holy crap. Was all this just politics? All those people, all that pain, just to get some guy elected? My guy? My side is going to win an election by hurting all those people? Geez, is this really my side?”
He’d think a bit more, and then perhaps he might realize, “Geez, the whole reason I vote Democrat is that I’m not mean. And this is how we do politics? By hurting millions of people? What the #@$&?!?”
Surely some Democrats out there are starting to realize that a lot of this is simply Democrat party politics. And surely that makes some Democrats just a little uncomfortable. Right?
Right?
Published in General
Nah.
Sorry Doc, but I don’t think so either.
I like to dream that thousands of college kids will have that conversation with their parents. Well, I can dream, can’t I??
There are intelligent Democrats. It’s not a contradiction in terms. I know many of them.
Unfortunately, I know many otherwise-intelligent people who have completely surrendered to Leftist manipulation of their emotions. They are socialists because socialism feels better than capitalism.
Wow, I just woke up after having a crazy dream. I wish my dreams were more realistic.
Nice fantasy. I do not see this in any comments in the FB world from any of my many Trump hating acquaintances. They all still hate him now, perhaps even more so, and blame him for everything. And they still believe Russia, Russia,Russia, and Racist, racist RACIST!
“some Democrats” simply look the other way, nothing to see here, and move along.
But damn that Donald Trump is an evil genius/imbecile know nothing …. really really bad guy.
I have it on good authority (my son’s mother-in-law) that Republicans caused the COVID-19 virus.
Democrats don’t have the necessary degree of self-awareness to be made uncomfortable by the actions of the people they vote into office.
Intentions are all that matters. Effects (reality) are not important.
True.
Also: They don’t make the connection between their votes and effects. I learned first-hand what “denial” means. It is not refusing to believe an uncomfortable fact. It is the inability to see that fact. The inability to see is coupled with anger when one is forced to see, with the anger directed at those who forced one to see. If you think it is ugly now, just wait a bit.
I have Democrat friends that if I were to show them this post they wouldn’t speak to me for weeks. It seems that actually thinking about issues hurts their Psyche. Shuts down their brains. Facts are stakes to their hearts. Reality clouds their judgment. I’m taking otherwise very intelligent and successful people.
You say that like it would be bad. /:
Nah, not from where I’m sitting. The slightest thought wouldn’t even begin to speculate about the merest possibility of crossing their minds.
I think that’s the thing that I find most troubling. Andrew Cuomo has so much blood on his hands, but all the deaths from the WuFlu are supposedly Trump’s fault. The tv tells me that every night.
I think most Democrats have a completely different set of priorities than most of us here on Ricochet.
It’s not really about Joe Biden in the eyes of Democrats.
It’s about saving the planet from climate change. Yes, that’s how many Democrats think about the issue of climate change. We see the hard Left as presenting an existential threat to our way of life. Well, many Democrats see climate change as a threat to the survival of life on the planet.
Race relations. We think that the Democrats have gone nuts, blowing the George Floyd death completely out of proportion. But most Democrats think that the George Floyd death simply blew the cover and disclosed how completely rotten our criminal justice system is.
So, because Democrats think of themselves as “nice,” they will say, “We must defeat Trump so that we can heal our racial divide, more adequately fund social welfare programs, defeat the Covid-19 pandemic using “science, not right-wing conspiracy theory,” and save the planet from climate change.
And that’s not even mentioning how they think that defeating Trump is necessary in order to keep abortion legal so that woman aren’t “controlled” by those evil Y chromosomes on the US Supreme Court.
I have lots of Lefties on my Mom’s side of the family, including my Mom. LOL !!
I have an inkling of how they see the world. And it bears no relation to how you see it.
Dr. B,
This became my reality in the late 1970s. To me, Ronald Reagan was no knight in shining armor. He was the announcer from “Death Valley Days”. Spitting and screaming I went down and changed my registration to Republican. I wasn’t going to do this thing halfway. I voted for Reagan in 1980. I looked back plenty of times but I only saw the same thing. I have never regretted the choice that I made.
Regards,
Jim
In 1983 and in early 1984 I was a Leftist high school student. I followed the Democrat primaries featuring Walter Mondale, Gary Hart, Jessie Jackson, John Glenn, Fritz Hollings and Rubin Askew (remember them?).
I ended up being a strong Gary Hart supporter until he was defeated in the primaries by Mondale. Then I was in the Mondale camp.
But right about the time when I had to decide whether to register as a Democrat, a Republican or an Independent (or another party), I had a sense that all of my Leftist ideology was a bunk. I registered Republican, voted a nearly straight Republican ticket, including voting for the Reagan-Bush re-election and later became a conservative activist.
The contrast between the chaos and dysfunction of the Carter years and the coherence and prosperity of the Reagan years was too stark to ignore, even as early as 1984.
So, when I think back and remember my younger self, I realize that occasionally people do go through worldview changes.
Why in the world would Republicans do that?
To make Xi and the CCP look bad.
That’s my vote for quote of the year. Wow.
For me it was my first paycheck, who is FICA and why is it taking almost 10%?
Dogma is dangerous. Sincerity is also dangerous and overrated.
The ideology is more important than the individual which is the exact opposite of the Enlightenment and 1776.
Ever since someone used the ‘break a few eggs to make an omelette’ metaphor, I’ve stopped eating omelettes.
Trump derangement syndrome
the road to hell is paved with good…
We can’t worry about converting Democrats.
We have to focus on ‘independent’ voters
That is just a fantasy for me, for one of my adult children to come out as conservative. These week during a rare political discussion with one of my Leftist children, I was hit with, “you just want to listen to yourself make points to confirm your existing bias.” I am confused by well educated people being so illogical. Of course they are always frustrated in discussions, because I only engage on topics in which I am very well informed.
Couldn’t they just mention how the CCP is oppressing Uighurs in the most depraved and horrific manner possible? Or maybe they could hang out with the Dalai Lama. Making China look bad isn’t that hard to do.
You asked.