So, yesterday I had lunch with one of my too-few-and-far-between liberal friends here in Texas. He told me a story that had me shaking my head, wondering why and when did our "team" turn into such a sad bunch of cowards. This past Sunday, my friend said, he was sitting in church with his family. It should be emphasized right off the bat that he attends one of the few left-leaning congregations here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Suddenly he began to recognize that the sermon had a very subtle liberal undertone that highlighted - in so many sensitive words - Christ's liberal-leaning ways. Suddenly my friend realized that some people in the church had actually started booing! He couldn't believe it; not in THIS church! But that's not what had me shaking my head; it was that only ONE person in a church full of liberals applauded in support of the priest's message. If this poor, lonely soul in a church made up of mostly like-minded liberals, is too intimidated to even clap for a message he can relate to; what does that mean for the rest of us?
Even though the overwhelming majority of our country identifies more with moderate-to-left leaning social policies, all it takes is a few buffoons on the right to boo loud enough to turn our entire collective voice into a singular, tiny, wimpy applause.
Blog post numero uno!
Is it just me, or does anyone else feel like this country is regressing into an archaic mentality, when women were expected to walk around barefoot and pregnant, cook dinner, wash dishes and fold clothes, not have opinions, and "obey" their husbands? What baffles me about conservatives and their hate-mongering is their lack of common sense and complete inability (or denial) to recognize their own hypocrisy and contradictory positions on policy. It all started with an obsession regarding the already-mediocre government assistance for struggling families, i.e. single women. At the same time, an obsession with abortion and repealing Roe from a group of growing supporters who still refuse to acknowledge the relationship between the two or understand that the two issues are not mutually exclusive.
Just within the last decade, their proposed and enacted social policies against women (and families) have equated to: 1) Attacking all public assistance for single-parent or impoverished households, e.g. single mothers and their children; 2) Increasing attacks on federally-assisted student loan programs to help people get OFF of public assistance; 3) Complete refusals to participate in or support any proactive measures to prevent unwanted pregnancy in teens, e.g. providing condoms to sexually active teenagers, or even the minutest attempt to educate kids on safe sex; and now; 4) An attack on oral contraceptives. And I'm not even going to start with the right-wing's outright rejection of HPV vaccinations for girls to prevent cervical cancer, all because transmission of the virus is associated with sex. Is it a coincidence that the disease is carried by both men and women, and that men, who are simply carriers, are not exposed at all to the virus's deadly consequences? Did I mention that about 90% of the population are carriers of the virus, including these imbeciles who argue against protection for their daughters? I don't know whether to laugh or cry!
Can ALL of these people be so blind and ignorant that they actually believe their own stupid bullshit and not see the hypocrisy? Do any of these people see the conflict in their policy proposals with their never-ending chant about reducing government interference in our personal lives, increasing freedom for people make their own decisions, blah, blah, blah? Don't at least some conservative women recognize that they are voting for policies against THEMSELVES and their children? How in the world did this mentality and irrationality permeate our society and infiltrate public policy? It is so incredibly ignorant that the democratic party can only stand by on the defensive, unable to anticipate with any forethought what they're going to do next, scratching our heads with our diplomas while these people take over our lives. It's exasperating to put it mildly and I am at my wits end with this. Aren't YOU?
The problem is that our peaceful, educated, rational, and non-confrontational mindset and values have worked against us in a society with such ruthlessness and hatred that we simply do not know how to respond or react in any kind of meaningful way. It's just not in our nature as a group to even think so irrationally. But we better learn quickly and recognize that whatever they're doing, right or wrong, works! We can't continue to sit idly by and watch it happen, claiming that we're above this foolishness and it doesn't deserve an intelligent response. Doesn't it? When are we going to get off our asses and put a stop to this stupidity? When did all the compromising and effort to depolarize politics get dumped onto OUR shoulders? Screw that!
Where are our Roosevelts? FDR went so far as to threaten to reorganize the Supreme Court to achieve his goals! While I don't necessarily agree with such a means of achieving them, it was a gutsy, no-nonsense move in the face of an unimaginable and devastating economic crisis, without even a second thought about the political heat he might face. He was able to appeal to the people's common sense and gather support for his policies. He was motivated by a strong belief that providing for the people will ensure a strong and prosperous future for the entire country. He really didn't give a damn who liked it or not. So why do we?
Where are these types of liberals? We are stronger than them, mentally, emotionally, financially,intellectually, AND collectively. For some reason we STILL continue to believe that their silliness won't affect us, that we're insulated somehow. But this new turn of events with Sandra Fluke has at least opened some of our eyes long enough to feel a threat closer to home. So many of us say to just ignore them, that we're too good to stoop to their level. But where has that gotten us? To them we're all a bunch of spoiled brats, with our fancy educated ways; we haven't struggled or walked in their shoes; we don't respect their "commoner" values because they have been made to believe we all snub our noses at them. And while the Sandra Fluke incident fired us up - it fired ME up, that's for sure - I do believe that the fact that she was a law student at Georgetown only stood to isolate them even more from our cause. I mean, we're dealing with hundreds of thousands of people who voted for Curious George simply because they thought he would come to their barbeque. That's really scary.
As for me personally, I can say I worked my ass off to be who I am: An educated free-thinker who grew up continually exposed to racism and a Southern Baptist-backwoods mentality and overcame it. I left home when I was 16, quit school, got a GED; I had nothing and everything going against me. But what I had was my own opinions, fight, drive, and was free in my thoughts to be who I wanted to be, without a second thought as to whether it was all worth it or a care who didn't like it. I worked through school as a waitress, paid my own way, and never looked back. And while most of our parents would be proud of their children for pursuing education and independence; half of my family was threatened by them. Same old song and dance as what we're seeing today, just on a much smaller scale. However, having grown up in this environment, having personally experienced the ignorance, stubbornness, insecurity and mentality of these people, I also know that turning the other cheek is NOT the answer. You have to sit down face to face with these people in a lawn chair, drink a beer, share a few laughs, and dumb it down. We're intelligent people; lets use our intelligence in a different way: know our audience, be able to speak their language, and use whatever means necessary to achieve your end. We simply do not do that as a party.
We need more women and men - and plumbers - to speak for us with whom this base can identify in SOME way. Those people don't care about Sandra Fluke and her big-city Georgetown problems. They need to know that there are people in our base who are unafraid of confrontation for the sake of preserving our "dignity" - most of them can't spell dignity or define it, after all. They need to hear from those of us who are willing to do more than just bitch and complain about where this country is headed, posting links on Facebook and banning the right-wing attackers from their page - wow. People, here's a newsflash - they don't give a shit about that! We need strong, opinionated, angry, confrontational, idealistic, bold people who are able to dish it out when it's given, ten-fold.
I believe there are many of us who are sick and tired of being sick and tired while our rights are eroding before our eyes. I'm ready to sit in the front this time with my megaphone at one of their racist rallies and in so many words be willing to stand up and tell them, their base, and their candidates to go F*&K themselves.
