My response to WaPo's "GOP’s Red America forced to rethink what it knows about the country"

[markpkessinger]

Last edited Mon Nov 12, 2012, 07:07 PM - Edit history (1)

So, there is this article in the Washington Post that discusses the "grieving" for a "lost America" that is going on in red states. It profiles poor Beth Cox, a Romney volunteer, who can simply no longer make any sense of the world. Poor, poor Beth. I decided Beth needed someone to explain it to her. . .

Mark Kessinger · Top Commenter
When your candidate describes the American public as being split between 47% of the population he claims are unwilling to "take responsibility for their lives" and 53% who do (which is really just another gloss on Ayn Rand's "makers" and "takers&quot ;

when your party describes any support for affordable medical care in one's senior years or any expectation of relying on a Social Security supplement which a person has paid into his or her entire working life as "wanting free stuff";

when your party claims that collecting unemployment INSURANCE benefits (for which you have contributed towards the premiums) when you lose your job through no fault of your own is receiving a "government handout (all the while conveniently forgetting that anybody who has ever taken a mortgage interest deduction has likewise received a "handout&quot ;

when you seek to deny other citizens the same civil rights you enjoy based on nothing other than your religious beliefs (which shouldn't be dictating what others do in any case);

when members of your party carry on as if they (and only they) had some kind of monopoly on patriotism or on who is a "real American";

when your party becomes so closely aligned with one particular strain of the Christian faith (evangelical fundamentalist), a strain that is abhorrent to many Christians who belong to many of the mainline protestant traditions, and when you insist your strain of the Christian faith represents the only "true" Christianity;

when your party attempts to subvert democratic process by employing various strategies aimed at disenfranchising voters who tend to vote for the other party;

Can it really surprise you, then, that your vision of America repulses a great many people in this country?

Perhaps if you tried dismounting that high horse of cultural superiority you ride all the time and begin to see yourself as no better (and no worse) than any other American citizen, or maybe if you tried stepping out of your smug, entitled belief that the question of who or what is a "real American" is yours (or your socio-economic/cultural peer group's) to define -- perhaps then you wouldn't find the world to be such a threatening and confusing place. But until conservatives are willing to make significant progress along these lines, I have very limited patience, and even less sympathy, for their melodramatic "mourning."

If you can access Facebook's WaPo social reader, you can see the comment here: https://apps.facebook.com/wpsocialreader/me/channels/124962/content/5yqTA?fb_comment_id=fbc_349951668434736_1946325_350128015083768&ref=notif¬if_t=open_graph_comment

[Sinistrous]

1. Superb!

Thank you.

[GeorgeGist]

2. Sweet!

Thank you.

[MissMarple]

3. Very good!

[mrsadm]

4. That article appalled me ... The insularity,

The sense of superiority, the total lack of empathy with anyone different from oneself, the lack of questioning about one's own beliefs, the lack of curiosity about other people and other beliefs ... It was absolutely chilling.