Liberal Tolerance
I read a post recently from a friend of an acquaintance. It was quite strongly argued, from a liberal standpoint, against conservative thought. I considered the post for some time. Finally, I have decided to answer the assertions raised. As always, I avoid name calling and put downs, because I prefer to answer ideas. It is important to me that ideas are always open to debate, challenge and consideration. Even my own! People, not so much.
I do not have this gentleman’s permission to use his name, so his identity will remain anonymous unless he requests specifically to be identified. I appreciate his written thoughts, as it allowed me the opportunity to consider and respond. Even though I disagree with nearly all of his views, we are both people who care deeply about our country. I wish him well. For the purposes of this article, I will call him Mr. B.
Mr. B begins with the following statements/accusations:
Here's what no one seems to be getting: no one is "lumping" conservatives in with their extremists.
Conservatives ARE extremists.
Global warming denialism is an extremist position.
I would guess he is reacting to liberals being associated with Antifa, BLM, rioting and the defund the police movement. No, I don’t think all liberals support those causes, the same way all conservatives don’t support racism, foreign wars and theocracies. Far from it. I think part of this is due to media. Some folks tend to believe what they hear on the news, others are more independently minded. One thing I have come to consider is that the main stream news media is horridly slanted. They throw mud, along with political pundits (the Republicans do this, too) and try to get something to stick. So when I hear or read something, I try to find what is unsaid between the lines, or how words are used to misconstrue meaning. I have found that the media does have an agenda (mostly it is trying to whip up a frenzy so they can get paid more) and also that just because “everyone” says something, that does not make it true. On to the rest.
Global warming. I am familiar with this. I taught Science for 29 years, and it was part of the curriculum I taught. The problem is, there is a difference between global warming and climate change, which is a term some have now begun to use in its place. Climate change is normal and natural. It occurs over many millions of years. The Earth has both been much, much hotter than it is right now, as well as much colder. All without the presence of mankind. This is due to a change that occurs in the Earth’s axis in space. The process repeats in cycles.
The problem with global warming is that philosophy tends to creep in and raise its ugly head into the world of science. It is because mankind is evil, with pollution. It is because of those evil people using cars, airplanes and coal fired power plants that the entire Earth will perish. Those evil oil and coal executives! Wait a minute. I am not against reduced carbon emissions. I think it is quite possible that the Earth may very well be heating up due to fossil fuel use. I think it would be prudent to strive to find an equitable, workable solution. What is unsaid in nearly every argument about global warming is this: The US has ten coal burning power plants with plans to build zero more. China, India and Russia have plans to build over 400 NEW coal fired plants, aside from the ones they already have. They do not belong to the Paris Accords and have no plans to scale back their agenda. So the question is this: why should the US pour billions and billions of dollars, our money, not the governments, ours, into a slush fund that is weighted much more heavier against the US than other nations? We are not the purse of the world. Find a way to make solar energy more efficient, and then you have a good start, rather than making people pay a carbon tax, which is ridiculous, along with the green new deal. Find a way to use sunlight to separate then burn hydrogen from water. How about that?
Mr. B continues:
Covid denialism is an extremist position.
Denying health care to citizens of the world's richest country is an extremist position.
Allowing cops to get away with murdering human beings on video is an extremist position.
I agree that Covid is a problem. To blame Trump for the deaths of this epidemic is a stretch, any more than it was Woodrow Wilson’s fault for the 50 million people who died during the Spanish Flu of 1918. It wasn’t. Perhaps Trump was told to reassure us, to avoid panic. It was his final decision to do so. So, if one wants to accuse Trump of lying, one might look at the intentions. To say he did it on purpose to mislead and that this led to deaths is disingenuous.
Denying health care. It is rather cavalier to just “volunteer” 1/3rd the pay of every citizen in the US. The problem is more complex than the above argument makes. It is a two-sided coin. Here in the US, we have the health care industry, the insurance industry and the pharmacological industry wrapped around one another like snakes eating their tails. The loser is the average citizen, who must be independently wealthy in order to afford the simplest of procedures without a health care plan. These industries charge what the market will bear, and as a result we (the average person) end up being the losers. On the other hand, compare this to health care in the UK. My pastor’s wife in Scotland is legally blind. She can no longer read or drive. She can no longer see. She has cataracts. She has been waiting for over a year for the surgery. She is still waiting. For us in the US, it is simple, go to the doctor and get it done. So we have the incredible, horrid bureaucracy of government that while “free,” actually gets in the way of health care. By the way, it isn’t free. At all. They pay through the nose in taxes in England for it. Also we already have government health care here. It is called the VA. I would not wish the VA on my worst enemy.
Allowing cops to get away with murder. Has this happened? Yes. Have others (not officers) gotten away with it? Yes, OJ Simpson for example. With regards to Derek Chauvin, the officer accused in the George Floyd scandal, his trial has yet to start. We all know the legal process is long and it may take a couple of years before the trial. Every citizen accused of a crime has a right to a trial before their peers. Cops are no exception. This is why I feel it is important to vastly expand the use of camera vests. It holds both citizens and cops to higher standards. We need this. Good cops (99.9%) have nothing to fear from this. We also need a nationwide database to keep bad cops who do not follow procedure from moving to another state and starting over again. To many, when one sees a horrid crime occur over and over again, it may seem like the act itself occurs over and over again, but it does not. This fuels outrage. To ignore 500+ deaths every year in just one city while focusing on only one is myopic, misplaced and poorly considered. The answer is legal reform in training and procedures, not blaming all cops for the actions of the very, very few.
Mr. B: Closing down polling places in majority Black neighborhoods to make sure Black people can't vote easily is an extremist position.
Opposing gun restrictions in the only country in the world with an epidemic of school shootings is an extremist position.
I’ll be honest, I don’t know a lot about polling places, just that the precinct is in charge of voting locations and the state makes laws about how and when voting is to occur. The answer is to make changes and become active at the local and state level. Community vote gatherers is not the answer and leads to fraud. If one objects to a valid ID, that to me is preposterous. An ID is needed to purchase alcohol, tobacco, drive a vehicle and even to enter certain nightclubs. It is no imposition whatsoever to get a picture ID. If one promised a million dollars to everyone without a picture ID to go get one, the Driver’s License offices would be flooded with people. It is not racism, and this argument takes away from valid instances when it actually does occur.
Gun restrictions. Having worked at my county’s schools for nearly three decades, the answer is not gun restrictions. We need police officers from the county to monitor schools, and metal detectors at the doors. It is important to note, these officers CANNOT be rent a cops that are paid by the school system. They need to be valid, sworn officers of the law that do not have their allegiances compromised and will enforce the law regardless of who the offenders are, so SPED status does not get in the way of them doing their jobs. If administrators don’t like it, too bad. I have known many school officers and call them friends. Gun restrictions only get in the way of lawful citizens, not criminals.
Mr. B: These positions are all mainstream conservatism. They're not even Trumpist positions - they're regular everyday Republican positions. I haven't even started in with the Muslim ban, build the wall, kids in cages, rapist on the Supreme Court, pull out of the Paris Accords, WHO, and Iran nuclear deals, right-wing terrorism (America's greatest terror threat, according to the director of the FBI), undermining democracy by lying about the election results, QAnon resurrecting literal Nazi blood libel, or any of the other atrocities of the last four years that enjoy majority Republican support.
Oh well, let’s get into it then. The Muslim ban. It isn’t a Muslim ban. If it was, all travel from Muslim countries would be forbidden. It is a ban from countries known to have terrorists. Who want another 9/11. Who want to kill you, me, and all our loved ones. I don’t want that to happen just so you can sing Kumbaya. So let’s talk about Japan. Do you know how much Muslim emigration Japan allows? Next to nothing. So why don’t libs ever talk about it? Ever? Oh yes, they don’t have a target on their back. Those racist Japanese!
Build the wall. It is wrong for people to come from a foreign country, breaking our laws in the process, in order to get a free meal ticket, which is what some on the left want to provide them. It is wrong for them to lie, claiming to be a political refugee in order to manipulate our legal system. Did you know the Democrats used to be the party that actually wanted to drive them out? Literally picked them up and physically throwing them out of the country. This was not too long ago. In the 50’s. Illegal immigrants were driving down the price for farm help. Then they realized that most immigrants voted with the Dems and the carpets rolled out. What incredible hypocrisy. There is nothing wrong whatsoever with a nation having national borders. There is nothing wrong with a nation enforcing its laws. We allow one million people to enter our country legally every year. One million. THAT is plenty.
Kids in cages. Something interesting I noticed. Every time someone breaks the law in our country, their kids are not allowed to go to jail with them! Imagine that. Yet, at the border, kids are kept with their parents, who… guess what. Broke the law. It’s not our fault the courts are flooded with illegals and back dated for months. People who commit felonies here, they need to get sent back and be tried for treason if they return. The rest who are law abiding, I’d like to see a path to citizenship for them. Oh, by the way, no mention of kids in cages during Obama’s administration, cause that way it would not be all Trumps fault.
Rapist on the Supreme Court. The one whom one female claimed to have gone to college with him, only to find out she’s ten years older than him and never lived anywhere near the college he attended. The other had no witnesses whatsoever, the ones who were there did not remember anything untoward happening that night. No police report. No witnesses. No paperwork. She did not even tell her parents, who most assuredly would have called the cops. Oh, by the way, she was a card-carrying Democrat. Convenient.
As I addressed above the Paris Accords will accomplish nothing unless China, Russia and India sign up and limit their coal power plants. They won’t. But let’s blame the US, to give us a cause to fight, and give away other people’s money.
WHO. They should be called the World Except for Taiwan Health Organization, because they refuse to have anything to do to help that nation. Why? Because they are in the pockets of Red China. This is beyond the abuses they use on travel, staying in 5 star hotels and spending money like water. 195 million, in Luxury expenses alone. https://nypost.com/2019/05/20/world-health-organization-blew-almost-192-million-on-travel-report/
Iran Nuclear Deals. You mean like the one where Obama sent them millions and millions in cash on pallets in the middle of the night and didn’t tell anyone until afterwards. Yeah, I really want the people who shout Death to America to benefit from our administration.
Right Wing Terrorism. Yup. Those right wingers. The ones who set fires, toppled statues, assaulted police, looted stores, assisted Antifa… the list goes on.
Undermining democracy by lying about the election results. Videotapes are not lies. Statistics are not lies. Following curves of vote results and numbers that fall well outside the standard of deviation are not lies. The rest of it has yet to be proven. It does not matter what I say, you say, the news says, what anyone says about it. The only thing that matters is what can be proven before the Supreme Court. If a legal challenge is good enough for Gore, it is good enough for anyone.
Q Anon. Have no clue about these folks except that they have the reputation of being conspiracy theorists. They are alleged to have hypnotic powers over their members, triggered by key words. JOIN USSSS
Atrocities. The major reasons I support our administration are for reasons of religious liberty, fiscal spending, and the right to life. I noticed that New York recently passed a law that made it legal to abort a baby one day before it is born. One day. That is a deal breaker for me. This is not just one baby, either. See my post here on this blog called The Unspoken.
Mr. B: There is one (1) socialist in mainstream US politics whereas there are at last count 48 US Senators who are silently allowing Trump to chip away at America's most fundamental democratic institution because they would rather have an authoritarian government that they control than a democratic government that the center-right Democrats control.
That is an extremist position.
Our new Vice President (soon to be elect) voted on or to the left of Bernie Sanders on every vote she cast. Every single time. That is no small thing.
Trump is chipping away at America’s most democratic institution because. I am sure that Trump wants to win. But there is a more important question here. Wouldn’t you consider it important that our voting system was fair and legal? Wouldn’t you want to know if cheating actually did occur? Not according to your allegation.
Mr. B: As someone who lives on the actual planet Earth, let me point out what everyone outside the US seems to know: the US does not have a right party and a left party. The US has an extremist reactionary far-right party, and a center-right moderate party.
Yes, that extremist reactionary far right party is the first one who has not embroiled us in a foreign war in over 20 years. It is the one who accomplished not one, not two, but four middle east peace agreements. Besides which, I don’t really care what other countries think of our politics. I am not an appeaser. As you can probably tell from this article.
Consequently, I think that believing what you are told and going along with the crowd is a far more extremist position than that which I responded to above.
G.Houtchens
Armchair coach
Amateur historian
