Even if there are a million of them that is still less than 1/3 of 1% of our population. Forget about it. Let 'em bitch. It may do them some good.
People like these will never go away. They are products of Evolution by Natural Selection, just as we all are. But we obviously are not all alike. We are varieties of our species. Charles Darwin wrote about this in his Origin of Species.
In the second chapter of Origin, “Variation Under Nature,” Charles Darwin attempted to separate individual differences, varieties, and species. He was trying mightily to establish some rule by which a group of individuals that differs from another group of individuals, yet both groups are clearly closely related, can be properly classified as a variety of a species or another distinct species. He failed to find the rule. My own reading, while by no means exhaustive or even broad, has failed to find the rule elsewhere. Darwin ended his discussion with this comment:
Hence in determining whether a [life] form should be ranked as a species or a variety, the opinion of naturalists having sound judgment and wide experience seems to be the only guide to follow. … That varieties of this doubtful nature are far from uncommon cannot be disputed.
I am not a naturalist and I offer no scientific evidence for the existence of tyranni (Republicans) and democrati. I nevertheless assert that I have seen them and read about them and I know many of both types—and I am related by blood and marriage to some of each variety, including three extreme tyranni. I think both varieties, in all degrees, exist in all so-called “races,” cultures, genders, nations, sexual orientations, and in all times—wherever and whenever we find H. sapiens, we find these varieties.
Former president Jimmy Carter encountered tyranni in his religion. He noticed over a period of many years that the organization governing his Baptist religion had changed and become more and more dogmatic. (Isn’t it astonishing that a religion actually needs a governing body to tell it how to worship God?) The following table quotes Carter’s description of the kind of men who caused trouble. In fact, they caused so much trouble that he and Mrs. Carter withdrew their support from the Southern Baptist Convention in 2000. In any case, here is Carter’s description of fundamentalists. I’ll wager that you will see a strong similarity to many of those who are seeking secession:
I soon learned that there was a more intense form of fundamentalism, with some prevailing characteristics:
· Almost invariably, fundamentalist movements are led by authoritarian males who consider themselves to be superior to others, and within religious groups, have an overwhelming commitment to subjugate women and to dominate their fellow believers.
· Although fundamentalists usually believe that the past is better than the present, they retain certain self-beneficial aspects of both their historic religious beliefs and of the modern world.
· Fundamentalists draw clear distinctions between themselves, as true believers, and others, convinced that they are right and that anyone who contradicts them is ignorant and possibly evil.
· Fundamentalists are militant in fighting against any challenge to their beliefs. They are often angry and sometimes resort to verbal or even physical abuse against those who interfere with the implementation of their agenda.
· Fundamentalists tend to make their self-definition increasingly narrow and restricted, to isolate themselves, to demagogue emotional issues, and to view change, cooperation, negotiation, and other efforts to resolve differences as signs of weakness.
To summarize, there are three words that characterize this brand of fundamentalism: rigidity, domination, and exclusion.
So we are of two different varieties of
H. sapiens. We are not quite different species, but we are definitely different. We will never be like them and they will never be like us. This is an old lesson that is yet unlearned by many people. Because we cannot change human nature all we can do is organize our institutions so that the tyranni, and Republicans are tyranni, cannot do harm. President Obama may be learning this lesson. He is, I hope, learning that this old poem by Edwin Markham is still true:
For all your days prepare,
And meet them ever alike:
When you are the anvil, bear—
When you are the hammer, strike.
Obama is the hammer. He must strike.