Of course, there are many distinctions between us, between Democrats and Republicans. There isn’t just one, I realize. I have been thinking about this for a long time. I remember George Lakoff used it as one of his takeoff points for his fascinating book, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think.
He wrote:
This book began with a conversation in my garden several years ago with my friend the late Paul Baum. I asked Paul if he could think of a single question, the answer to which would be the best indicator of liberal vs. conservative political attitudes. His response: “If your baby cries at night, do you pick him up?” The attempt to understand his answer led to this book.
(From p.12, Moral Politics)
More below.
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More recently I have seen the distinction described as the difference between the idea that ‘we’re all in this together,’ and ‘you're on your own.’ (Yes, I know President Clinton used the phrase in his nomination speech of Barack Obama in 2012, but the idea pre-dated that by some years. I don’t know by how many.)
I like the idea of our all being in this together. For me that is perhaps the core compassion of being a Democrat. Do we cooperate for the advancement of our world, or do we compete for everything, achieving relatively little?
We have not had a comparable scenario, but I think of the movie, Independence Day. Where the planet is invaded by a malevolent species intent on killing everyone in the way and then stripping our planet of its resources. In astonishingly short order, the peoples of the world banded together to fight the common adversary. Because, as a species, we were, in fact, in it together, when the threat was large enough.
It’s true, however, that in the political engagements we now fight with Republicans, they operate from a totally different mindset. They don’t want to help anyone, except themselves. They don’t want anyone to have anything, again, except themselves. It even applies to critical things like education. One would think that our country would be super competitive relative to other nations when it comes to education and educational infrastructure. But, no, education has come under attack from Republicans at every level. They want only THEIR children to receive the best education, short-sighted as that may be. As the United States falls further and further behind the rest of the world in this critical metric. It is a national security issue. And more.
The day is coming (sooner rather than later, I believe), where the ‘Independence Day’ scenario will be realized through the crisis of global warming. Republicans seem to be making plans now to ‘take care of their own,’ in the coming crises. As if, with sufficient wealth, they can inoculate themselves and their heirs against the magnitude of the upheavals. It takes no great imagination to know that that won’t be possible, and that they won’t understand the magnitude of their error because they’ll have died many generations before. But the truth of their errors will come, all the same.
But I am writing about this difference tonight for another reason.
I became a Democrat because, for me, ‘we’re all in this together’ represents the only hope for our world. And because the only possibility for that perspective to find adequate political oomph is through the Democratic party. Ours is the only party standing between ruin and short-sighted, compulsively selfish Republicans.
I wrote a diary a few weeks ago in which I ‘came out’ for my candidate for president, this primary season. It was intended to be playful. I intended no disrespect at all to supporters of either candidate. I hoped to help ratchet down tensions a little bit, because I think they take us nowhere good. I don’t think they help our candidate of choice, I’m pretty sure they don’t help our party, they don’t help us along the path toward the world we want to create.
But, most of all, the tensions make us forget the higher truths and objectives. They make us forget that, in a much deeper sense, we ARE all in this together. We fight poverty, we fight discrimination, inequality, economic injustice. We fight for quality education, for infrastructure, for the health of our citizens, for peace in the world, for the protection of our natural resources and our climate. We fight for present and FUTURE generations, for equitable opportunity for ALL.
I tell you this, but I know you already know it. I know we cannot see the future, we cannot see specific details of what is coming, and there are many many promising paths forward. But I can tell you this: NONE of those paths are Republican.
I had a (n email) dialogue about this with a special friend this week. A friend hurting because of what we called the TQ - toxicity quotient - around here these days.
And I wrote a bit about a Star Trek episode I diaried once many moons ago. In which said:
I wrote a diary once about a show Gene Roddenberry did during his Star Trek years. I always thought of it as one of the most powerful arguments for non-violence I had yet heard. In the show, the Star Trek crew found itself on the Enterprise with an identical number of Klingons. All of the modern weaponry on BOTH sides disappeared, leaving the two factions to fight with clubs, swords and knives. Every injury or ‘death’ only seemed to increase the desire for revenge on both sides, and the blood lust ran very high. The more so because no one ever really died. If their head was lopped off, it grew back, as did missing limbs and other body parts, and they quickly returned to the fight to kill and maim some more. But … somehow Kirk and Spock managed to clear their heads enough to see that something more than a little artificial was going on. Some investigation revealed the presence on-board of an alien that fed on strong emotion. Staging an unwinnable fight among evenly matched, evenly equipped and unkillable enemies guaranteed a seemingly endless supply of such energy. And Kirk and Spock realized that the blood lust and desire for ‘revenge’ might soon become too strong to resist. So they called a pow-wow with the Klingon commander, and both sides agreed to stop the fighting for the entertainment and gratification of the alien.
It struck me because, though the Federation forces and the Klingons were enemies, BOTH fought on the side of violence. Violence itself was their true enemy. And, once they changed the thrust of their ‘competition’ against THAT adversary, peace won the day. Ever since I have seen ‘adversaries’ embracing the same horrific policies and practices for the sake of ‘winning’ to be on the SAME side, actually, and not on the side of peace. Not on the side of truth and advancement of higher human goals and achievements.
Please give a thought, then, to those ‘in it together, with us.’ The real objective isn’t ‘winning’ (even if that may be a step along the path). The real objective is the world we create for ourselves, for our children and our grandchildren. And facing them knowing we did what we could to try to make those prospects better for us all.
Thanks for reading tonight. On to the comments!
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From elfling:
I thought this comment by HeyMikey was an interesting take on the phrase “traditional Christian.”
(Ed. note: elfling also submitted this comment by defiant. Though it is in a primary pie fight thread, defiant’s comment isn’t a sides-taking one, but, rather, one explaining how women, POC, LGBT and other minorities are sometimes discouraged from using their voices in today’s contentious political debate.)
In a story about "The Guy With the Trump Hat" by arodb, I am nominating this comment by Michael Owens as a Top Comment!
For Sunday, May 22, 2016, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on the subject.
1) “We apologize to anyone in the ballpark who this … by Meteor Blades +217
2) My boyfriend did not like Hillary Clinton, eithe … by CatM +210
3) She strikes me as presidential. by SantaFeMarie +208
4) Silly and massively misinformed comment. by Radiowalla +206
5) ...and for this: … by mnkh +184
6) Your attempt at equivalence fails miserably. by Choco8 +180
7) Don’t hold your breath. by One Pissed Off Liberal +169
8) Markos has astonished many here as he has comple … by KayCeSF +150
9) I started out supporting her not because she ins … by WolframAndHart +147
10) That was tough to watch…..spinning like a typica … by News Flash +139
11) Great interview madam president! Thanks lysis fo … by bahaba +123
12) Senate is equally important. … by Lysis +121
13) Democrats start this race with a lead. Now we al … by THirt +120
14) The longer he hangs on, the lower he goes by mnkh +118
14) Thanks. I wish I could rec you twice. Once for t … by SantaFeMarie +118
16) Thank you. This is all good news. Any and all en … by Buscuit +117
17) Thanks Lysis by a2nite +115
18) This is clearly someone who is ready to be Presi … by Semblance +113
19) I still prefer Sanders’ broad policy positions, … by allergywoman +111
19) Happy Sunday everyone! Thank you for stopping by … by LieparDestin +111
21) What could have possibly changed? … by Obama Nation +110
22) quite sure on both counts by futuramareference +106
22) I'm really glad she went and spoke. This must ha … by kathy in ga +106
22) 10,000 in National City, California last night. … by markthshark +106
25) Wow...Hillary by News Flash +105
26) If Sanders supporters complained about other thi … by Lysis +102
27) Great interview. The contrast with Trump — acros … by bear83 +101
28) I agree that she is Presidential. A huuuuuge con … by Bertrand81 +99
28) My heart breaks for these mourning moms — Hillar … by DaisiesArePretty +99
30) Ms Clinton is fighting on two fronts and it's no … by skatter +95
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2016-05-23, courtesy of jotter!
