In a recent letter to the editor of a Bay Area, CA newspaper, the writer acknowledged that Democrats offer the best social and economic policies for the country. But then he cited a list of typical Republican cultural grievances as reasons why people should refuse to support Democrats despite it being in their own self-interest to do so, so-called grievances such as identity politics, victimhood, cancel culture, white self-loathing, and wokeness.
Such is the absurdity of the Republican position: support candidates who will literally make your life worse just so you can feel good about "sticking it to the Libs" and other folks you just don't like.
Such is the absurdity of the Republican position: support candidates who will literally make your life worse just so you can feel good about "sticking it to the Libs" and other folks you just don't like.
Republicans appeal to our basest instincts in inventing catchy, snarky little slogans to try to disguise the fact that we are facing very real, complex, and threatening issues they just can’t or won’t deal with.
For example, when faced with the intractable issue of climate change, it's so much easier to yell "Hoax!" than it is to understand the science and admit that we are staring at the increasingly disastrous effects on our environment and on our lives that human-caused climate change is creating.
It’s much easier to yell "Stop the Steal" than to see that Trump and his minions in Congress have manufactured an entire false narrative that would eliminate fair elections and the rule of law, to get or remain in power.
And perish the thought that we are, as the writer commented, "forcing complicated ideas about race and sex on kids too young to understand them." Is it better to feed them lies and half-truths so they will grow up with the same misunderstandings and biases that have created our current problems? Should students not be taught the truth and given the opportunity to learn how to think for themselves so that they can ultimately decide what is right? Instead, Republicans embrace censorship, denialism, and lies in the hopes that their bankrupt ideas will not be challenged.
The letter writer unsurprisingly blamed the "liberal media (that) prevents any two-sided dialogue on race, gender, and identity politics." But how can there be two-sided dialogue when one side bans books and terrorizes people for simply being the wrong color or religion? When it insists that anti-democratic gerrymandering and more guns are the answers to their fears of power shifts due to the country’s changing demographics and beliefs?
That writer’s comments reveal the desperate fears that have overcome so many in our country and the extreme measures they are willing to take, including tearing down our democratic system of government, flawed as it may be. Republicans are fostering this mentality simply to wield power, not to do what is best for our country. We must challenge those threatening forces at every opportunity.
In a recent letter to the editor of a Bay Area, CA newspaper, the writer acknowledged that Democrats offer the best social and economic policies for the country. But then he cited a list of typical Republican cultural grievances as reasons why people should refuse to support Democrats despite it being in their own self-interest to do so, so-called grievances such as identity politics, victimhood, cancel culture, white self-loathing, and wokeness.
Such is the absurdity of the Republican position: support candidates who will literally make your life worse just so you can feel good about "sticking it to the Libs" and other folks you just don't like.
Such is the absurdity of the Republican position: support candidates who will literally make your life worse just so you can feel good about "sticking it to the Libs" and other folks you just don't like.
Republicans appeal to our basest instincts in inventing catchy, snarky little slogans to try to disguise the fact that we are facing very real, complex, and threatening issues they just can’t or won’t deal with.
For example, when faced with the intractable issue of climate change, it's so much easier to yell "Hoax!" than it is to understand the science and admit that we are staring at the increasingly disastrous effects on our environment and on our lives that human-caused climate change is creating.
It’s much easier to yell "Stop the Steal" than to see that Trump and his minions in Congress have manufactured an entire false narrative that would eliminate fair elections and the rule of law, to get or remain in power.
And perish the thought that we are, as the writer commented, "forcing complicated ideas about race and sex on kids too young to understand them." Is it better to feed them lies and half-truths so they will grow up with the same misunderstandings and biases that have created our current problems? Should students not be taught the truth and given the opportunity to learn how to think for themselves so that they can ultimately decide what is right? Instead, Republicans embrace censorship, denialism, and lies in the hopes that their bankrupt ideas will not be challenged.
The letter writer unsurprisingly blamed the "liberal media (that) prevents any two-sided dialogue on race, gender, and identity politics." But how can there be two-sided dialogue when one side bans books and terrorizes people for simply being the wrong color or religion? When it insists that anti-democratic gerrymandering and more guns are the answers to their fears of power shifts due to the country’s changing demographics and beliefs?
That writer’s comments reveal the desperate fears that have overcome so many in our country and the extreme measures they are willing to take, including tearing down our democratic system of government, flawed as it may be. Republicans are fostering this mentality simply to wield power, not to do what is best for our country. We must challenge those threatening forces at every opportunity.