Open letter to Republicans
KeithHandy posted in Featured Posts on January 27th, 2008
By now, I’ve read several hundred of your comments and blog posts, and watched the Republican YouTube debates. I want to be informed as to your side of the issues, and your rationale, but I’m afraid it’s not coming through. I really do have an open mind, and I really am listening. All I’ve heard from any of you so far is insults, name-calling, homophobia, racism, xenophobia, religious intolerance, re-hashed McCarthyism, and that the sky is generally falling. (The Republican candidates themselves restrain themselves a little more carefully than you, for image management reasons; but that would hold true for any party, and I’m addressing you, the ordinary “people on the street”, who aren’t under that pressure.)
I’ve heard from you that whenever we vote for a Democrat — which, as long I’ve been alive, has been one of our two most realistic choices at every presidential election, and our only realistic option if we don’t like the Republican candidate — we’re voting against everything this country stands for, voting away freedom, and voting in communism, high taxes, moral decay, and general chaos. Basically, anyone who doesn’t vote Republican is anti-American. This implies to me that you don’t believe in voting. If you think that’s not a logical conclusion for me to draw, then please explain to me the point of having elections if, as far as you can see, there’s only ever one valid candidate. There are plenty of countries who hold elections when, in fact, the leader is pretty much already chosen. Is that what you want?
I’ve also heard that every time we have had a Democrat in office, the country has fallen apart. I’ve lived through several of these terms and don’t remember seeing the country falling apart. Do you have photographs of this fallen-apart-ness to show me and possibly refresh my memory? I was probably looking in the wrong direction at the time. Maybe “fallen apart” to you means that you heard stories on TV about people doing things you personally wouldn’t do, like having weird sex and not getting arrested for it. No, seriously, explain to me how it adversely affected your life, or the life of somebody you know. Explain to me how things got better for you or your loved ones every time a Republican took the wheel again.
Not only have you said nothing to persuade or inform me as a 38 year old, but even as a seventh grader I could have told you that you aren’t apparently making any real, convincing points. All you’ve convinced me of is that you hate a lot of people.
I’ve never checked off the “liberal” or “democrat” boxes on any questionnaire asking me what my political leanings are; I’ve always considered myself apolitical and open-minded. But you’re giving me the impression that this is less about political ideology and more about low IQ, lack of maturity, or common spite. I will flat-out be the first to tell you there are plenty of liberals and democrats who don’t write maturely or intelligently, and yes, there is a signal-to-noise ratio to contend with. The difference is, with Republicans, there’s no signal.
If you just need help translating your noble ideals into coherent sentences, maybe you can hire some of us commie liberals (your word for non-Republicans) as literary consultants to write it up for you. It would be kind of like Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, except we’d be helping you with words instead of haircuts.
I like debates. I like intellectual challenges. I like to mull over opposing viewpoints. It’s not fun or challenging to choose between a viewpoint and a bunch of primitive chest-thumping. Please don’t make it so easy for me.
