Political divisiveness

[tahnan]

I've been complaining to friends for a few weeks now about how irritated I am by the divisive language Republicans seem to be using lately: Palin talking about the "real" America, McCain's advisor talking about the "real" Virginia, McCain's well-intentioned but ill-phrased explanation that Obama isn't an Arab, he's a decent man, and so forth. I particularly hate it because it comes from the candidates and their advisors, which gives it a stamp of approval.

Just to be clear, then: I also disapprove of this kind of divisive talk from the left. I could go through it point by point, but it's so not worth the effort. (I will note that it originated, as far as I can tell, around 2005, at which time it included "We get Eliot Spitzer; you get Tom DeLay", at a time that having Attorney General Spitzer on your side was a good thing. Just goes to show.) I've commented as much as I really feel I need to over there, though it might be worth noting that, according to these charts, California voted Republican in every election from 1952 to 1988 other than the Johnson landslide of 1964.

Let me also state that Ms. Loquacious is a delightful person who I'm always pleased to see at conventions. Don't go posting in her comments, or mine, about how she's a terrible person for posting this. For that matter, as far as I know, I'd enjoy sitting down to cosolve a crossword with Sarah Palin, too. But the us-vs.-them has to stop, from all sides.

Comments

[srl.livejournal.com]

Your comment about presidential politics in California reminded me: have you read Lisa McGirr's book Suburban Warriors? (Review here.) It's about, among other things, how Orange County, CA gave rise to the New Right. (I might have mentioned it to you before; the standard thing I say about it is that she points and waves to Cobb County as a place with the same demographics and political trends... which, as a recovering child of Cobb County, I totally can see.)

I had to read the book for school, but I recommend it to people because she's really good at talking about self-identified "housewives" as conservative political activists. Plus, it's not all that far off from describing the culture I grew up around, which might as well be the moon in the minds of most people I talk to regularly.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Huh. I may have to check that out. Thanks!

[jadelennox]

I 100% agree with you. One of the reasons I've come to terms with supporting Obama despite the fact that his politics don't represent me at all -- I keep laughing when they call him a socialist and say he has the most liberal voting record in the Senate, because if either of those facts were true, I would like him to hell of a lot more then I do -- is that someone who represents me would have absolutely no chance of uniting the country. Sure, I would like the United States to move further to the left. I would like people to believe more in a social safety net, in single -payer health care, in full rights for same-sex couples, in green technology. But much more important than that I think it's ending the god damn culture war for once and for all. There has got to be a place of compromise -- and I think that big old pro-business, hawkish, anti-same-sex marriage centrist Obama might just be a place we can compromise. And stop talking about "Jesusland".

[tayefeth.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that.

[prog.livejournal.com]

It's so easy and fun to do though. I want to internally tribalize everyone. Stupid monkey brain. Ook.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Yup. There are a lot of things that are easy and fun, but that doesn't make it OK.

[eyelessgame.livejournal.com]

One of my best friends in high school was, in junior high, a bully.

He only stopped bullying me after I actually punched him back.

I know that the prevailing attitude is that now that Democrats are winning and Republicans are losing, we all need to be bipartisan, and there shall be none of this nasty divisiveness that we always get when Republicans are winning, but I'm not ready to make nice. They need to disavow the craziness first. Until then, I heartily approve of shoving their hypocrisy back in their faces.

Because if you think we've reached Peak Wingnut, you're really deluded. I lived through Clinton. Didn't you? Do you want to live through it again? Do you think the way to avoid living through it is not to fight back?

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

No. Just no.

I appreciate the analogy with the bully, but this just doesn't work that way. Do you really think that, if the Left gets snarky and mean and divisive, the Right will suddenly say, "Oh! Wow, that's what we've been doing? We were wrong all these years. Let's be friends!", or that they'll say "Oh, man, the Democrats aren't easy pickings after all. Let's go attack the Libertarians instead!" Or, perhaps, instead they'll say "Look, the Left is being snarky and divisive! Well, no need for us to be nonpartisan, then."

Yes, they need to disavow the craziness. But the Left being just as crazy and hateful is not going to improve the atmosphere, it's not going to inspire a positive atmosphere.

[eyelessgame.livejournal.com]

I respectfully disagree, but it's your journal, and neither of us has the power to make it our way and not the other's, so we're privileged to just watch the experiment. I admit I would very much like to be wrong - that the conservatives will decide on their own to quit bullying when we don't impose a cost for it.

I just don't see it happening. And I'm tired of watching people I admire be punching bags because they're afraid they might make the other side angry if they hit back. I won't be joining you in singing kumbaya yet.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Image:

I'd let it go if you were respectfully disagreeing, but you're not. This is the second time you've said that I'm suggesting we sing Kumbaya, and that's not true, either literally or figuratively. Nor did I say at any point that we shouldn't impose a cost for their lying, bullying, and divisiveness.

What I said, what I'm saying again, and what I believe is that there are responses other than rudeness and divisiveness; responses that are productive, polite, morally sound. And active—not sitting around and taking it, not failing to hit back in some fashion, not singing Kumbaya and hoping it'll all go away.

[seekingferret.livejournal.com]

As a lifelong Republican, thank you.

I don't like any of the divisive stuff coming out of Governor Palin or Senator McCain, but that advisor's comments about the 'Real Virginia' revealed a flip side- that reducing this to a state vs. state issue ignores the reality of the people. I know that we sat down to watch the first debate, three Democrats and two Republicans, and made it through with serious disagreements aired but nobody losing their temper.

[rubrick.livejournal.com]

as far as I know, I'd enjoy sitting down to cosolve a crossword with Sarah Palin, too

Well, sure, if just for the ego trip.