I don't like conservatives.

[mojowork_n]

59. A note of dissent.

Last edited Wed Dec 21, 2011, 03:03 PM - Edit history (1)

I certainly have no love for the practices (corrupt, thuggish) or the policies (fraudulent, dystopian) of today's R's,
but I try not to make it personal. Most of the time it's like trying to "argue" differences of religion, or sports.

You might as well waste your breath talking to a Bears fan ("but the Packer offense is so much more exciting to watch')
as try to debate these people.

And just like being a Bears fan -- or even a non-denominational fundie -- doesn't necessarily make you a "bad" person,
I try to give R's the one-on-one, 'who-knows-where-and-how-they-got-this-way,' non-judgmental benefit of the
doubt.

It saves a lot of time and wasted, nervous energy. Although it's usually impossible to avoid having differences of opinion,
sticking to verifiable facts, gently pointing out contradictions, refusing to accept the frame and offering different
perspectives -- *that's* worth the effort.

I honestly think there's a lot of money and PR billable hours generated with the express (or sometimes, indirect)
purpose of keeping blue-state and red-state Americans as hair-trigger jumpy, and anxious, and afraid, and crazy,
as possible.

The "divide and rule," rule.

F*** 'em.

We're better than that. At least sometimes.

In a different era, a different America (maybe), Will Rodgers -- one of the best spokesmen the Democratic party
ever had -- was famous for saying he "never met a man he didn't like." There's still something to be said for
that. (If only to keep us from getting to be just like what we fear most.) On Thom Hartmann yesterday, he
quoted someone as having said, "there's only 2 things in life, Love and Fear," or something like that., and
'it's important to know which side your on.' If you think of "fear" as a temporary state (lack of it's opposite,
or a temporary madness or delusion), it's even easier to know the answer to that one.