General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What's your response to the "There's [almost] no difference between the two parties" comment? [View all]BainsBane
(53,032 posts)Here are some of the issues that don't count, according to these people.
Reproductive rights
Equal pay for equal work
Marriage equality
voting rights
Social Security
Unemployment
Assistance for the poor
Assistance for the disabled
Higher education
K-12 Education
Global Climate Change
The Environment
Federally funded research: NIH, NSF, NEH, and NEA
Family planning at home and abroad
Disaster preparedness (remember Katrina?)
Some regulation of Wall Street vs. Complete deregulation
Job training and infrastructure projects vs. even greater tax cuts for the rich
Prosecution of Hate Crimes
Civil rights and enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment
Women's rights as human rights
Those are the issues and people that don't matter to them. They are privileged enough that the above issues don't affect their lives, and a GOP administration might even give them a nice tax cut. The basic civil rights and survival of the poor and the majority of Americans don't matter to them. They are largely restorationist, people who resent the fact that the body politic includes "women and minorities" (who are actually the overwhelmingly majority of the nation). They call themselves leftist but they are in fact reactionary, seeking to turn the clock back to the time when the rest of us were silenced, were excluded from politics and concerns of politicians. Some of them refer to LGBT rights as effecting "only a very small percentage of people." What they call "leftism" is nothing of the sort and has far more in common with the GOP, which is why they are happy enough to have that party run things. Since they have made clear my life and the lives of my friends, neighbors, and most of the rest of the country is inconsequential to them, I cannot respect them. They are desperate to cling to their privilege. It's bad enough a black man has been President for eight years but now a woman? It's too much for them to bear. I think about them like I do Republicans. They have the right to their views and even their self-delusion in calling themselves leftist. Their rights, however, do not extend to compelling me indulge their colossal sense of entitlement.