Enough with the lower post shaming on DU

[better]

112. Susceptibility to being misled by a competent right-winger is certainly worth consideration

Whether one is seriously committed to progressive values is an inherently dangerous metric upon which to evaluate someone, though, especially with regard to their level of susceptibility to a competent right-winger, and especially where it fails to take into account what they know about the relationship between their commitment to progressive values and party affiliation.

To put that into sharper contrast, I have for my entire life been dedicated to progressive values. It was not until my late twenties, however, that I figured out that Republican governance truly is antithetical to those values, because I was born in the mid 70's and raised in the deep south.

In my case, seeing George W. Bush (for whom I regret to say that I did vote in 2000) veto funding expansion for SCHIP made that clear for me, and precipitated my becoming a Democrat, whereafter I learned a great deal more about what it actually means to be "a progressive". But before I made that observation, I was indeed susceptible to competent right-wingers.

Being committed to progressive values only protects one against competent right-wing propaganda if one actually recognizes that it is propaganda, which competent right-wingers have become devastatingly adept at preventing. For indisputable proof of this fact, one need look no further than the prevalence of "devout Christians" who strongly oppose such undeniably progressive values as feeding the poor, healing the sick, and sheltering the homeless.

We should be very careful to consider where a person is along their political journey, especially right now, when so many are belatedly coming to grips with the reality of what the modern Republican Party has become. We need to consider not only where someone is, but also in which direction they are moving, because that tells us most accurately whether they need to be opposed or fostered, and it is very easy to mistake one for the other if we fail to assess the difference between what they actually believe and what they think that belief means they should do, and why.