Posted on 02/11/2017 1:14:15 PM PST by Republicanprofessor
Why all the hate? Why do so many of the liberals so viscerally despise Trump and all Republicans who side with him? Was there ever such hate for Obama? I know there were deep policy disputes with Obama, but conservatives were prevented from expressing the kind of hatred we see today for fear of being called “racist.” And, honestly, I never felt hatred for Obama; disagreement, definitely. But not the hatred we see today on the left. In fact, most of Obama’s presidency was enabled for that very reason: Republicans were terrified of that “racist” label, and they did not resist Obama’s policies while today Trump’s very breath is opposed by all liberals with the deepest hatred I have ever seen in this country.
And thus I wonder: why such vicious hatred? Do liberals see themselves as threatened, and has this led to this loathing? Why are liberals more shocked and hateful nowadays than conservatives were eight years ago?
I think it comes down to self-identity. All human beings want to be safe and comfortable; we want to be fed, housed, educated, and reimbursed for the work we do. When our life-styles are threatened, we react.
I think liberals self-define themselves politically more so than conservatives. A liberal friend recently sent me a long list of causes that he supports, over fifteen causes, from abortion to immigration, as if that list defined and defended who he is. “On election day,” he says, “I didn't cry because I hated Trump or was afraid of him, I cried because he showed me that the people of this country are much, much worse than I thought they were.” When liberals see their beliefs threatened, they blame others for not agreeing with them; they riot rather than hear another side by a provocative speaker; they crumble and resort to viciousness and hatred, accusing conservatives of ruining their country and, by extension, their ideals and their lives. This may be because their own identity is intrinsically linked to their liberal politics.
On the contrary, I think conservatives are defined by many more things than political beliefs, and when they lose an election, they are disappointed but they go on with their lives. They realize that there isn’t a great deal that the president can do that affects our daily lives. It is really our own responsibility, our own actions that define our lives and determine our well being. Conservatives do not rely on the government to make us happy, while liberals seem to believe that government’s role is to make all lives better and happier. So when there is a change of government, they cannot cope. They feel their own happiness falling in shreds at their feet, even though no real action has yet affected their lives. Unable to see the other side, nor the possibilities inherent in new policies, they strike out in bitterness and hatred.
As one of my friends noted recently: "Conservatives strongly support the rights, responsibilities, and privileges of the individual, so they tend to be less interested in controlling the thoughts, behaviors, and values of other people. Conversely, liberals believe that individuals must conform to the needs and desires of society, so they have a tendency to want to control the thoughts, ideals, and actions of others."
In case you are interested in my own political journey: I was raised in a Republican household, but while in college, I remember arguing with my father at the dinner table. In college and graduate schools, because of my interest in art, I was of course surrounded by liberals. But I was not politically aware. I never voted for Reagan. I bought all the distortion dealt by the media. I voted for John Anderson, an “independent” vote that I realize was now was totally wasted. I voted for Geraldine Ferraro as VP because she was a woman.
I followed the liberal line, until I became pregnant and then miscarried. My husband, always a stronger conservative than I, asked a simple question about abortion that I had never truly considered: “Is it murder or is it not?” Thus I began to rethink my positions. And then Clarence Thomas came up for the Supreme Court. Living between my studio (in a mill by a waterfall) and our tiny apartment, I listened to every minute of the hearings, only missing the moments walking to and from my car. I was appalled by the bias of NPR and the “lynching” of a black man because he dared to have conservative ideas. The hearings with Anita Hill, the “pubic hair on the coke can” were so outrageous; I did not yet realize how the media could lie. I began listening to alternative voices on the radio. I became a conservative.
Now I am one of the few conservative professors at a state university. I do voice my views on Facebook but not generally around the university. I disagree with many of my colleagues politically, but I don’t hate them. I am dismayed at the liberal bias of so many universities, but there isn’t much that I can do. Some of my professor friends at different universities were shocked when I “came out” on Facebook as a conservative. “What happened to you?!” It was only later that I realized that if my opinions were so foreign to my liberal professor friends, then there was indeed more bias at universities than I had realized. I like to think that my college is more balanced, but that is probably because I only really know my own classes, where I do try to be politically neutral as I point out links between the past and events of today, even in art history classes.
In any event, I do not define myself solely by my politics; there are many other activities in which I take great joy and which define my life. I don’t take political stances in order to be accepted and approved by others. I continued with my life during the Clinton and Obama presidencies, even while questioning their policies. I didn’t sink into depression and hatred when Obamacare was passed in the middle of the night with no Republican votes. However, I did hope for its overturn and a more rational and well-developed plan to replace Obamacare. I am still hoping for this, and the same is true for correcting many of Obama’s other disastrous policies.
What I wish is that liberals would realize is that there is a great deal of apolitical pleasure in the world. Happiness is available through many different channels, and one’s identity should not be at risk because there is a Republican in the White House. The pendulum will doubtless swing back left again in time. I just wish liberals would chill out a bit, cut down on the hatred, and give this president at least a chance to seat his cabinet. It is what they expected, and received, with Obama and what they will expect with next Democratic president.
Since Demonicrats are lying murdering traitors, the hate comes easy for them.
Not at first, but I think I got there eventually.
By the time he was done, I pretty much detested that fool.
I hated Obama with every fiber of my being.
Hillary, moreso.
But, being an adult, I don’t let emotions control my life or expect them to change others.
Prepare accordingly.
There is nothing new about this hate. Actually it’s not that different from how it was in 2000 and 2004. The only difference is this is the first a time Democrat presidential defeat is being monitored on social media.
Yes, of course there was. But there wasn't as much fear. A lot -- yes, but not like what the left feels about Trump.
Also, Obama did win by a comfortable margin Trump squeaked in and that makes Democrats angry.
Obama ran against Republican candidates who didn't generate much enthusiasm. I'm not saying there was much enthusiasm for Hillary, but Republicans were more demoralized and uncertain in 2008 than Democrats were in 2016 and more inclined to accept the results of the election (though many argued that Obama was illegitimate in other ways).
Liberalism is their God, their religion. Their core beliefs. When those foundations are challenged, they cannot be refuted because they are based on fallacious premises. They can only rationally recant their core beliefs, or they must must defend them knowing deep inside they are at odds with reality.
It sets up a terrible cognitive dissonance that eats away at them from the inside, so instead of re-evaluating their premises, they viciously attack those who challenge them.
It is why conservatives were able to remain sane while a scumbag like Obama did his best to remake the country in his marxist and racist principles, and it is why liberals are becoming unhinged now.
This is pretty much how it went for me and from what I can tell; most people who identified with the Tea Party.
It was never about his skin pigment; it was his extreme anti-American ideology and the content of his character that caused me to develop a visceral hate for him in a way I had never experienced before. I didn't understand why the congress didn't do more to stop him but I guess in their way they did what they thought they could get away with and that's when obola went nuclear with the EO's. By pulling the reigns on our immigration laws, giving Iran nukes, and scores of other similar actions he made the entire country less safe and now we are seeing the result of that.
They didn’t think they were ever going to have to lose power again.
Because Liberals are spoiled brats and they’re always 180 degrees divorced from doing the right thing. They have no class and no shame.
“A liberal friend..”
Full on degeneracy. Sick.
You have that backward. Trump won 60% of the states with a 304-237 victory.
Because the are petulant little b*tches.
Nothing new here
It’s a spiritual thing. Virtually everything a liberal or democrat stands for is antigod. ie. perversity, abortion, sympathy with islam, rejection of the US Constitution, etc. etc. Every right and decent thing is a threat to the modern democrat party. Without Trump we would be headed right now into global evil. This might only be a temporary stay, but we must support and fight for Trump as if our lives depended on it. This is from a former Cruzbot who only recently got on the Trump wagon!
Excellent essay. There was only one statement you made with which I strongly disagree:
“They realize that there isn’t a great deal that the president can do that affects our daily lives.”
Sure there was a lot of hate for Obama and the Democrats, in much the same way we had hate for the muslims who attacked us on 9/11. Obama was striking at the heart of what it is to be American in much the same way the 9/11 terrorists were trying to do.
But we did not become unhinged the way liberals have, because we have been fighting an attack on our nation since liberals took the reins of power. We believe in the fundamental idea of America and why it is worth fighting for.
Liberals don’t have that. They only have their own infantile beliefs to fight for, and those beliefs are based on emotion.
Ann Coulter started one of her books with “Liberals say they love America too. No they don’t.” That is spot on right there.
They love what THEY THINK America should be in their liberal mindset, not what it is in reality.
Also, Obama did win by a comfortable margin Trump squeaked in and that makes Democrats angry.
Squeaked in?
Hardly
Republican nominee Donald J. Trump- 304 (minus 2 from his pledged total)
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton- 227 (minus 5 from her pledged total)
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell- 3
Ohio Governor John Kasich- 1
Former Congressman Ron Paul- 1
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders- 1
Native American Rights activist Faith Spotted Eagle- 1
Trump threatens to upend their entire paradigm.
Their world order is in peril.
The illegal aliens they use to win elections are in danger of being deported and the rule of law re-established.
The graft in Congress is in peril.
The District of Corruption might actually have to produce results for the citizens instead of just themselves.
I agree with everything you say. IMHO, nearly every human has the need to believe in a higher power. For liberals, government and their amorphous view of “society” is a kind of Christian heresy (as stated by the historian Toynbee). In a general sense, this psuedo-religion elevates man, society, government and man’s narcissistic impulses to a form of god.
So as a religion, liberals have a blind faith in their beliefs. Your opposition to them is viewed as pure apostasy and for the most ideological, cuts the the heard of their view of themselves and the world.
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