First off, you are not the only one to feel offended and treated poorly by your fellow Americans across the political divide.
It happens to me often. You see, I left my New England home many, many years ago to serve my country. I wound up, after more than two decades, in the Deep South, a beautiful part of America with extremely friendly and wonderful people who continue to amaze me. But I often have to go back up North (and often to the Seattle, Wash area), and going back to before Pres Bush was even elected, I would hear the most outrageous, ignorant things about the South, Southern people, the military, and conservatives from Northerners and liberals that you could imagine.
The idea that Southerners are dumber than Northerners, or less educated, or missing teeth, or married to their sister, or racist redneck crackers (I remember South Boston in the early 70’s!), many in the North take for granted. There really isn't much difference at all. We're all Americans.
I have seen some of the worst vilification of people directed at fundamentalist Christian people—who are called the “Religious Right”—by who, the nonreligious Left? I am a Catholic, a difficult thing to be in Alabama, but I have no problem with anyone who believes in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I mean, Christ the Gentle, Christ who told us to turn the other cheek, Christ who said the meek shall inherit the World, Christ the Lamb, Christ who suffered, died and was buried, and then on the Third Day Rose... How anyone can feel threatened by a true Christian makes no sense. Yet it was, and is, certainly so. And I have seen this vilification mostly in the Northeast and West coasts.
Second point, what is so wrong with conservative ideals? The misconception of conservative belief from the Left is either ignorant or disingenuous.
No one on the Right hates blacks, but we don't want to unjustly bear the burden of our forefathers. This nation suffered a terrible civil war that paid the price of slavery in 600,000 dead. We want black people to succeed, just like the rest of us, by simply doing what MOST of them are doing, getting an education and getting to work. If that means they have to compete for college admissions and jobs, well, then they'd be just like the rest of us.
I can't explain why I see the things I do here in the South. There are still a lot of black people living in ghettos or very poor condidtions, while jobs vacancies continue to go begging. Since some blacks work in these places I know it is not white racism keeping others out, so what is it? I can not explain, but unless we have a REAL dialog, one where we can talk--without being accused of racism--about teen-age and out-of-wedlock pregnancies, the attitude that think doing well at school is being white, and drug dealing and criminal behavior is cool, things are just not going to get better. Bill Cosby needs to be listened to, not castigated.
We are not opposed to Mexican immigrants, but rather illegal immigration (hence the laws against it). People who are breaking the law are not victims. The real victims are those who wait in line and legally apply to be immigrants to this fine land.
We don't care what goes on behind closed doors in the privacy of your own bedroom, but please do NOT share that information with our children.
We want women to succeed, also, as at least half of conservatives are women, or are someone very close to one (wife, mother, sister). We agree on equal pay for EQUAL (meaning the same) work, but also do acknowledge that there is a physical difference between the sexes, so no we don't want our wives, mothers or sisters having to fight the enemy in hand-to-hand combat, as combat is still not like an episode of Charlie's Angels or Kill Bill Volume 2.
We don't want to work hard everyday, only to see other people who don't work at all, demand the government take from us to give to them. They need to be working like us.
We see in the democratic party and the Obama campaign that same vilivication of our ideas and ideals that you saw from Republicans and the Bush administration. Either one side is right and the other side is wrong, or both sides are wrong, or maybe it's even possible that both sides have some ideas right and other ideas wrong.
Anyway, I suppose after 500 posts you've heard replies from every possible angle. This has been mine. Enjoy!
Thanks for this post. I truly appreciate it. And I understand what you’re saying. I live in California now, but I lived in New England growing up. I grew up in the sticks, and would get comments about being my sister’s son and so forth.
I’ve driven across the country a few times, and I’ve never gone to a state I outright didn’t like. Driving across Kansas felt like the Twilight Zone for a bit in that it was so flat and big I didn’t think we were moving. The “red states” are just like any other state and the caricatures of the midwest or the south are just flat out wrong and ignorant.
But now I live in California and I get the same comments about how fruity and “elitist” we are and how we’re not truly American. I’ve actually been scoffed at when people have seen my driver’s license. Just because I live in California. I could have been the hardest core Freeper in the country and this guy was judging me on geography. Now, GRANTED, he may have just had excellent liberal radar.
And I don’t think there’s anything outright wrong with conservative ideas, just as I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with liberal ideas. But both get perverted, twisted, manipulated. I think there’s a middle ground - a kind of stasis - where the country is best served by a clash of liberal and conservative ideals.
For instance, if Obama really turns out to be a crazy socialist Manchurian candidate Islamic terrorist android from Venus - I’d trust that the Republicans in congress would take action.