Author Diana Wagman - LA Times Bookfair, 2006(appears to be carrying a non-recyclable plastic
bag containing an unidentified brown substance)
Posted on 03/03/2012 5:59:02 AM PST by Kaslin
“We are not the same. I equate Republicans’ political views with thoughtlessness, intolerance and narcissism. They’re neither kind nor empathetic.” The preceding words are a direct quote, written by Diana Wagman, a novelist, in an Op-Ed piece she penned for the Los Angeles Times, on February 21, 2012. Ms. Wagman, who describes herself and her husband as, “…both bleeding heart liberals”, related her tale of an inadvertent discovery of the political views of the couple who own a vacation cabin across the street from the Wagman’s own spread, in the Sierra Nevada, just outside of Fresno, California. Ms. Wagman described her shock when, after an evening spent playing poker and sipping scotch, she found, to her horror, that the aforementioned couple across the street were conservative-Tea Partying Republicans. Your humble Townhall correspondent assumed that the rest of this piece would become a rather commonplace “can’t judge a book by its cover”, missive, but at that point it spun off in exactly the opposite direction.
Ms. Wagman informed her readers that her across-the-street acquaintances were the perfect neighbors. They were pleasant, helpful, and friendly. As Ms. Wagman put it, “They are a lovely family: husband, wife, and four smart, funny, polite children. I was sure they were Democrats.” They were also an interracial family, with an African-American mother and a White father.
The trouble began when the Wagmans invited their new friends in for a final drink after the annual Camp Sierra Association poker game. The friends announced that they were members of the Tea Party, and for good measure, they added that the Tea Party was not racist because, they, an interracial couple, had been eagerly welcomed and accepted by their Tea Party compatriots. In Wagman’s own words, “…I was shouting, his wife was trying to calm him down, my husband was trying to calm me down, and our other friends-all Democrats- were trying to keep everybody from breaking the furniture.”
Ms. Wagman goes on to describe the downward spiral of the evening. She states that they argued about healthcare, welfare, Obama’s religion and citizenship, and the war on terror. Things soon descended to name-calling; “He called me a spoiled idiot and worse. I called him selfish, shortsighted and worse. It was awful, and it went on until after 3 AM.”
It is sad when friends sometimes fall out over politics, but it does happen. Thomas Sowell may have been correct in the late 1980s when he argued that political bickering masked deep divisions of a cultural and sociological nature, and that these divisions could never really be bridged. Be that as it may, in this particular case apologies were proffered, but not really accepted. “The next morning, they knocked on our door and we apologized to each other and laughed sheepishly…But my feelings about them are changed. I cannot respect them as I did before…I don’t want to be friends with someone who is a member of the Tea Party, or is a Newt Gingrich Republican. We are not the same. I equate their political views with thoughtlessness, intolerance and narcissism. I think they are neither kind nor empathetic.”
Ms. Wagman goes on to express her wish for conservatives: “If only they would all go live in Gingrich’s moon colony.” She then rattles off a listing of her certified liberal views and argues that they “…seem so logical to me…these are no-brainers to me, and it kills me that my neighbor disagrees.” She idly wonders if any number of bitter misfortunes, such as having a son killed in Afghanistan, a daughter turning up pregnant, or a sister announcing that she was a lesbian would change her neighbor’s opinions. She finishes her article by stating, “Next time I drive to our cabin, I’m going to make sure I take everything I could possibly need. I don’t want to ask my neighbors for help. I hope it’s their weekend to stay home.”
Let us hope that Ms. Wagman is speaking for herself, and does not represent the views and attitudes of the modern American liberal. It seems quite bigoted, small-minded and petulant to argue that simply discovering that the neighbors are anti-Obama Tea Partiers precludes the possibility of friendship, or even cordiality between their respective families. This is pretty incendiary stuff. Whatever became of the Hubert Humphrey School of “Happy Warrior” type liberalism?
The material point in this column is quite simple. Diana Wagman is likely the type of liberal who bemoans the polarized nature of our politics, the divisive state of our culture, and the vanishing of civility from our public discourse. Yet, in her Op-Ed piece she freely admits that she is a liberal and that she essentially hates Republicans because they are conservatives. Certainly Ms. Wagman would argue that Rush Limbaugh should be censored, that Ann Coulter is a national disgrace, and that George W. Bush was the worst President in American history. She does not consider these views over the top. On the contrary “they seem so logical” to her. (Perhaps these attitudes represent the worldview of regular readers of the Los Angeles Times.) It goes without saying that she considers hating conservatives to be quite logical, too. If Ms. Wagman really wants to pin the “polarizing” and “divisive” tails on the political donkey she can start with herself.
As a conservative myself, I’d have just sat back and watched the witch stroke out with a smile on my face...
I went to a cookout in 2004, after having had a tooth extracted, and sat with the host’s 82 yr old step father.
I was glumly rubbing my swollen chin, sucking on a scotch when he old bastard - out of the blue - said Bush sucks. Suffering from election rage already, I screamed a streamed of obscenities ending with “die already you old parasite.”
The old guy jumps up and says ya want a piece of me and I had a right cross cocked when the wives pounced on us.
I’m not fit company during election years and apologize in advance to FRiends for being on edge. I truly hate liberals.
I've often said a Republican with genuinely libertarian principles (like Ronald Reagan) could still do well in CA - the problem is Democrats are very good at pretending to be the more libertarian party and the CA GOP is dominated by Romney and Santorum clones who like Big Government just fine. They are just patiently waiting for their turn to take over and run it.
After ten years in the Twin Cities area, I returned to Texas. This was just six months ago. In the ten years there, I did not find much of an independent spirit, with the exception of a few small business owners. I did find a major control freak mentality, which increases with the proximity to Minneapolis. My experience there is that outsiders are not exactly accepted, unless one is from other liberal enclaves.
I did listen to Davis and Emmer for a bit, but liked Chris Baker better. Chris got run out of Minnesota, but has a show here in Houston, TX.
Businesses are leaving Minnesota due to taxes, regulation, and a lunatic governor.
I had one engineer escorted to the gate when he went off on a rant about George W Bush, and blurting “*bleeping* American bastards” during a meeting. Yes, this person was a citizen born in the United States. This was at a refinery in a northern blue state owned by a family that the left insanely hates.
Wagman speculates whether or not experiencing a few things like an unwanted pregnancy or a lesbianrelative would change their minds.
I can answer that.
I have four daughters.
The oldest is a practicing lesbian and is goingto DC later this month to be legally married to her partner. I love them both, although they do limit the amount of contact they have with us.
Two of my daughters have had a total of three children out of wedlock. My grandchildren are the joy of my life.
One daughter had two abortions. One I knew about and tried to prevent. She now regrets both and she is a newly minted conservative.
I have nephews in the military. I pray for their safety and respect their willingness to serve.
Ms Wagman could learn alot if she opened that closed mind of hers and listened to conservatives, but as one liberal let slip during a discussionwith me once “My beliefs are more important than the truth!” It’s all about believing themselves to be superior.
Very predictable Democrat cargo-cult behavior. Not dissimilar to what happens when primitives are shown that their local tree or rock isn't God. A fanatical temper tantrum.
These people live in the thrall of the great and powerful Kos / thinkprogress / mediamatters etc. and if their lying eyes tell them anything different, their eyes must be wrong.
Let us hope that Ms. Wagman is speaking for herself, and does not represent the views and attitudes of the modern American liberal.
No chance. She and her husband are EXACTLY typical of the contemporary American liberal: Self-righteously loud, bullying, and completely intolerant.
From her article as posted Ohio.com...
Thanks for the link.
That woman is absolutely, certifiably mad - MAD as in crazy and dangerous.
Here's the evidence:
"A friend just lost her job — the lousy job that barely covered her mortgage and didn't last long enough to get her unemployment — and I don't want to drive my new car over to commiserate with her. I actually thought about taking the old car and just not mentioning that I had bought a new one. She's the first person who would be happy for me, who would tell me life is too short and to enjoy it, but when I heard she'd lost her job I felt sick — about my new car. In all honesty, I bought the car and cried all the way home from the dealer.""I can afford to drive my wonderful new car, but I can't help being embarrassed by it."
"When I lost my job, I let my one-day-every-other-week housekeeper go. The car payment would pay her salary, but I'm home now and I can clean my own house. I feel guilty about her and about the memberships to the Sierra Club and the ACLU and others that we've let lapse. But this is Los Angeles, and I have to drive wherever it's necessary for job possibilities and to the super-cheap grocery store miles away and to my therapy group, which is actually free but very far from home."
“We are not the same. I equate Republicans’ political views with thoughtlessness, intolerance and narcissism. They’re neither kind nor empathetic.”
Don't let the evidence of your own eyes right in front of you get in the way of your preconceived prejudices. That might cause confusion, and confusion is bad for those who only feel and don't think rationally. Best to continue on living in your own little bubble. It's more comfortable that way.
We’ll see who the thoughtful, compassionate people are when all the lefty b.s. leads Cali right off the cliff. How do you help those who are in need without a healthy, sane economy? When things go bust the sound of wailing and gnashing of teeth coming from those who thought the gov’t teat would never run out of milk is going to rise to the heavens.
Author Diana Wagman - LA Times Bookfair, 2006(appears to be carrying a non-recyclable plastic
bag containing an unidentified brown substance)
wait.... she speaks of intolerance? laughable!
——How can you be a monster——
I have always found it fascinating that conversatives look at liberals basically as mis -informed, ill- informed, or simply indoctrinated....which is ok with me....live and let live....if a person wants to live in a liberal fantasy world.....great, just don’t ask me to pay for it...Or impose your liberal ideas on me...
...on the other hand liberals think conservatives are either ignorant, stupid and dangerous mentally deranged people who have no place in society and needs to be re-educated or silenced
There is no, and will never be any reconciliation with leftist evil. The sooner people come to terms with that fact, the better.
The differences in the way liberals and conservatives reach conclusions comes down to far more than simply differing opinions - - it actually comes down to entirely different thought processes. Conservatives tend to think linearly: “If this, then this”; “Here is what was attempted, here are the results”; “Based on experience, this works and this does not work”. Etc.
Liberals do not think that way. Liberals are easily conned, easily manipulated, and utterly unwilling to admit when they are wrong. Their obsession with constantly attempting to elicit “apologies” from Republicans is an offshoot of these strained thought processes. Liberals, when confronted with bare-bones truth that contradicts their irrational world view, will scrunch their eyes shut, shake their heads, and chant “nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah” until whatever truth it is they find offensive “goes away”, rather than revise their thoughts and beliefs to conform to a truth that is slapping them in the face. They simply do not have the capacity to revise their thoughts and beliefs to conform to the truth before their very eyes if that truth contradicts the foundation of the beliefs they irrationally hold onto as a weapon in the constant struggle against their own insecurity.
Certainly, there are notable exceptions such as David Horowitz, PJ O’Rourke, Bernie Goldberg, Michael Medved and others who were smart enough to lift themselves out of the mire of self-loathing liberal stupidity but these folks are, unfortunately, rare exceptions.
Being an unabashed liberal is a matter of character (or more accurately, lack of character). Liberals are generally humorless and bitter because, you see, everybody else is (richer, happier, luckier, prettier, fill-in-the-blank) than they deserve to be and that is just not “fair”. (Words like "fair", and phrases such as "social justice", are common favorites used by liberals.) Liberals are social duds who are either chronic malcontents or simply that guilt-ridden subset of white liberals who feel that their own good fortune (and by extension the good fortune of others) is somehow undeserved. In any event, liberals usually see themselves as "victims". They always see anybody beneath their station as "victims".
In this world, there are people (most people, in fact) who look at all other people as their equals in every way, as people who are capable of realizing their personal aspirations and doing the right things, as people who should be treated as equals. Alternatively, there are people who look up adoringly at people they view as somehow better than themselves. These are the same people who look loathingly down on other people they view as their lessers. Guess which kind of people liberals tend to be?
Interestingly, true liberals are often physically slow and unathletic. They were picked last for playground basketball games. They have no interest in competetive sports, especially team sports. “Competetive sports” is, in fact, very much an alien concept to them. To be blunt, true liberals (genuine socialists) are almost always clumsy oafs.
Additionally, true liberals are humorless. Seething, deep seated anger causes an entrenched bitterness that ends up defining them. The evidence of this abounds and can be seen on certain TV stations every day. The liberals have no Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter or Mark Steyn or Howie Carr or Dennis Miller or Ronald Reagan... They have Keith Olbemann and Helen Thomas and Ed Shultz and Lawrence O'Donnell and Barack Ubama.... there is simply not a lot of laughter there. Liberals, in fact, find laughter... uncomfortable. (What's there to laugh about? Look at all the suffering in this horrible, unjust world.) True liberals don’t “get” jokes, even if they chuckle as if they do. (Test this for yourself - - tell a true liberal a joke. For additonal laughs, ask the liberal if he/she/it has a good joke to tell you.)
Liberals can appear to be normal people and are often able to handle their jobs and academic endeavors competently. They can usually fake normal socialization with other people, even if their self-centeredness prevents them from ever establishing true friendships. Liberals do not have true friends, merely acquaintances who can be used in some way, especially to affirm their own crazy political notions.
But it is their sociopathic selfishness that is the most troubling thing about liberals. They see absolutely no problem with walking into the polling place on election day and voting for big government to confiscate more money - - from their neighbors! Normal people would view this behavior as boorish and rude, but liberals apparently convince themselves that they are somehow accomplishing something; perhaps the exercise soothes their irrational guilt under the tragic misbelief that they are somehow “helping” others (using other people’s money, of course), notably, “the poor”.
So, by voting for thuggish big government to take more money from their neighbors in order to enable their Democrat politicians to buy the votes of society’s losers, bums, and parasites, liberals feel better about themselves. (Don’t ask me about this mindset - - figuring out liberals would best be left to a team of very good psychiatrists.)
Anyway, I believe that the percentage of true liberals in this country is actually very low - - far less than a typical Democrat election-day turnout would indicate. The rats run a good con and there is no shortage of fools littering the countryside (not to mention the concentrated Democrat parasite nests known as "cities") who will continue to buy into the con.
Think about this - - how gullible did you have to be in 2008 to fall for a campaign that could have been formulated by a boardwalk psychic; a campaign based primarily on two essentially meaningless words, “hope” and “change”, words that sound so... positive... but that allow the smiling, naval-gazing listener’s imagination to turn them into whatever he or she wants? Unfortunately, in today’s soundbite world such a campaign can be (and was!) successful. And so we ended up with “community organizer” Barack Hussein Obama as President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
Pray for America. In less than one year we shall see if Americans are insistent on committing national suicide.
“Ms Wagman could learn a lot if she opened that closed mind of hers and listened to conservatives, but as one liberal let slip during a discussion with me once “My beliefs are more important than the truth!” It’s all about believing themselves to be superior”
In a nutshell. Raw narcissism.
Not even that long.
No, honey....the moon colony is being planned for YOU! :) Have a nice day.
“At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child - miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill disciplined, despotic, and useless.
Liberalism is the philosophy of sniveling brats.”
-- P.J. O’Rourke
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