Posted on 10/17/2020 5:59:37 AM PDT by Kaslin
"Dude, I want you to punch Donald Trump in the face."
During Amy Coney Barrett's hearing, New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker quoted a man who approached him at a town hall.
"Dude, that's a felony," is how Booker described his response.
Good for him, fighting against our crazed political culture of anger, contempt and violence. I don't agree with Cory Booker on a lot of things, but I agree, as he went on to say, that we need "a revival of civic grace." He said: "Somewhere along the line, there's going to be a moment. It's coming. I think it's long past that there has to be acts of heroism when it comes to extending grace."
Now, that was his pitch to Republicans to hold off on a vote on Amy Coney Barrett. Largely because I think Barrett may be the best thing that has happened to American politics in a long time, I disagree. Washington needs her. America needs her.
Booker's comments were an unexpected turn in the hearings, which were dehumanizing, as they tend to be.
Last year, Arthur Brooks diagnosed what's ailing American politics in his book "Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt."
"America is addicted to political contempt," Brooks wrote. "While most of us hate what it is doing to our country and worry about how contempt coarsens our culture over the long term, many of us ... actively indulge their habit by participating in the cycle of contempt in the way they treat others, especially on social media. We wish our national debates were nutritious and substantive, but we have an insatiable craving for insults to the other side. As much as we know we should ignore the nasty columnist, turn off the TV loudmouth, and stop checking our Twitter feeds, we indulge our guilty urge to listen as our biases are confirmed that the other guys are not just wrong, but stupid and evil."
Sound familiar?
"Contempt," Brooks writes, "is impractical and bad for a country dependent on people working together in politics, communities and the economy. Unless we hope to become a one-party state, we cannot afford contempt for our fellow Americans who simply disagree with us."
The problem has only gotten worse. The confirmation hearings abundantly showed this. Did you notice the explosion about the phrase "sexual preference"? Barrett didn't mean to make any political statement by her choice of words. But the rules of what is tolerated by polite society were changed by the Democrats on that committee during the hearing, leading Merriam-Webster to label the phrase as offensive.
If you're an American who fears Barrett on the court, consider there is another point of view, as I acknowledge yours. I'd like us to have old-fashioned debates about ideas. I want to see America survive with freedom of religion and speech and all the rest. How about you? I suspect there are more of us than not. We just aren't often the bullhorn types.
Broaden what Sen. Booker was talking about beyond the Senate. "This is a point," he said, "when millions of Americans are suffering and hurting and losing the very idea of what it means to be an American in terms of the dream and the promise of this country. This is the moment that this nation needs ... actions of grace."
Take that as a challenge. We can work with people we disagree with, even on fundamentals, for a greater good. Listen. Be an agent of grace. It sanctifies. It heals. It's a way forward. And people of prayer, let's pray that the impossible will be possible. Because it sure feels impossible just about now! But, as they say, with grace all things are possible.
I have not looked it up, but I believe the phrase “sexual preference” is the legal term that is written into law.
ACB in using the term was speaking in a legal context, no matter what Merriam Webster says.
Booker's problem is that he thinks conservatives are the ones that need "actions of grace", not him. He should take his own advice before requesting it from others...
They’re animals like the animals who work and support them
I have nothing but contempt for politicians, and those who support those politicians, who advocate for policies that will gut or destroy our Constitution and our way of life, which will result in one party rule for any party - but especially for the collectivist-oriented party that will effectively turn this country into the USSR, complete with a hyper-efficient thought police and a cancel culture that encourages the destruction of people’s lives for disagreeing with The Party. Such policies in Russia got one of my great grandfathers murdered by The Party and effectively enslaved most of his descendants for 3 generations; such policies in Germany resulted in over 100 members of my extended family in Poland being murdered (yeah, that’s right, there is no effective difference between Communism and Nazism - both are collectivist, which is to say, anti-individualist).
No, I am not sorry to have contempt for those politicians and their supporters - I wear it as a badge of honor. I am only sorry that I HAVE to have contempt for them, that we as a society have failed to educate and inform our population using the examples of the most hideously brutal and barbaric regimes to convince people to oppose collectivist ideas and policies and to instead support ideas and policies which support and enhance individual rights.
I have nothing but contempt for politicians, and those who support those politicians, who advocate for policies that will gut or destroy our Constitution and our way of life, which will result in one party rule for any party - but especially for the collectivist-oriented party that will effectively turn this country into the USSR, complete with a hyper-efficient thought police and a cancel culture that encourages the destruction of people’s lives for disagreeing with The Party. Such policies in Russia got one of my great grandfathers murdered by The Party and effectively enslaved most of his descendants for 3 generations; such policies in Germany resulted in over 100 members of my extended family in Poland being murdered (yeah, that’s right, there is no effective difference between Communism and Nazism - both are collectivist, which is to say, anti-individualist).
No, I am not sorry to have contempt for those politicians and their supporters - I wear it as a badge of honor. I am only sorry that I HAVE to have contempt for them, that we as a society have failed to educate and inform our population using the examples of the most hideously brutal and barbaric regimes to convince people to oppose collectivist ideas and policies and to instead support ideas and policies which support and enhance individual rights.
I have so much contempt for them that I posted it twice . :>)
It’s a Skill to get the same time stamp...
I didn’t notice that - I guess that my double-tap training has been effectively. :>)
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