Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Respect
If you are a conservative living in a coastal "blue" state, you really need to read this column from Sunday's Financial Times.
The link came to me from a regular TigerHawk reader who lives in a blue state:
Last night I had one of the moments that the FT writer is talking about. My friend's wife came into the room [where we were playing a simulated baseball game]. She said, "I know there are some republicans here, so I hope you don't mind if I turn on Chris Matthews in the other room." My friend said, "Don't worry, they are pretty moderate Republicans, and anyhow, they are both gentlemen."
Not bad, but...
She replied, "Well, if they are gentlemen, then they can't be voting for McCain."
Concentrating on whether to remove my starting pitcher in the late innings of a close game, I mistakenly and absent-mindedly said, "Of course I am."
Then came the onslaught of "How could you?" in a very condescending tone. It was really insulting. I recovered enough to finish my games.
When my brother (a loyal TH reader, too) forwarded this to me, it matched my experience very closely.
The article also contains advice for the Democratic elites that there is absolutely no chance of them adopting.
MORE: The opening sentences of Bob Herbert's column are arresting evidence of just the lefty arrogance described in the linked essay and the comments to this post:
Ignorance must really be bliss. How else, over so many years, could the G.O.P. get away with ridiculing all things liberal?
You go right on believing that the reason is "ignorance," Bob.
11 Comments:
By 
Anthony, at
Tue Sep 09, 12:45:00 PM:
As a Center-Rightie living in La-La Land and working at a major (and majorly PC) university ... God, do I know the feeling.
By 
, at
Tue Sep 09, 01:24:00 PM:
The most obvious and striking difference between the McCain-Palin and Obama-Biden tickets: both members of the former ticket are imbued with humility while both members of the opposing ticket appear to have - at best - a nodding acquaintance with the very concept.
By Elise, at
Tue Sep 09, 01:25:00 PM:
We're having dinner this weekend with friends who are both very far left and vegan. I get a headache just thinking about how they're going to react to Palin. Maybe I should print out the FT article and hand it to them as soon as we sit down - sort of a preemptive strike.
By , at
Tue Sep 09, 01:58:00 PM:
I had a big-time similar experience this weekend. I live in a "blue-city" college town with lots of fun-loving lefty neighbors. I like them a lot and actually thought they would give credit where credit was due with Palin's smashing speech. Among the women of the neighborhood, I thought they'd fine her strong presence uplifting, even if they did disagree with her politics.
Wrong! After long, swirling assaults on Palin using Enquirer-esque rumors to discredit her, one of our Ivy-League educated female neighbors finally said, "My basic problem with Palin is I can't imagine how any respectable, rational woman can be a conservative!"
At that point, I knew the conversation was over.
By antithaca, at
Tue Sep 09, 02:08:00 PM:
By Dawnfire82, at
Tue Sep 09, 02:13:00 PM:
"My basic problem with Palin is I can't imagine how any respectable, rational woman can be a conservative!"
Isn't it always the liberals who preach about understanding 'the other?'
By Andrew Hofer, at
Tue Sep 09, 02:19:00 PM:
There's nothing more repulsive than the righteous assumption that all good people must think like you.
I experience it ALL the time. It's like these people think their political...identity..makes them more noble.
I'm sure people experience the reverse.
By , at
Tue Sep 09, 04:23:00 PM:
The attitude extends beyond the coasts.
At a barbeque this weekend here in suburban Chicago, I overheard someone say, "I have nothing against Republicans, but I can't bring myself to listen to Palin and her ilk, who distract the average American from the real issues and turn them into mindless automotons. Can you imagine feeling proud about being governed by an average person?" This was received with a lot of "I knows" and nods.
By , at
Tue Sep 09, 04:41:00 PM:
As I've written, my politics are pretty middle-of-the-road. I am supporting McCain, and I'm viewed with curiosity, dismay and disappointment in my suburban Philadelphia county. I'm not a KoolAid drinker and refuse to believe that a 232 year-old institution needs a secular messiah. For that I am not shunned (yet), but I am certain that in my swing state, I'll find surprises both by who agrees with me and who does not. The bigger question is how much civility will the politically passionate treat me when they learn that I don't agree with them. That ought to be very interesting. Somehow, I might lose some "friends", but, then again, if they aren't tolerant of my views then they probably weren't friends to begin with.
Awaiting the storms with interest and amusement, I am
The Centrist
By , at
Tue Sep 09, 05:55:00 PM:
I know I experience a lot of reverses in my life.
But the personal is the political, a result of the envelopement of the academy by Marxist ideology. Thanks Karl!
There will be less and less space for the separation of the personal life and concomittant moral values from your political judgements, wherever they may lie. This is worse than unfortunate, as it is going to make the country harder and harder to govern, no matter what party is in charge. There is still time for some reconciliation, but I think the term that I have read that will apply for many years to come is the "Cold Civil War".
-David
By JPMcT, at
Tue Sep 09, 10:48:00 PM:
The Herbert column is an interesting mixture of ignorance and arrogance. His laundry list of liberal accomplishments over the past half century ignores the facts...and, as John Adams has taught us, facts are stubborn things.
Omitted are the grave concerns about a social pension program as it would apply to our economic solvency...a fact that will be evident over the next 20 years with social "security".
The fact that liberals brought us the 3 trillion dollar "war" on poverty, which we lost and, in the process committed social genocide on a generation of poor American families, is forgotten.
Medicare, which is slowly killing off any interest in joining the medical profession and has singlehandedly been responsible for more hospital closings than any natural disaster..is forgotten.
Confiscatory tax policies, government intrusion that BROUGHT us the Great Depression, Political Correctness, the tailspin of educational quality, the exponential growth of predatory litigation, a suicidal national energy policy and vile hatespeech are all products of "progressive thought".
Let's face it...when I find out that a hard-core liberal is in the room, my response is to be non-confrontational...as I would act with anyone with a serious mental illness.
