I come from a rabidly conservative family. How I turned out to be a liberal and progressive I have no idea, but I’m grateful for it. They love to taunt me at family gatherings and talk politics, all the while rubbing my nose in really outrageous statements and trumped up baloney. I tend to keep to myself and not engage, because it usually becomes a pile-on with nothing but hurt feelings (usually theirs) while I tend to take the time to dissect what they say and feed it back to them, emphasizing the ridiculousness of their positions. I treat it like a bit of sport, for most of their opinions are based upon the wild misinformation and ramblings of their favorite talking heads at places like Redstate and Fox news.
I had a business lunch yesterday with a conservative cousin who, during a diatribe about how Scott Walker and Chris Christie were akin to the second coming of Jesus in his eyes, made the statement “I bet you guys are scared now that we have more control and will clean up your mess.” Rather than go down the path that so often ends like described above, I let it slide and finished up lunch and parted ways, but it got me thinking….
Conservatives, please don’t talk to me, or anyone Progressive, about being scared or having fear.
We aren’t the ones scared of not projecting our power around the world by spending inordinate amounts of our GDP on military expenditures, being bullies and invading countries under false pretenses rather than using diplomacy to solve conflicts. You are.
We aren’t the ones scared that some big bad government official is going to come gather up our guns and not allow us to shoot whomever pisses us off in the name of “standing your ground” or some other self defense nonsense you espouse. You are.
We aren’t the ones scared to allow women the right to make their own reproductive choices, including abortion and contraception that you work so hard to deny them. You are. And we certainly aren’t scared about confronting you about your hypocrisy relating to your gung-ho position for the death penalty when daring to talk about life being so sacred to you.
We aren’t scared that somehow assisting our fellow Americans in their moment of need somehow means they are “living off the government teat”. You are.
We aren’t scared of Hispanics and African Americans asserting their rightful place in the fabric of American society and treating them with the respect that everyone deserves while recognizing their valuable contributions to our way of life. You are.
We aren’t scared that gay marriage will cause the heavens to open up and the wrath of god to descend upon us, or that our heterosexual marriages will now be rendered moot or be damaged by allowing those who love one another to make a commitment that bonds them to each other. You are.
We aren’t afraid of science or evolution. You are. The world is older than 6000 years, and Jesus didn’t ride a dinosaur into Bethlehem. Get over it.
We aren’t afraid of people who follow something other than Christianity. You are.
We aren’t afraid of giving every voting citizen the right to do just that: vote. You are.
We aren’t afraid to stand up to your corporate masters who pull your puppet strings and turn you into blathering mouthpieces. You fear them. We do not.
And we aren’t afraid of you. Sure, we fear the damage your ignorance can cause, but we are more than up to the challenge of fixing your wrong-headed mistakes.
You are the ones afraid. You see nothing but darkness, fear and threats all around you, and you base all your positions upon that fear.
Not us.