Ignorance and Hatred

 Attention:  Some of you (yes, I'm talking to you, Gerry) may recognize this from my Nit Nats website.  Please feel free to read it again, but no hard feelings if you want to give it a pass.  Still, I may insert some fresh material here, so you never know.  Since I'm effin' lazy Dancing With the Stars is on, I won't have a lot of time to craft anything new.  After all, to my followers on Blogger, this is new.  Don't feel bad, though.  I still have some History of the World posts to...uh...post.  Meaning, they will be new to you while old hat to the Blogger folks.  Hey, it's my small way of bringing all that I write to everyone while at the same time saving my brain from actually having to write.  Win-win, if you ask me.

But be forewarned, the following is serious stuff.

Thank you.

On with the show.

 

"Jackass."
"Bags of lard."

                A good friend from Pennsylvania told me about a question a mutual friend asked, "What is the symbol of the Democratic Party, the elephant or the donkey?"

               He told me he said, "Well, naturally, it's the jackass."

                Then, our ignorant friend further asked, "Is George Stephanopolous a Republican or a Democrat?"

                NOTE:  This same person once asked whether we thought Hitler would have been a Republican.

                When told that the "non-partisan" journalist was an advisor to the Clintons and, therefore, a Democrat, the bonehead (I'm sorry.  He's a friend, but he's a boneheaded friend) huffed that must be a lie.

                Another friend from high school told me that her son completely blocked her after finding out she voted for Donald Trump.

                Ignorance and hatred.

                Ignorance I can deal with him.   Ignorance can be helped through education, although since my friend from the Keystone State is in his 60s, that kind of willful refusal to look at all sides is impervious to logic and common sense.

                There are those among us who will vote Democrat no matter who is running.  If Attila the Hun had a "D" after his name, it wouldn't matter.  If he (or she) was raised in a Democrat household, then he (or she) will vote Democrat.

Attila-434
"Victory, booty, and a Roman head in every pot!"

                This has been going on for quite some time.  There were people who idolized FDR, for example.  I guess I can see the logic in this.  After all, it was a Republican president, Hoover, who played a huge part in cocking things up, setting the wheels in motion for the Great Depression.

                We can argue about whether Roosevelt made things worse.  Maybe he did, maybe he didn't.  I personally think he did and that it was the Second World War that ended the Depression, but that is my opinion.

                However, when things looked grim as the world went to shit starting in the 30s, it was to Roosevelt a great many turned.  I can understand that.  I don't think I would have, but I understand.

                That said, few people doubted that the president was rooting for the team from the United States.  Whether you supported him or not, he put America first.

                So it was with Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, the incompetent Carter, and even the Boner-in-Chief, Clinton.  However, with the accession of Obama and now Biden, I'm not so sure.  My point is, they're Democrats and, if they're Democrats, and you're a committed Democrat, you're going to support the Democrats at all times.   In other words, if your father voted Democrat and his father voted Democrat, yadda, yadda, you get it. 

                "I may not know anything about the issues, but don't confuse me with logic and common sense.  I don't need to do any research or make up my own mind.  That's what I have CNN, MSNBC, and the New York Times for."

"I like the Democrat.  The TV told me so."

                This makes me sad, but some people may be persuaded to use their own minds.  Some folks will do their research (for instance, even though I'm a Conservative, I haven't always voted Republican). I'm convinced that reasonable people exist (if you're reading this, you're one of those).  Don't get me wrong.  My friend is a good man.  Naive, perhaps, but a good man.  However, his psychological cement has been set.

                So no one thinks I think "my team" is blameless, there are also more than a few "My father voted Republican and his father voted Republican, so I'll always vote Republican" stubborn knuckleheads out there. too.  Ignorance isn't exclusive to one party.

                I so wish voters would judge candidates on their own merits and not from the letter which follows their name.

                That all said, I was most distressed by the tale of my high school friend and her son.  That you would cut anyone, especially your own mother, from your life because of differing political views is beyond belief.  What kind of hatred must you harbor in your heart that you would do that?

                As much as we enjoy sometimes teasing our ignorant friend, he is still our friend.  He's entitled to be wrong, but there is no way on this planet that I would cut him from my life.  Likewise, a man I've known for 56 years would make Alan Alda look like George Patton (we even debated the relative strengths/weaknesses of George McGovern against Richard Nixon when we were at summer camp!).  Yet, I love him like a brother and cherish him as my best friend.

    SECOND NOTE:  Probably goes without saying that my best friend had a field day with Tricky Dick's resignation.

                I would never cut him from my life.  Also, there are those in my family who "swing Liberal."  Their politics do not define our the love we feel for each other.  Our political differences should never be the cause of a permanent rift.  After all, how unbelievably ridiculous would that be?

                It is impossible that this is the only familial relationship thus destroyed.  The news is full of similar anecdotal information.  Doubtless that there are Conservative mouth-breathers out there who have also severed connections with their Liberal family or friends.  Luckily, I also believe (hope) that those instances are in the minority.

                What I'm trying to say is, I believe we can co-exist with the ignorant among us.  Sadly, I don't believe that we can co-exist with those who think obliterating a bond with family and friends or deprogramming those with whom they disagree are appropriate responses.

    Those folks should be banished to a deserted island.  Or New Jersey.

                Despite Joe Biden's soaring rhetoric in his inauguration speech (personally, I thought it insincere), as long as there exist among us hateful people who see nothing wrong with excising half the nation-including your mother-from your life, we will never achieve "unity."

                Put that in your pipe and sniff it, Joe