Got that? The actions of a dingbat are not an indictment upon the entirety of the belief system which he or she is a part of.
Repeat that to yourself as needed. There are idiot Democrats and idiot Republicans and (plenty of) idiot Libertarians. Idiocy knows no political allegiance. Nor does prejudice, nastiness, or general asshattery. I know this is obvious, but it’s so often forgotten.
The following scenario happens minimum five or six times a month: someone in politics pulls a dumb stunt, and then the members of the other party run about crowing, having been vindicated in their belief that the entire political party they oppose is absolutely corrupt and irredeemable. Meanwhile, the members of the party the numbskull is a member of feel no choice but to lay low, take their beating, and wait for the news cycle to pass. They fail to speak out against the idiots in their own ranks, because they know their opponents are using this opportunity to claim that the very core of their belief system is embodied by the single reprehensible act of a party member. If they condemn an idiot whose (D) or (R) after their name matches the letter after their own, they feel they are somehow also condeming their own belief system.
Repeat ad nauseum.
The blogosphere displays a general inability to accept the idea that an entity can contain repugnant or abhorrent traits and still be a force of good. This all or nothing categorization is maddening and counterproductive. You don’t somehow “lose” because someone, somewhere out there in the world who shares some political beliefs with you demonstrates themselves to be a person not worthy of respect. But your opponents don’t “lose” either, when it inevitably happens to them.
Merwin and Ulmer’s letter to the editor displays a remarkable level of considered, yet casual, numbskullery and bigotry.
There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves.”
Holy hell, dudes, what the heck were you thinking? Were you high when you wrote that? I mean, clearly, you’ve clearly got some internalized stereotypes about Jews going on, but usually bigots possess the self-preservation instincts to be more subtle about it.
They deserve, intensely, to be mocked and called out for this. But by everyone on every side of the aisle — not as an exercise in cheap political point scoring, but as a very straightforward acknowledgment that their words were stupid and unacceptable, to everyone.
Instead, Democrats are running about crowing how the Republican party is irredeemably racist and this single incident conclusively proves it for all time. Thanks. That’s helpful. Also, you are totally making the South want to vote next election Democrat when you obnoxiously insist the South is a third world cesspool. Really.
And Republicans? Grow a spine. Thank god (almost all of) y’all are not attempting to defend Merwin and Ulmer, but there is an echoing silence where Republicans should be loudly and sincerely calling for a stop to the use of prejudiced dialogue.
I think this whole mess is annoying me more than usual, because in this case, Merwin and Ulmer’s casual prejudice is (rightfully, unfortunately) causing everyone to overlook their actual message. About Senator DeMint’s failed Bill to amend the malignant Consumer Safety Product Improvement Act. Senator DeMint is one of the few people in Congress right now who get how stupid and harmful this bill is, and is one of the even fewer to attempt to do anything about it.
And now he’s a laughingstock, and if I had to guess, hardly going to be inspired to risk more political cred on beating back CPSIA. No constructive debate will move forward, and all that breath that could have been spent on shooting down dangerous legislation will instead be spent on one party getting its punches while it can and the other party hunkering down feeling unfairly persecuted.
Everyone loses.
-Susan
Susan Simpson
Michael Williams