‘Racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-choice fascists…’
Revealing your conservative leanings can be tricky, and sometimes it’s easier just to keep quiet. One of Stein’s conservative acquaintances, for example, didn’t want his name used in the book. "’Why get into arguments with people?’" he told Stein. "’Your kids have to go to school with their kids, and it just leads to no good.’"
A few years ago I chose not to allow my then elementary school-aged children to attend a school assembly promoting same-sex
"marriage." After babysitting them and a handful of other children in the school library until the assembly was over, I ran into a couple of mothers who’d come to watch the assembly for themselves. One was a friend who knew and accepted my point of view and gave me her take on the series of skits called "Cootie Shots." The other made it clear that she was happy about the school’s decision to put on the assembly. After all, she pointedly remarked, she didn’t want her kids growing up to be rednecks.
Stein asked a liberal editor at a publishing house he knows for "a candid, shorthand version of the assumptions she and her colleagues make about conservatives." Without missing a beat she replied, "Racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-choice fascists….They hate everyone who’s not a rich white guy."
I have long thought that one of the striking differences between liberals and conservatives is this: liberals believe conservatives are evil, while conservatives believe liberals are wrong [emphasis added]. Stein recounts something his friend Marlene told him, which makes the point. "[S]omeone I’ve known for 27 or 28 years actually said to me, ‘Marlene, I know you’ve worked with the mentally ill, so I know you care about people. But how can you be a good person and a conservative?’"
Read Marcia here
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
