Message to a Democrat friend on social media
Dan, I can appreciate that you’re bringing everybody up to speed on partisan politics. I find the daily machinations of Washington so dull that it’s hard for me to stay informed — I have a short attention span. So, I can’t help but admire your tenacity.
Here’s what I want to ask you, though. Not just you, but also the other members of our graduating class who affirm these posts with such emotional intensity. Day after day, week after week, I hear about how corrupt and damaging to this nation the Republican Party is. And I agree with some of that. I have no use for the vast majority of GOP politicians. Political parties breed a cult-like devotion and I despise them. They breed confirmation bias, too (bias that an honest man will admit discerning in himself). Frankly, I have no love for government itself, either, as I’ve told you before.
Having said that, I think you fail to honestly assess your party of choice. As I check out these polemical posts from you, I can’t help but ask myself: “What does a guy like Dan actually LIKE about the Democratic Party?” Seriously, I can’t imagine — other than the fact that it’s not the GOP.
You don’t strike me as someone who would block traffic with BLM or Antifa, cheer the burning of our cities, advocate the razing of our monuments. Not at all. But that stuff is under the broad umbrella of Democrat behavior. Not that most in your party behave like that — they don’t, thank God. But most all party-affiliated individuals who perpetrate those acts are squarely in your camp, not the other. Does that concern you? Does it bother you when other members of your party defend these culprits (or least refrain from any censure)?
When I look at the Democratic Party, I see a magnet for violent revolutionaries, Marxist university professors, race baiters, abortion-on-demand zealots, open socialists (one of them a serious presidential candidate), corrupt union officials and assorted cultural wingnuts.
What’s a nice guy like you doing in company like that?
This recent unrest has been telling, too. Cities in which the government has called for police stand-downs, allowing widespread devastation, are predominately Democrat-run, blue. Good grief, look at Seattle and what the Dem government there has allowed and even blessed.
Speaking of that, most cesspool urban areas in America that have a 40-year+ track record of rank poverty and street violence are a decidedly BLUE cities. Go ahead and tick through the list: Most all are characterized by decade after decade of Democrat politicians in full control. Often, from the mayor to the police chief to the city council.
Another thing that frustrates me about your party is how you guys encourage government dependency. In the name of caring and compassion, the Dems give out free money with no strings attached (except for voting Democrat if you want more) and there’s NO exit strategy. No “weaning off” plan. Not since Bill Clinton do I remember anyone in your party wanting to curb this pernicious influence. Never have I heard a strategy about how to get people off welfare and into productive society. Dems just keep shoveling the funding. And if anyone wants to merely slow the growth in these programs, the money-shovelers have conniptions and accuse their detractors of being heartless.
Actually, I find the Democrat Party pretty damned heartless. Dem entitlement programs have discouraged marriage and subsidized fatherlessness in the inner cities to the point where it’s rare to find a child who grows up with a male role model in the home. Instead, young males in the inner city find their role models on the streets and among gang members, a fast track to prison. This hits blacks harder than anyone.
That’s unbelievably sad, because in the 1940s and 1950s, the black population was closing the income gap with the whites. Then LBJ’s Great Society happened in the 60s and black America stalled. Since then, we’ve spent trillions and trillions of dollars on anti-poverty programs and there’s been almost no movement in the poverty rate. And the Democrat response is to complain that we’re not spending enough and, of course, that any disparity is on account of white racism.
Your party does things I can’t even imagine the other side doing. The other day, when Trump was getting ready to speak at Mount Rushmore, some activists blew the tires on a pair of vans and used them to block the venue. That kind of shit is a hallmark of Democrat operatives. When does the other side pull such underhanded stunts? Imagine if fanatical GOP outliers had blocked the road to an Obama speech. The media would have gone apoplectic and accused them of domestic terrorism. But it’s Democrat activity, so no one raises an eyebrow. We’ve grown to expect dishonorable behavior.
This is standard operating procedure for the left. People wearing MAGA hats get beaten up and harassed on a regular basis (lots of video footage documents this). Anyone sporting anything pro-Trump can expect vandalism, intimidation and all manner of grief — from YOUR side of the aisle. I don’t remember this happening to Democrats in previous elections, certainly not on any wide scale.
No, during the Obama years, the Tea Party protests (which Dems characterized as an existential threat) weren’t characterized by this stuff. They didn’t riot, throw Molotov cocktails or shriek obscenities. Most were just decent, working-class people who carried signs for a few hours and then cleaned up after themselves. And you guys went berserk over them as if they were the Third Reich reincarnated. Now, your party won’t rebuke even the most savage behavior from the left side.
The hard, radical progressives have taken over your party. You don’t strike me as a wild-eyed leftist. Why then, do you perpetually champion the Democratic Party and demonize its opposition? I just don’t get it.
