PJ Media

“The Democratic Party includes all kinds of regular folks but its activists and media representatives want nothing to do with peace, love, or understanding.”

You may overstate the case here, and certainly this same description could be applied to the GOP. I have not seen the Republican party media circus promote peace, love or understanding under any circumstances.

“The radical’s concept of diversity is limited to encountering someone of a different sex or hue who feels exactly the same way about politics as they do.”

And here the author reveals that he has no idea what he is talking about. There is a lot of political diversity on the left, despite this assertion to the contrary. Heck, radicals like myself even go so far as to engage in open debate with the diverse denizens here on PJM. I encounter folks from all political perspectives, and don’t shy away from discussing their beliefs or my own.

“To the left there is no such thing as a loyal opposition. Any contact with conservatives must be avoided. We are morally unclean and they fear contamination via exposure to our speech.”

See, you keep on making these unfounded assertions. You’ve provided zero reason to believe your caricature is accurate. Whether you are morally unclean or not I will leave to you – this is the kind of judgement made by fundamentalists, not leftists. I’m happy to have contact with conservatives, and absolutely treasure opportunities to open their eyes to their own hypocrisy and foolishness.

“Once ensconced in a non-productive redoubt, the leftist seeks to marginalize his conservative peers and ensure that his workplace is no more challenging to his inappropriately inflated self-esteem than the tests, mandates, or regulations he constructs during the course of lucrative business hours.”

This is precisely the reverse of my experience. I’ve only ever encountered conservatives who work hard to marginalize their coworkers, and whose overinflated self-esteem makes them believe they are competent despite serial failures. In my experience it is the folks on the left who have the maturity and self-awareness to realize that marginalizing their coworkers and performing poorly are non-productive, and therefore refrain.

“One of the central themes of I Can’t Believe I’m Sitting Next to a Republican is that we know the left but they don’t know us. “

The funny thing is, we do know you. In fact, we know you all too well, and understand the source of your confusion and isolation. If you got to know us, you would realize that we know you better than you think.

“Conservatives are greedy, hard-hearted, evil bastards, and are, by definition, wrong about everything.”

See? You mischaracterize the perspective of the left, and reveal by doing so that you have no clue how the left sees conservatives in the GOP. Certainly it is easy to see why the GOP would have such a reputation, but it is also clear that the individuals who make up the party are not so one-dimensional. I certainly don’t think conservatives are wrong about everything – just a few really important things.

“The hypocrisy and self-deception of the leftist is acute. They pretend taxes are patriotic and that government itself is a charity but prove scofflaws if their own IRS returns are examined. Pseudo-liberals contrast themselves with the right by proclaiming a love for minorities and the poor, but curiously choose to live in exclusive suburbs and eschew contact with the general population whenever possible.”

Except that taxes are patriotic, and most leftists pay their taxes in full and on time. It is the higher income earners that work to defray their tax burden, revealing a lack of patriotism – but these earners are distributed among both parties. Leftists dominate the cities, and most of the minorities and poor are Democrats – it should be no surprise that the Democrats love their own party members. Your claim that Democrats “live in exclusive suburbs and eschew contact with the general population” sounds like projection to me. Most of my urban neighbors are poor, working class Democrats.

“Sadly, engaging the left in debate is fruitless. As Mr. Stein observes, “The vast majority of my neighbors are too busy living their lives to waste much time on politics. They vote Democratic for the same reason they watch their diet and floss their teeth — it’s what smart, responsible, healthy, forward-thinking people do.” With such persons, “what will not happen is an actual exchange of ideas, since, by definition, your ideas (even if they were to be accorded that lofty status), are bad and dangerous.””

I am entirely open to an exchange of ideas, but I see little benefit in abandoning the smart, responsible, healthy, forward-looking perspective that I have come to after decades of dialogue with all parties. I’m happy to entertain new ideas and evaluate them for myself, but when you assume that debate is fruitless, inevitably you marginalize and diminish yourself and your opponent.

“Conservatives who know the left realize that our foes will never come around to our way of thinking. There is only one method by which to deal with them: defeat them in elections.”

You are probably correct in the end. I don’t expect to be converted into a raving wingnut, despite constant exposure to the talking heads on the right. If you want people to come around to your way of thinking, it will require you to address the concerns that motivate the left. Clearly you have not taken much time to assess these concerns, and how the GOP addresses (or fails to address) them.

I think your thesis that the left despises political diversity is a farce on the face of it, but it was entertaining to read through your attempt to justify such a one-sided perspective on the topic. In my observation, it is the GOP that has more difficulty with political diversity. The Democrats don’t harangue people for being “DINO”, but on the right it is quite normal to see the epithet “RINO” tossed about quite casually.

If you want to lecture the Democrats on political diversity, I would suggest a little self-reflection is in order first.

Peace.

DS