Ignorance

It drives me nuts. I don’t mind when other people have different opinions or beliefs. What drives me nuts is when those beliefs are knee-jerk reactions. My co-worker who sits near me is a good woman. But she’s passionately liberal. I think a good part of it is she is black. Blacks vote overwhelmingly democratic. They just do. And they hate Bush. But ask a black person why they hate Bush. Or why they vote democrat and you'll hear a mismash of unorganized thought and emotion.

Now you know I’m not a conservative but even though I’m not, I still hate liberal thought. It’s void of rational thought and is based in feelings and emotion. I’ve sat down with my black friends at lunch and explored their political beliefs with them. Truth is, they are more conservative in their beliefs(or even Libertarian) than they are liberal. Conservatives hold deeper religious beliefs than liberals and the black community is overwhelmingly Christian. Blacks are also largely pro-life. They are also pro-school choice. Those two positions are in direct conflict with whom the democrats rely on for votes: pro-abortion groups and the teacher’s unions. So why do they vote for Democrats? Because they always have.

Why are so many people unwilling to explore their own beliefs and challenge them. I LOVE being challenged on my beliefs. I believe it’s one of the many reasons I get along so well with my father. We challenge each other. We have many similar views(taxes, abortion, military) and a few very different ones (war on drugs, mainly). But we challenge each other. And while we may end up disagreeing, we respect each other still because we are willing to have our views challenged and we’ll change them when a compelling case is made.

The reason this whole topic came up is a discussion I was just involved in with two women here at work. They both talked down about the Reagan years but spoke wistfully of the Clinton years when jobs and wealth were so plentiful. Well, they were BOTH prosperous times. Why so wistful for the Clinton years? 2 reasons:

1. Media coverage. In Bernard Goldberg’s book Bias he shows how much more the media covered homelessness and greed during the Reagan years than the Clinton years. Despite the fact that there really wasn’t much change. But the 80’s were a decade of greed and the 90’s were a decade of prosperity. It’s all in presentation.

2. A liberal would rather get kicked in the nuts or punched in the boobs(not sure if I have a good alternate for the female side here) than to admit anyone not liberal did something good. Seriously, try it sometime. Now, many conservatives can be the same way but I know I have no problem complimenting Clinton on certain issues (welfare reform etc) when it is warranted.

So what are your thoughts? I’d love to hear them. Remember…I like having my beliefs challenged. Click on the comments link and let me know what you think.