I am amused that folks will sometimes create a narrative to make the world easier to deal with on their own terms and will not move from it regardless the evidence that smacks them in the face every day.
Example: "Republicans hate women, minorities and gays." is easier for some to embrace this credo than to face that the concept of personal responsibility is universal and not a "rich, white male" concept.
In just this most recent election, Mia Love and Tim Scott, both black, both Republicans were elected. Mia Love is also a woman. Other Republican women who won elections, my hero, governor Susana Martinez of New Mexico was handily re-elected, Joni Ernst, the first woman vet elected to Congress, is a Republican, Shelley Moore Capito and lest the "rich, old, white men"story continue, I present Elise Stefanik, woman, only 30 years old.
Carl DeMaio, a Republican who is openly gay, nearly won and certainly still has a future in the Republican party.
Can we now drop the rhetoric and the entrenched stereotypes and labels that get slapped on and deal with actual issues?
I'm not exactly sure why it brings such comfort to some to cling to these ideas they have about Republicans or why it is so important to put all Republicans into a little pigeon-hole they've created in their mind. But, they are wrong.
And, frankly, those who are so entrenched in the idea that only white people are Republican that they then demean anyone who is black for simply being conservative, it seems to me, are racists. If you think that the simple fact of being born black in the United States requires that someone think certain things and that it is not permissible for them to stray from that thinking, how is that NOT racist?
My favorite response to that is my other hero, Condoleeza Rice, former Secretary of State and former National Security Advisor. "I find it insulting. As a Republican black woman from the south." and, "I've been black all my life. I don't need anyone to tell me how to be black."
I have several friends and acquaintances who are gay and Republican (btw, there's a whole thing called Log Cabin Republican, been around a long time). And the same rule applies. If you truly are open minded, you cannot say things like, "How can you be gay and Republican?"
The actual core of Republican thought is personal responsibility.
Mia Love's husband was recently quoted as saying that Mia doesn't want to give anyone a phone, she wants to provide a situation for them where they can work and earn the money to buy their own phone.
So, deal with that school of thought.
Republican ideals have zero to do with racism. They have zero to do with hating poor people or women or gays.
It has to do with making an America where everybody can work and improve their lives and be productive. It has everything to do with Dr. King's admonition to judge people by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin.
If it makes folks feel better about themselves to continue to pigeon hole Republicans and say that we all hate everybody, then I guess do what you have to do to get through the day.
Reality is my preference for getting through life.
It causes me to be disappointed and surprised a lot less often, I think.
No comments:
Post a Comment