July 5, 2011 6:05 AM

If this is the best we can do, then count me out

I found this on a Facebook thread over the weekend, and the more I thought about it, the more upset I became. Most Progressives think of themselves as educated and tolerant…and yet blithely tossing around this sort of insulting imagery betrays an appalling lack of both education and tolerance. Collectively, we express outrage when Right-wing zealots create posters of President Obama with a bone through his nose (or worse)…and yet we see nothing at all wrong with comparing Republicans to Nazis. With this is reflective or astonishing hypocrisy or a disturbing lack of self-awareness, it does nothing to advance our cause.

I’m both a proud Progressive and a History major. No matter how reprehensible today’s GOP may be (and I have no argument with that contention), Republicans are NOT Nazis. Those who honestly believe they are only display a surprising lack of historical knowledge and perspective. Republicans may believe differently, and we may believe them to be horribly, almost irredeemably wrong, but they’re not killing and maiming civilians. They’re not invading countries (well, OK; except for Iraq and Afghanistan). They’re not gassing Jews in concentration camps. And they’re not violating the laws of war and/or international law. They’re just wrong…and being wrong isn’t a crime or morally reprehensible. Neither is it grounds for being called Nazis.

Effectively combating the primacy of those so irredeemably wrong is not something that can happen when those of us who think we’re right are comparing Republicans to Nazis. Not only does it reveal us to be intolerant, it also demonstrates a complete lack of an appropriate understanding of history. I’m willing to discuss/debate/argue points with those on the other side of the ideological fence, but I see nothing to be gained by demeaning and insulting them. How is that going to help our cause? How will that make anyone more amenable to seeing our point of view? How can you change hearts and minds when you can’t treat those who think differently like human beings instead of caricatures? Conservatives may dismiss us with a combination of smugness and arrogance swaddled in ignorance, but that doesn’t mean that we need to be doing the same thing to them. We should be able to exist on a higher plane.

From where I sit, I have to think that we’re better than this- because if we’re not, then all we really have left is shouting and recrimination. And don’t we have WAY too much of that as things stand now?

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on July 5, 2011 6:05 AM.

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