Posted on 02/11/2017 1:14:15 PM PST by Republicanprofessor
Why all the hate? Why do so many of the liberals so viscerally despise Trump and all Republicans who side with him? Was there ever such hate for Obama? I know there were deep policy disputes with Obama, but conservatives were prevented from expressing the kind of hatred we see today for fear of being called “racist.” And, honestly, I never felt hatred for Obama; disagreement, definitely. But not the hatred we see today on the left. In fact, most of Obama’s presidency was enabled for that very reason: Republicans were terrified of that “racist” label, and they did not resist Obama’s policies while today Trump’s very breath is opposed by all liberals with the deepest hatred I have ever seen in this country.
And thus I wonder: why such vicious hatred? Do liberals see themselves as threatened, and has this led to this loathing? Why are liberals more shocked and hateful nowadays than conservatives were eight years ago?
I think it comes down to self-identity. All human beings want to be safe and comfortable; we want to be fed, housed, educated, and reimbursed for the work we do. When our life-styles are threatened, we react.
I think liberals self-define themselves politically more so than conservatives. A liberal friend recently sent me a long list of causes that he supports, over fifteen causes, from abortion to immigration, as if that list defined and defended who he is. “On election day,” he says, “I didn't cry because I hated Trump or was afraid of him, I cried because he showed me that the people of this country are much, much worse than I thought they were.” When liberals see their beliefs threatened, they blame others for not agreeing with them; they riot rather than hear another side by a provocative speaker; they crumble and resort to viciousness and hatred, accusing conservatives of ruining their country and, by extension, their ideals and their lives. This may be because their own identity is intrinsically linked to their liberal politics.
On the contrary, I think conservatives are defined by many more things than political beliefs, and when they lose an election, they are disappointed but they go on with their lives. They realize that there isn’t a great deal that the president can do that affects our daily lives. It is really our own responsibility, our own actions that define our lives and determine our well being. Conservatives do not rely on the government to make us happy, while liberals seem to believe that government’s role is to make all lives better and happier. So when there is a change of government, they cannot cope. They feel their own happiness falling in shreds at their feet, even though no real action has yet affected their lives. Unable to see the other side, nor the possibilities inherent in new policies, they strike out in bitterness and hatred.
As one of my friends noted recently: "Conservatives strongly support the rights, responsibilities, and privileges of the individual, so they tend to be less interested in controlling the thoughts, behaviors, and values of other people. Conversely, liberals believe that individuals must conform to the needs and desires of society, so they have a tendency to want to control the thoughts, ideals, and actions of others."
In case you are interested in my own political journey: I was raised in a Republican household, but while in college, I remember arguing with my father at the dinner table. In college and graduate schools, because of my interest in art, I was of course surrounded by liberals. But I was not politically aware. I never voted for Reagan. I bought all the distortion dealt by the media. I voted for John Anderson, an “independent” vote that I realize was now was totally wasted. I voted for Geraldine Ferraro as VP because she was a woman.
I followed the liberal line, until I became pregnant and then miscarried. My husband, always a stronger conservative than I, asked a simple question about abortion that I had never truly considered: “Is it murder or is it not?” Thus I began to rethink my positions. And then Clarence Thomas came up for the Supreme Court. Living between my studio (in a mill by a waterfall) and our tiny apartment, I listened to every minute of the hearings, only missing the moments walking to and from my car. I was appalled by the bias of NPR and the “lynching” of a black man because he dared to have conservative ideas. The hearings with Anita Hill, the “pubic hair on the coke can” were so outrageous; I did not yet realize how the media could lie. I began listening to alternative voices on the radio. I became a conservative.
Now I am one of the few conservative professors at a state university. I do voice my views on Facebook but not generally around the university. I disagree with many of my colleagues politically, but I don’t hate them. I am dismayed at the liberal bias of so many universities, but there isn’t much that I can do. Some of my professor friends at different universities were shocked when I “came out” on Facebook as a conservative. “What happened to you?!” It was only later that I realized that if my opinions were so foreign to my liberal professor friends, then there was indeed more bias at universities than I had realized. I like to think that my college is more balanced, but that is probably because I only really know my own classes, where I do try to be politically neutral as I point out links between the past and events of today, even in art history classes.
In any event, I do not define myself solely by my politics; there are many other activities in which I take great joy and which define my life. I don’t take political stances in order to be accepted and approved by others. I continued with my life during the Clinton and Obama presidencies, even while questioning their policies. I didn’t sink into depression and hatred when Obamacare was passed in the middle of the night with no Republican votes. However, I did hope for its overturn and a more rational and well-developed plan to replace Obamacare. I am still hoping for this, and the same is true for correcting many of Obama’s other disastrous policies.
What I wish is that liberals would realize is that there is a great deal of apolitical pleasure in the world. Happiness is available through many different channels, and one’s identity should not be at risk because there is a Republican in the White House. The pendulum will doubtless swing back left again in time. I just wish liberals would chill out a bit, cut down on the hatred, and give this president at least a chance to seat his cabinet. It is what they expected, and received, with Obama and what they will expect with next Democratic president.
The people demonstrating most now may not even be Democrats and may not even have voted. The relationship between the demonstrators in the streets, rank and file Democrats, and Hollywood and Wall Street Democrats are complicated. Too complicated for me to understand or explain. Hollywood and Wall Street Democrats may hate Trump, but they do recognize that there are ways to have fun in the world that don't involve politics.
Trump/Pense is looking in to the fraudulent voting by illegals, the dead, etc.Expect massive changes in voting.
When the massive number of fraudulent are all removed from the voter rolls (ie CA, IL, NY)Clinton will not have won the popular vote, which is not how we elect our President anyway.
NOW we are getting down to root causes. Hussein fits that mold.
H-> DID NOT WIN a majority of the popular votes cast.
“Divide and conquer” has been the rally cry from the left since before the French Revolution. Karl Marx made it into a rally cry of his revolution and its practice has resulted in the death of millions.
The difference is that what we are seeing here is not the start of a revolution. Trump was the revolution.
What we are seeing are the death throes of a major political party.
IOW, why they are freaking out. They thought they had it all locked down. How did that guy sneak in?
The same way truth always ‘sneaks in’. It’s simply *there*. These people are livid but oh well. You’d think they would take a clue from the name *Trump*.
My hatred of that man was visceral from the moment he said hope and change, and fundamental transformation. So visceral it even surprised me I have forgiven most of those I feel have done wrong by me. That said I look for solutions not retribution to things Obama imposed on this nation.
I think the difference between Obama and Trump is that in the case of Obama the Republican leaders were very restrained and did not resort to the sort of vituperation that you see from the Democrat leaders and Republican elitists towards Trump.
The elitist leaders have stirred up their followers, creating a sort of cult - that in order to what a sane, tolerant, moral human being you are, you must show how much you hate Trump.
It’s a lot like in the Middle Ages - when the king or nobility were having credibility problems with their people, they would stir up riots against the Jews - and in order to show what a good Christian you were, you had to show how much you hated the Jews.
Why?
Short version: In the mid 1970s the WW2/Korean war era Professors and teachers started retiring and were replaced by the 1960s hippie leftist wack jobs who indoctrinated the students who in turn became teachers and the process has been repeating ever since with each new generation more leftist, more radical than the last.
In the past these leftists protested the Vietnam war and Nixon, that was pretty much the extent. When I went to college 1979 to 1983, I had Reagan bumper stickers on my first car and nobody said nothing, I even got thumbs up time to time IN the campus parking lot. Today though, without question my car would have been destroyed. They act like Nazis now with their own little versions of Kristallnacht. If someone, anyone even dares to disagree with them they attack, destroy, smash and burn.
This is why Trump should stop all federal funds going to these indoctrination centers that use to pose as our schools. They are doing tremendous damage to the country and are youth who walk around completely unable to accept fact and truth. This why you have all these vicious radical wacko leftists in politics, in the media, and as we have seen in the judicial system. Imagine that: We have sc*mbags posing as Judges who just ruled the President cannot be allowed to protect the country from foreign terrorist attacks.
Why? Because they have been taught all their lives that conservatives are out to destroy their lives - by the media, the education system, their parents and “celebrities”.
“Trump squeaked in...”
Well, at least according to the “official” results. I’d bet my entire net worth that he easily won the popular vote too, if all the numerous forms of fraudulent democrat votes were removed from the totals. But I understand the point you’re making, and agree.
A Hillary voter was surprised when I told her that we hated Obama as much as she hates Trump. She said she never noticed that there was a problem. “Why?”
I told her it’s the difference between us who have class, sanity, and pride — and them who have none of those things.
We don’t speak any more. :) (Every cloud has a silver lining.)
Yes,true.
Which confirms my long-time definition of ART: Stuff that nobody wants to buy, but will take if someone else is paying.
Perfect post, sir!
“They didn’t think they were ever going to have to lose power again.”
True. They believed the socialist “utopia” they dream of was just around the corner, perhaps rightly so. The not so funny thing is, if they had stood by just a few basic constitutional rights and obeyed the law, they’d probably be in power right now. That is, if they weren’t on a constant crusade to disarm us, and if Zero hadn’t of gone wild with importing so many Muslims and demanding that our southern border is something imaginary, they wouldn’t have given so much motivation for many RINO’s to head to the polls, and caused old time democrats to bail out on the party. But they just can’t help themselves, both libtards AND Uniparty/never Trumpers.
Not only did I read about my own condition, I read about the automatic hatred I see and have experienced on all sides, especially the left, and all thanks in large measure to our world's main-lined down stream media that's keeping US so stirred up.
Fwiw, these interesting times have been predicted.
Basically, the reference material says if you are determined to follow a road long enough, you'll eventually get to where it goes.
"Are we there, yet?"
The word is “Individualism”!
There is no NEED for the government, or those in such positions, by the individual.
When someone that believes as orthodoxy that government MUST do and be all, meets someone that does not, and will not, it is the orthodoxist who goes ballistic, in all manners, to defend his orthodoxy. (pentecostal meets catholic, as an example.)
The orthodoxist goes near heart attack apoplectic when the individual smiles, and says: “blessum you!”
“The opposition is so incapable of thinking, they would rather feel...”
What, the left isn’t capable of thinking well?
But, but, but what about all those critical thinking courses in the universities?!?!
I am also discovering, in various committees, that my colleagues can’t think for sh&t. It’s very depressing, and I can’t fight that battle because the bureaucracy is too much, and I won’t be around that much longer.
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