Stop Coddling the Racist, Homophobic, Misogynistic, Xenophobic Hateful Repugs

It only encourages them.

 

Articles like this can only be written by people who don't live every fucking hour of every fucking day surrounded by white supremacists whining about how oppressed they are.

Perhaps it would be wise to be a bit more charitable to these folks, a little more patient and understanding.

A bleeding-heart liberal acquaintance almost died in a fire deliberately set by her psychopathic adopted son.  Six years old, and he'd been displaying violent behavior since he could walk. But never suffered any kind of discipline for it. I asked her what she was going to do about his fire-setting, and she said she hadn't even criticized him, much less punished him, because she didn't want him to "grow up afraid."

I said: "I want him to grow up afraid.  I want him to spend every minute terrified that he's going to spend the rest of his life in prison."

That psychopathic little shit is American conservatives, and his mother is liberals like Martin Longman, insisting we keep forgiving and coddling and understanding them.

As if doing that consistently for the last 70 years has not been the biggest political failure in American history.

You cannot - CANNOT - change the behavior of a psychopath, whether a six-year-old or a million-moron movement. You can only confine them where they cannot harm others.

 

Longman at Political Animal:

But their minority status is precisely why they’re feeling so anxious and angry, and there’s no reason to fear that they’ll somehow constitute an electoral majority (by themselves) in November. If calling Trump on his racism and misogyny makes these folks love him more, it’s not an electoral problem. Their views are on the margin as it is.

What’s problematic is how this affects our culture, and the fissures that are opening in our society are causing a gridlocked government where consensus on issues large and small has become illusive.

It might be healthier for our country if there were a little more space for alternative views before they get shut down as obviously racist and intolerant, but it’s hard to be gracious and patient with people who are trying beat you politically so that they can continue to discriminate against our nation’s most vulnerable people.

On the other hand, while it may be hard, it’s also part of the recipe for political and cultural success. When you meet firehoses and billy clubs with love and a shining humanity, you will eventually win. And, before too long, most of your oppressors will come to respect what you’ve done.

Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me.  When you meet firehoses and billy clubs with love and a shining humanity ... You. Die.  Ask Viola Liuzzo.  Ask Trayvon Martin how non-violence saved his life.  Ask Matthew Shepherd how being a nice guy saved his.

Ask American gays how politely asking conservatives and repugs to grant them human rights achieved marriage equality without having to drag the motherfuckers all the way to the Supreme Court.

Ask Hillary Clinton how 25 years of ignoring and rising above the rabid hatred that spews from the right-wing swamps has turned that hatred into republican respect and admiration for her accomplishments.

Ask President Obama how constant, non-stop compromise with repugs who publicly called him a terrorist and a traitor got the American Jobs Act passed, and the Economic Stimulus extended, and Medicaid expanded in red states, and unanimous support for efforts to stop climate change.

This is not the 1960s, when racists could be shamed into letting Congress pass the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. 

This is the 21st century, when conservatives and repugs represent an immediate and lethal threat to very survival not just of American democracy, but of the nation itself.

You don't fight a genuine existential threat with sweetness and light. You fight it with overwhelming force.

Or you inaugurate Donald Trump today.

Why is it always on people of color and progressives to be the bigger person?

I don’t know. But there are real limits on how much you accomplish by meeting intolerance with intolerance. And it’s hard to be patient with angry people or to win them over with an attitude of moral superiority. That’s why love for your neighbor and setting the right examples are still the best answers.

Meanwhile, conservatard celebration of Trump has already poisoned the nation's children.  Digby:

Yet the spirit of the GOP presidential candidate has surfaced here and, according to one study, in schools across the country.

An online survey of approximately 2,000 K-12 teachers by the Southern Poverty Law Center found toxic political rhetoric invading elementary, middle and high schools, emboldening children to make racist taunts that leave others bewildered and anxious.

“We mapped it out. There was no state or region that jumped out. It was everywhere,” said Maureen Costello, the study’s author. “Marginalized students are feeling very frightened, especially Muslims and Mexicans. Many teachers use the word terrified.” The children who did the taunting were echoing Trump’s rhetoric, she said. “Bad behavior has been normalized. They think it’s OK.”

More than two-thirds of the teachers in the survey reported that students – especially immigrants, children of immigrants and Muslims – have expressed worries about what might happen to them or their families after the November election. More than half reported an increase in uncivil political discourse, and more than a third observed an increase in anti-Muslim or anti-immigrant sentiment.

I'm sure Longman thinks those children should be encouraged in their vicious hatred. Because that will make them such valuable citizens.