by James Wallace Harris, Wednesday, May 10, 2017
I’m a liberal atheist who’s always voted Democratic – but I look like a Republican – an old white guy. That’s getting to be a problem. Women and people of color are being political disenfranchised by the current political regime. I don’t think I’m being paranoid when I think they’re starting to hate old white guys. I don’t even blame them. Not only that, I’m getting tired of old white guys coming up and immediately telling me their weird-ass political ideas assuming I’m a member of their secret fraternity. I’m totally freaked out people will think I’m a Trump supporter because of my looks.
It’s a good thing I don’t want to be a politician because this country doesn’t need any more old white guys wanting to run the joint. I do want to be a writer, and unfortunately, there’s a long legacy of wordy old white bastards hogging the literary canon. I write for a site that works very hard to promote diversity in reading. I feel guilty even submitting essays. Yet, I’m very thankful to be their token old white guy. I’ve always been for diversity but I’m learning even more by hanging out at Book Riot.
The trouble is there’s a large segment of our country that wishes we all looked alike. Yesterday, The Atlantic reported “It Was Cultural Anxiety That Drove White, Working-Class Voters to Trump” and not economic anxiety. These people want to return to a paternalistic white past where women and people of color don’t disturb their vision of a homogeneous America. Recently, I’ve heard second-hand personal stories and read many reports in the news about people going up to Hispanic folks and telling them they should go home. That’s incredibly shameful. Knowing the president and leaders in Congress inspires such horrendous behavior makes watching shows like The Handmaid’s Tale unnerving. I thought climate change was dooming our future, but alt-right politics is going to destroy us first.
Not only do the Republicans not see anything wrong in having all old white guy committees, they take pride in claiming they don’t play identity politics. They even jockey with each other to out-do their denials claiming nothing is wrong. But it’s very wrong! The fact they can’t see their evilness is equal to Trump’s own anosognosia. Their blind spots are so huge it’s surprising they can see at all.
What really bothers me is their claim to be Christians, a religion based on teaching compassion. If these old Republican white guys are really going to church every Sunday they should stop. If they haven’t gotten the message after all these years then they are wasting their time. I’m an atheist that quit the church when I was twelve, but I did learn this in Sunday school at age five:
Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
All are precious in His sight,
Jesus loves the little children of the world.
Obviously, they didn’t. Women are half the world, and the whole world is diverse. Why can’t they see that? I think I know why, but it’s a terrible thing to think about another human being. Women, minorities, and immigrants tend to vote Democratic. Republican’s in their single-mindedness to lower their taxes will do anything, and I mean anything, to achieve that goal. In other words, greed has driven them blind, even to the point of abandoning their faith and becoming hateful.
They have sold their souls to lower their taxes.
I just want people to know that I might look like those zombies, but I ain’t one of them.
JWH
Auxiliary Memory 
So noted. 🙂
So you’re one of the new hair-on-fire, running and screaming zombies then? Have you not noticed that the Dems have spent the last year or so working very hard to prove that they can be just as mindless, tribal, and corrupt as the GOP?
For that matter, we’ve seen enough women and people of color in positions of power now to establish that they are no better than their old white male equivalents. I’ve been for civil rights and equality my whole life, but playing identity politics is a fool’s game, James. Making sure that the privileged oligarchy is 50% women and 12% black is really only beneficial to the individuals involved. Even their usefulness as role models is questionable.
I don’t agree, PJ. I believe the over-reacting liberal meme was created by conservatives to sooth their guilt. I think conservatives were surprised by how violently liberals have reacted. They won’t admit guilt, but I think they rationalize the liberals reactions away to cover it up.
I agree liberals can be just as corrupted by the plutocracy as the conservatives. But I don’t think the conservatives understand how horrified we are by the recent changes in society. We thought we were slowly becoming a more compassionate society, and then wham, we’re thrown back fifty years. The hate and nationalism are truly ugly to us. I don’t think conservatives understand how much we’re shocked by Trump. Nor can we understand so many people embracing a person we consider such a worthless example of humanity. I used to admire Paul Ryan even though I complete disagreed with him, but when allied with Trump I realized he was a man with zero integrity. It seems like Republicans have totally embraced the end justify the means to such an extent that they will go to any means to get what they want. And that scares us.
We liberals might look like we’re running around with our hair on fire, but that’s because we truly feel the country is on fire. What will conservatives do when they realize it is?
I can’t speak for conservatives because I’ve never been one. I don’t really understand someone who admires and supports Trump, but no more do I get identifying with or supporting someone as malignant as Hillary or Obama (and why in the world would anyone admire Paul Ryan?). If you really feel the country would be less “on fire” if Hillary had gotten her coronation, then I just don’t know what to say.
There have been no “recent changes in society” unless by “recent” you mean at least as far back as 1975-1980. Or unless you mean the increasing neglect of concrete egalitarian efforts in favor of symbolic virtue signaling (of course you don’t — but why not?). It sounds as if you’ve been consuming too much mainstream media, which at this point unfortunately includes most of the well-known internet spaces. I’m not going for a personal attack, just trying to honestly describe my reaction to what you’ve written. For what it’s worth, I get the same feelings when listening to my right-wing Southern Baptist sister.
I used to say that the biggest difference in Dems and Republicans was that the Dems sometimes felt guilty about the things they did, but no longer. It’s become clear that “us liberals” are every bit as much in denial.
Grow you hair long and put it in a point tail and wear an earring or two. And don’t forget the stubble of a beard..Just kidding as you have a point. As far as politics, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely…..who said that?
Mary, I can’t grow my hair long anymore. I’ve gotten rather bald. I did wear it long when I was young.
James, I’m having the same problem as I get older – especially with my southern accent. Amazing how many people will just start sharing racist and misogynist opinions with you because you look like the type of guy who’d vote GOP. As if I didn’t have enough reasons already miss the hair of my youth!