A Northeastern U.S. Democrat with Seattle roots is worried about Democratic bigotry. Ira B. Shapiro lets it fly in yesterday's Seattle Times. According to the tagline to his guest op-ed, he not only sold pizza at the Seattle World's Fair in 1962, he was also later the founder and president of a photography, graphics and art publishing company; the co-founder of a video-game company; and associate publisher of an acclaimed photo boook about the lives of Soviet citizens. He currently resides in the vicinity of Litchfield, Conn.
Shapiro shares an anecdote about Republicans who became too intense with him in some political discussions on a vacation tour of Uruguay. Fair enough, and duly noted. But he saves the majority of his space to offer some observations about what he fears is ideological bigotry on the part of fellow Dems. Here's some of what he says:
I was a guest at a dinner party a month later in which all of us were Democrats. I was uncomfortable with some radical ideas proposed and some anti-Bush invectives spittled out. At one point, I mentioned a thought that a Republican friend might have offered had he been there, and I was confronted with an astonishing question:"How do you know a Republican?"
I guessed the intelligent former journalist and book author was putting me on.
"Is that a serious question?" I asked him.
"Yes, I really want to know."
"Well, the farmers, carpenters, plumbers, some shopkeepers; I know a couple of lawyers, doctors, all four boards I've been on are predominantly Republican. Do you really not know any?" He said he did not.
Nor did a 35-year-old market researcher in Chappaqua I questioned. A 72-year-old violinist in the Upper West Side of Manhattan knew two — one the doorman to his 100-plus unit co-op.
At a local symposium about "Iraq and the Media" that was attended by maybe 50 mostly gray-haired Democrats, I asked a question and mentioned that a "Republican I know... " The room was instantly silenced and frozen.
The hostility and suspicion I felt was palpable. I was more than a trespasser — I was a spy from the enemy in the camp of these liberal thinkers.
Afterward with a cookie in hand, the journalist from the dinner party asked me "if I would introduce him to a Republican." He still did not seem to be teasing me.
Weeks later at another dinner of six couples, one artist admitted that she "would never have a Republican in her house for dinner" and clearly wrote me off for doing it myself. When I explained that one Republican friend was a college roommate, she and her husband admitted that old friends might be an exception, "but how could you talk with him? What would you have in common?"
I thought liberal meant open to new ideas and respecting others' opinions. These liberals I've met recently seem close-minded, insulated and living in a very dark vacuum. Isn't that how bigots behave?
Kudos to Shapiro for stating what too many people have forgotten. As a moderate conservative living in Seattle, surrounded by Democrats, I've been living Shapiro's advice for quite some time. Most of my closest friends are Democrats. Although partly through blogging I have started to become friendly with some very cool folks from Seattle and nearby, who are independents, Democratic hawks, or lean Republican. Big surprise for Seattle libs: they're not NASCAR fans or Jesus freaks, but predominantly techies, writers, and artists.
Meanwhile, upholding the harsh orthodoxy of The Left, the current Seattle Weakly has a long article wondering, "Is Bush The AntiChrist?" You'll especially appreciate the graphic of W., replete with cloven hooves and little pointy horns.
Plus ca change, plus la meme chose, n'est ce pas?
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at December 10, 2004 04:48 PM
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Hey Matt - I've been meaning to get on your blog and provide some support.
This Shapiro column was excellent. While reading it, my jaw dropped to the floor with a thud. It's one of the rare occassions that I have seen or heard a Democrat make a statement about their obnoxious tendency to be holier-than-thou.
Tammy Bruce, author of several books that cover, among other things, just this topic, points out the same thing. Walk into a room of liberals and you usually get depressed pretty quickly. You are surrounded by cynicism and anger generally. Walk into a room of conservatives and people are generally smiling and upbeat.
This is coming from a woman, Tammy, who is a lesbian and formerly ran NOW in LA, CA. She decided to step back from the fray of anger to get a more expansive perspective after have this realization.
This strange sanctimony of the left is the reason that, while I don't have any love for the Republicans, I find myself voting for them simply as a vote against Democrats. For the most part, Republicans stay out of my life, while Democrats are quick to jump right in and tell me how to live it.
Posted by: Hovercraft at December 11, 2004 02:36 PMMy roommate at Whitworth College is a San Fransico Bay-area Democrat, but we get along, believe or not. I think that's in part because we've been exposed to other political views in the past. My roomie agrees.
Posted by: Chris at December 11, 2004 06:46 PMI am one of those Democrats who believes very strongly in the Golden Rule.
(Republican Readers: This gets good in the next paragraph so don't gloss this one over!) We certainly despise W. Bush because he was rude, arrogant, obnoxious, out of touch with reality, governed opaquely (remember the Energy committee notes he & Cheney didn't want to give to Congress?), misled the public, campaigned on one thing and did another, was fiscally irresponsible, and was absolutely partisan.
Ooops, I forgot. Take out the apprenticies and I just described Christine O'Grady Gregoire. Too many of my fellow Democrats can be so stupid sometimes - they should listen to themselves talk more. They're awfully good at it.
Posted by: Josef at December 11, 2004 08:08 PMI don't know what's better- the President's re-election or Dan Rather getting ousted. Dick didn't get Bush this time.
Posted by: Martin Krongold at December 11, 2004 09:02 PMNew article in today's Seattle Times on the subject:
Politics of Discrimination
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002115975_satrdr11.html
I'm with you Hover. I voted for Badnarik in the election because I truly despise this hoity-toity elitism that, while being pinned on the Dems these days, is rampant in both parties.
While national politics are important, I think that people really take this stuff too seriously. What really matters is day to day interactions with fellow citizens. Too many of these interactions lately have degraded into jock waggling contests on who can spew the highest volume of "evidence" to make the "other side" look bad. It's really pathetic.
Posted by: Rashid Muhammad at December 12, 2004 03:10 PMFolks, it's not all about fussy little ideological spats at cocktail parties. After all, we should be getting ready for the butt-buggering that 60 million Americans elected Dubya to give us. Take it nice and quiet, now:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/politics/14social.html?pagewanted=all&position=
Let’s see: First, the GOP drastically cut taxes for the very richest among us; next, they made it harder for working class families to qualify for college grants; now, they plan to cut Medicaid and Medicare; and, for the coup de grâce, they're going to cut Social Security.
Don't worry, be happy! Dubya's gonna die rich no matter what happens, and we should all love the overflowing corporate welfare that he promulgates while cutting college grants and Medicaid. I'm feelin' mighty mighty relieved to know that the richest 1% of my country's gonna be just FINE!
Posted by: Marc at December 14, 2004 12:06 AMYeah Rashid, I agree. I didn't vote for Badnarik just because I knew that my tiny tiny vote within King County for Bush would raise the blood pressure of some elitist Democrats. If I'd voted for Badnarik, it wouldn't have had the impact.
But, you are so right about people on both sides trying to out-evidence each other. It's pathetic.
Posted by: Hovercraft at December 14, 2004 12:56 PM