Jane Smiley has now joined the ranks of the merely idiotic. Fortunately for America, she's only a novelist. Unfortunately for America, she's one of millions. Idiots, I mean. (There are millions of novelists, budding boring burgeoning aging aged and aggravating. But that's a separate kettle of fish.)
Please have a look. Don't read the article - it's not worth it. But have a look:
I grew up in Missouri and most of my family voted for Bush, so I am going to be the one to say it: The election results reflect the decision of the right wing to cultivate and exploit ignorance in the citizenry. I suppose the good news is that 55 million Americans have evaded the ignorance-inducing machine. But 58 million have not. (Well, almost 58 million—my relatives are not ignorant, they are just greedy and full of classic Republican feelings of superiority.)[...]
Here is how ignorance works: First, they put the fear of God into you—if you don't believe in the literal word of the Bible, you will burn in hell. Of course, the literal word of the Bible is tremendously contradictory, and so you must abdicate all critical thinking, and accept a simple but logical system of belief that is dangerous to question.
[...]
The history of the last four years shows that red state types, above all, do not want to be told what to do—they prefer to be ignorant. As a result, they are virtually unteachable.
Awesome! Evidently America works the following way: Group A supports the 'rights' of Group B. (In any case, the A's have taken up the fight for the B's in one or another form, even if it's just talking.) Group C does not support these rights, for one or several of quite a number of reasons. Unfortunately, Group C contains many people who up and say, 'Those of Group B are too short/too greedy/inhuman/degenerate/leeches/servants by nature/unholy, and by taking up their cause, the A's have made themselves this as well.' The only fact in play is the hatred of the B's by some of the C's.
The A's bravely, selflessly, effectively respond by attacking all of the C's for being, among other things, evil/stupid/ignorant/puppets/bigots. No actual analysis of their motivations is undertaken, no attempt to communicate with the C's is made, the schism deepens, no matter how real it was in the first place.
I love America. Love it. It is evidently full to the brim of people who are considerably bigger assholes than I am!
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Dear Jane Smiley,
Ignorance is failing to see the difference between die-hard social conservatives and the many, many people who voted for Bush knowing that their social agendas and his do not square up. Ignorance is disdaining religious practices such as tithing and supporting identical secular practices such as taxing. (And vice versa.) Ignorance is calling for reasonable debate after decrying your opponents (er, I mean your 'fellow voters') as fools and worse. Ignorance is failing to understand that many millions support the work of man because it is a manifestation of God's Work - and then failing to understand how you might take advantage of that formulation. Ignorance is expecting most Americans to support gay marriage (when many many Americans, I would venture, find it abhorrent, instinctively - but not you and me, Jane, we're 'liberated' and everything, right? We've risen above those merely 'visceral' responses, I guess). Ignorant is not realizing the degree to which 'hate the sin, love the sinner' actually holds up in America - and as a consequence, being surprised by the weird egalitarianism of local Republicanism.
Jane, I have been planning on reading MOO for a while. I'm a sucker for campus novels, in part because I know how vitally important they are in turning around this country's social ills. I've also heard really good things about A Thousand Acres, and if MOO is good, I'd like to look at that book as well. If you want to send me a free copy, I'd appreciate it. But you sound like a fucking idiot in your Slate article, Jane. Your dime-store rationalizations help no one. You sound like precisely the stereotyped 'liberal elite' whose (imagined) egotism and hatred of - yes - ol' fashioned Christian values are among the reasons that right now America is facing the second presidency of an extremist religious nut with a seemingly decaying mind who actually thinks privatizing Social Security is going to work.
Accept it, Jane. You and yours may have made hay with your 'anyone but Bush' feelings, may have seen your vote as a strike against the Republicans, but of the 58 million who voted Republican this week, I'd wager that many saw their actions as a strike against you. Not a referendum on conservatism and liberalism, but a pissing contest between conservatives and liberals. An untimely rumination: perhaps the next election should be about something more than that.
Cheers,
Waximilian Banks
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OK, that's out of my system. There was going to be a longish post right here about the heterogeneity of the Republicans, the directionlessness and apparently self-destructive impulses of the Democrats, the obsessive need to see those who disagree with us as somehow limited - even some highfalutin' stuff about the philosophical underpinnin's of liberalism and how this election had begun to make me feel like its time had come! But no. Next time.
Please, reach out and fucking listen to a Bush voter today! Their candidate is an idiot, I think, and their party leadership is corrupt and dangerous. But the voters are not their candidate. They are not their political party, no matter how comforting we might find that formulation. Republicans and Democrats want the same happiness, fundamentally, and the only way Democrats will get power back in this country is to be able to find a way to promise that happiness! Then there's the separate problem of actually delivering it. Another post, another day.
[And by the way: hat tip to JCB, who said much the same thing in less space, though he didn't use the phrase 'liberal elites', so points for that. I also would add to his post that many people feel the government's big problem is ignoring the will of the people, rendering citizens' input impossible or useless or both. If there is optimism seemingly bubbling under my post here, I've been a bit disingenuous - I'm deeply pessimistic about this presidency. I just don't think writing off half the country is the way to go about affecting things in a positive way.]
