Compare and Contrast

Following up on It’s because I’m a racist - Bookworm’s site is back up! Click through to read the full post because it’s excellent. And the comments are very interesting, one so much so that I want to comment on it. Commenter Helen in Bookworm’s post, Say it loud, say it proud: I am a racist! *UPDATED* provides a great summary of the typical Democratic position. My comments are inline and bracketed:

I am a Democrat because I think the government is big enough and powerful enough to make some of the changes I agree with. [Because you can't convince enough of the public to make those changes on the merits of your arguments, you have to force others to comply.]

I want soldiers to come home from this damn, illegal war. [For all the "illegal" rhetoric, you must know it is no such thing. Even Democrats in Congress, who could have stopped it, chose not to and admitted that they hoodwinked you guys to get re-elected. Just like the recent report that superficially claims that "Bush lied!", but repeatedly says in the report that the statements were substantiated. I know you guys call yourselves the reality-based community, but out here in the cheap seats I just can't see it. Your own side admits they lied to you, and somehow that doesn't change your opinion. Your own side releases a report affirming everything we've been saying all along, but you don't acknowledge it. I just don't get that.]

I want the US to be friends with other nations. [Are you willing to personally befriend people you disagree with vehemently? Willing to invite the most rabid NAMBLA advocate or a convicted, unrepentant murderer to your home? How about the nations conducting genocide? Why should our nation bestow our favor and goodwill to those who don't deserve it? Friendship should be reserved for a select few; for the rest, respect, and by respect, I mean the fearful kind. I want unjust, tyrannical regimes that enslave and slaughter their people to fear us, not like us. I want Mugabe, Chavez, Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong Il staying up nights worrying about what we'll do next. Have you noticed how governments in Europe are growing more conservative even as we trend left? Ever wondered why?]

I want health care for everyone. [And yet you'll accept rationed, socialized medicine which routinely denies care to people and is demonstrably of a poorer quality than what the vast majority of Americans have now. You'll bring us all down to the lowest common denominator just for the sake of being able to say we're equal? That's irrational.]

I want prices of gasoline and, therefore, food to be reasonable. [Then get your Democratic representatives in Congress to quit hindering the oil companies from getting at our own oil. Even Obama admits that higher gas prices are a feature, not a bug, of your party. Like the Iraq war, they are trying to hoodwink you into believing the very opposite of the truth. Why don't you question when Maxine Waters talks about nationalizing the oil companies, with the example of Venezuela and other nationalized industries right in front of her? Those are demonstrable failures resulting in real hardships for the people of those nations that your side thinks would be nifty to try out here.]

I want a responsible environmental plan. [Then why does your party allow the likes of Ted Kennedy to block wind farms? Why do you favor ethanol which demonstrably uses more resources to make than it's worth? Why don't you demand the full release of taxpayer-funded research so it can be peer-reviewed and the elimination of data from weather stations which has been affected by urban encroachment?]

I want a foreign policy that makes my country a good member of the world community. [Too vague to really address, but I will note that the Democrats seem perfectly willing to ignore human rights abuses in some countries, but want to intercede in others like Burma and Kosovo.]

I want a more equitable distribution of wealth, at home and globally. Yes, I have socialist leanings but am not quite there. Go that way too much, and we lose our rights. I believe in sharing. [At least Helen is a democrat who admits her desire to take money from some people and give it to others is socialist. Kudos for that much. But the left is perfectly willing to lose constitutional rights like free speech and gun ownership in favor of invented rights like not having your feelings hurt. The left is perfectly willing to restrict the free speech rights of anyone they disagree with; continued assaults on talk radio are just one example. Sharing is a voluntary act. Involuntary confiscation is theft.]

And I believe we have a chance to advance race relations by electing the first black president. I think that is very important. [Without regard to his personal qualifications for the job?]

But I do not think everyone who votes against Obama is a racist. These are my reasons for voting for Obama. They are as good as anyone’s. The only person I have to convince is myself, because none of the rest of you get to go in the voting booth with me. I know what I’m doing and why. I will vote Democratic in November.

By contrast, I think Republicans are selfish in their dialog, if not in their actions. They believe too much in the individual and too little in the common good. [It is the individual who makes up the common good; our freedom and rights permit the common good. We do not have constitutional group rights in this country. They simply don't exist; they are a very recent invention.]

They are quick to sacrifice soldiers and slow to share their money. [Like Kosovo, like Burma? As to being slow to share their money, it's been proven that conservatives are far more generous than liberals, both with our money and our time. We even give more blood!]

They are too quick to label poor people as lazy. [First, liberals are too quick to excuse able-bodied people from working to support themselves. I've been on welfare and I certainly support the idea of a safety net but women like this one are far too common. Second, poor isn't what you think it is. And as a Christian, I simply cannot support the increase of a system which glorifies government, not God.]

And I think they are on a witch hunt to prove Obama is evil, not just the wrong man. [Good thing that Democrats never do that. ChimpyMcBushHitler, of course, is a special case who deserved every insult he got, and those assassination and citizens arrest for "war crimes" fantasies don't mean anything at all. No worries, right?]

Comments like this from nice, friendly people on the left scare and frustrate me more than the raving, obscene Huffpo types. But how do you get through to people who just refuse to understand that they are simply wrong, demonstrably wrong, in many of their core premises? Like calling conservatives stingy, like calling the war illegal, like what they call a “responsible” environmental plan that will wreck the economy and is based on faulty, partisan science - which they also can’t seem to grasp? Each side has its own facts and a reasoned debate seems impossible because in a postmodern age, how you feel is accepted as truth and as proof for those “facts.” Other than prayer, I can’t think of a thing to do about it.

Political reconciliation is occurring in Iraq in leaps and bounds; here, not so much.