More advice for you guys.
You look at liberals and progressives and you think that we only want things to be a certain way so that we can personally benefit.
That is cynicism.
When we try to make law that enforces fairness in the workplace, we are doing it because it's the right thing to do.
Empathy leads us to the inevitable conclusion that using the law to mistreat an entire class of people is wrong. We would not wish to be subjected to unfair or dangerous workplace standards, so we try to make sure that everyone has the same opportunities.
The problem is you think we want to guarantee results. That's what you want to do. You want to guarantee results for your base. The return on investment for businesses paying for lobbyists is something like 17000%. The return on investment for individuals who are having their voting rights protected by liberals is just that- the vote. We only want to guarantee opportunity, not results.
Your leaders cynically manipulate the rules so that more liberal voters are turned away. In other words, it's a return on investment you get for getting those willing tools elected to office.
Identity politics is another example of your shallow and intentional cynicism.
During the civil rights era, you saw entire classes of previously disrespected people being elevated to a status near that of yours. That was disturbing to you, but you also saw how well it worked. The thing is, it worked for liberals because it was the right thing to do. If liberals also gained votes out of the changes, then that's fine.
So how have you applied this? You have applied the idea of identity politics to a class that has always had the power in this country. Seriously. You guys have so perverted the honest idea of protecting classes of people into some strange concept that must be exploited in the most cynical way possible. You have told white people that they are somehow a special class that requires protection. Not just that, but you told white men that they needed to be a protected class.
That idea is not only cynical, it's juvenile.
You have to realize that protecting voter rights is something you should be doing. Why would you want to intentionally marginalize entire groups of Americans? It's because you think you will win if fewer people vote, because you know that the more people vote, the less chance you have of winning.
Think about that. It has to be the most cynical manipulation of the idea of democracy possible.
Democracy guarantees us the right to have some sort of say, but in a severe manifestation of your true Straussian ideals, you believe that one class has the ability to understand the world, and other classes don't. To that end, you want to put one class of voters in the booths, and put another class on the sidewalks.
You are even deeply cynical about your own voters. You try to tell some of them one thing, but then when they find out what you truly think, you have to figure out a way to get them to believe that it might not seem in their best interest, but just trust us...
Take the idea of advertising and marketing.
For you guys, it's not about figuring out the best way to convey a message. Instead, it's about figuring out the best way to convince your voters that something is good for them, even as it appears to not be good for them, and even if you know it's not good for them.
You think that all of the amazing things that we have learned about the human mind and its reaction to the world is just some sort of tool that you can use to manipulate your voting base into agreeing with you.
You're cynical when it comes to religion.
You know that you have to keep some issues from being resolved, because of the bargain you have made with the religious people in your party. If you don't have their wedge issues to run on, you will lose them.
So you cynically manipulate their most deeply held commitments to their most deeply felt beliefs. You tell them that the God that they believe in is also interested in getting you elected.
We are truly committed to the ideas of fairness and freedom.
We aren't simply in it for the bucks. We want to uphold the ideals that got us here, and we want to do it in a way that works. The thing is, some of your voters are also truly of the belief that they what they are doing will lead to freedom and fairness. It's a shame they are so messed up on that issue.
Let's understand what I don't mean. I don't mean to say that you are pessimistic. Pessimism comes and goes.
It's the cynicism.
You need to stop all this smarmy manipulation of positive moral thoughts and actions.
A good example of this is marriage.
I am not interested in getting anything personal out of my support for gay marriage. Instead, I believe that it's fair for two adults to be treated in the same way in which two others are being treated. Why should one class of people be denied the ability to enter into a contract that gets the same protection of the law as any other contract, while another class of people is denied that right? Especially when we consider that the specific quality that is being protected is something that the person is born with.
I just see that as fundamentally wrong. I suppose when I was just a kid I may have held things against people that were out of their control. I'm not a kid. So I just can't see how treating people that way can be right.
I just don't think you guys are going to be able to get out of this problem until you realize that liberals are not cynically manipulating ideas to serve their selfish interests. Instead, we are honestly working to better the condition for everyone, including protected classes of people. Everyone benefits in a way that you seem to not be able to grasp.
You try your best to use liberal ideas as a tow truck for your broken down heap of a moral carcass. You say, "Look, we have women! Look, Michael Steele!..."
That has to be one of the best examples of your cynicism put into practice. It's about the content of the person. We want to be sure that everyone is able to be judged on their character, and not on their skin tone. You guys want to believe that we are cynically employing divisive racial politics to benefit our movement.
You'll just have to get over that.
5:44 PM PT: Thanks!