When my daughter was a teenager I figured that if there were a career called "contrarian," she would become a millionaire. I had visions of a lovely mothers suite in the back of her mansion all to myself and a pool with a handsome pool boy, who I named Simon. It was a lovely vision, if not slightly unrealistic. The truth is, though, because she knew she was incredibly smart, she spent a lot of her time trying to convince everyone of it. As she grew up, fortunately, she had enough opportunities to figure out that she had a lot to learn and has tempered her know-it-all attitude a bit. Thank goodness.
I run into a lot of contrarians on Twitter and in most facets of social media. The ignorant are the hardest to deal with, I think. At least when you are dealing with someone who is intelligent you can have a thought provoking debate. With Tea Party fanatics, however, they have no facts. And they have no need for them, honestly. They only need to be right. And by virtue of their complicit ignorance, they can always be right. Always.
The problem I am having on this site, specifically, are the contrarians who are intelligent and want to debate, as my daughter did, for sport. The reason the Tea Party are so successful is because they all unite under one very narrow theory. That theory being, of course, that they are right and don't need to know anything other than what they are told. It is ugly, but it is successful. We are the enlightened side. We know the many facets of history that come to any debate and can draw opinions either based on emotion or intuition and that depth is one of the reasons I am most proud to be a liberal. It is also the thing that tears our side apart.
It would be much easier if we all had one united answer for every talking point to offer to any audience we come across. So many people these days seem quite content to hear whatever they are used to hearing rather than waste the energy to think for themselves. What they hear from the left are, usually, varied depictions of the same conclusion (sometimes, not always, again because we are lucky to think for ourselves) which ends up turning people away who don't want to have to think too hard about anything that doesn't concern them directly.
I am now just speaking of the people in the middle. The tragedy of our present political circumstance is that so many people gladly park themselves nowhere on most issues and ignore what is going on in the world around them, being only concerned with whichever issues enter their lives directly. I know these people. I am related to these people. I am frustrated daily by these people and realize if they could be compelled to give half a shit about what was going on, the left wouldn't have to work so hard to get people elected. But because we are often speaking over them, they don't hear us. They simply tune us out.
I certainly do not think that we should all come up with a set of talking points. But I do propose we come up with a more thoughtful way of relaying what we are saying. There are people who are 100% Secretary Clinton supporters and those who are 100% Senator Warren supporters. When people in the middle hear discourse it turns them away. We are getting ready to watch the right eat one another alive, I think, because they have so many narrow minded Tea Partiers running that they are going to confuse themselves and implode. And this could be our opportunity to be the unified team.
I do not insist that anyone change their heartfelt belief in who they support. I, personally, believe that if Senator Warren ran we would have it in a lock. I know that a lot of Republicans are about to wake up to what their party has become and start becoming terrified by it. And these same people have been conditioned for 25 years now to hear and accept negativity about Secretary Clinton. I also feel like I have never heard a more sincere politician in my life as Senator Warren. I know the fact that she is a relatively unknown presence in politics and speaks in a way that all people can relate to would pull those in the middle and even to the right into voting for her. She has promised not to run, however. I would rather she did, but I often don't get my way in this world, certainly in politics. Nevertheless, I am a Progressive. And I will work to support Secretary Clinton because she is a leader in my party. And I will do whatever I can to get the Progressive message out and attach her to it for the next year and a half as if my life depends on it. I am often prone to exaggeration, but in this instance I do feel like it is that dire.
Again, I don't think we should try to dictate a unified message. But I hope we can all be more thoughtful about our delivery. I tend to talk over peoples heads about history and I know I am boring them. Because it is interesting to me doesn't mean it is to them. I want to be more aware of their needs in a conversation. I also tend to put people off with my passion. I don't think I am crazy like a teabagger, but I am very upset about our present political climate and I think their disinterest even gets me riled up more. So I know that I need to work on that. I just hope that we can all be more thoughtful about what we put out there so that we can become more appealing to those who are diverted by a conversation that is too heavy.
I'm not even convinced that this early morning rant is making any sense. But after reading some messages this morning I felt like it needed to be said. We have contrarians on this site who seem to be doing it more as trolls than anything else. I think we are smart enough to weed them out and dim their voices. But those who are looking to have a healthy debate, I implore you to find the grace to work toward a more positive and supportive message at this time. I realize that every generation has an election that feels like it will be the end of the world if things don't go the way they envision. But with the rise of the Tea Party and their capacity to create a party based on ignorance and hate, I don't know that our country could handle (financially, socially or otherwise) their winning any more seats in Congress or, God forbid, the White House. Can you imagine what the world would think of us if just one of those teabaggers was our diplomatic representative in the world? I physically shudder at the thought.