It is ironic that the progressives in the nation who are so focused
on “multiculturalism”, on being sensitive to and inclusive of and understanding
and accommodating to the cultural differences of African-American communities,
of Hispanic communities, of LGTBQ communities, and of Muslim communities, seem
to be incapable of doing the same for their own blue-collar working class fellow
Americans in the Industrial Midwest and South. Derision and stereotyping and
labeling that would be anathema – completely politically incorrect, and in bad
taste as well– if applied to, say Muslims, is apparently perfectly acceptable
to progressives if applied to religious working class people in Cleveland Ohio
or South Bend Indiana or Montgomery Alabama.
President Obama displayed this double standard with his famous
2008 snide “clinging to guns and religion” comment . Hillary did it more recently
with her bitter “basket of deplorables” comment. Some of the more clueless liberal journalists
are still doing it today in their condescending analysis of the election
results.
Yes, they drink Pabst Blue Ribbon beer instead of Single
Malt Scotch. Yes, they drive Ford F-150 trucks instead of BMWs or Toyota Prius’.
Yes, they go to church on Sunday instead of the golf course. Yes, they like to
hunt rather than ski at Vail. Yes, they work with their hands, often at hard,
dirty jobs rather than sit in an air conditioned office and push paper. Yes,
they are different. They are a different
culture, and their culture deserves exactly the same respect as all the other cultures
that the progressive multiculturalists are so proud of accepting and learning
to understand.
Yes, they have prejudices.
Do you think Muslims don’t have prejudices (ever hear of the Sunni-Shia
divide)? Do you think African-Americans
don’t have prejudices? Do you think
Hispanics don’t have prejudices? More to
the point, if you are a progressive: are you really so arrogant as to think you
yourself don’t have prejudices? In fact, your disdain for all the Trump voters
is the most blatant kind of prejudice.
If you are a well-off, well-educated progressive with a
nice, safe white collar job, just remember that your expensive car runs off of
ethanol and gasoline produced by these people you despise. Your upscale supermarket shelves are stocked,
late at night, by people like this. Your fresh arugula is delivered by hard
working truckers like this. Your fancy office was constructed by these very
people you are disparaging. In the back rooms of your favorite trendy
restaurant these sort of people are working 12 hours a day or more washing your
dirty dishes and cutting up the vegetables for your dinner. That nice highway
you travel on your vacation was built and is maintained by these sort of
people. If people like you stopped doing your daily job the world might be inconvenienced
a bit. It these “deplorables” stopped
doing their jobs we would all starve to death in a couple of weeks, if we didn’t
die of thirst first.
Progressive journalist are lamenting the fact that this
election surfaced so much hate and prejudice, and it is indeed lamentable. But they seem to be ignorant of the fact that
they themselves are displaying exactly the same sort of lamentable hate and prejudice
against fellow Americans who happen, for perfectly understandable reasons, to
see the world differently than they do.
At the risk of offending secular progressives, let me recommend an apt Bible quotation: Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye (Matthew 7:5)
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