I wrote an article and shared it with some friends, after which I received a message from one and responded. We went back and forth for a bit. I thought readers would find it interesting, and include it here with his name redacted simply to show how a lot of Liberals, Democrats, and RINOs (LDRs) think. And I don’t mean radical ones, either. Just plain old, everyday, man-in-the-street types of these.
A little bit about this young man: I’ve known him since he was seventeen when he joined a writers critique group I’ve been in for years. I remember the night he came in with a grin that said “I’m in the club now”. One of the men in the group noticed it, too, and he said, “Oh, our little boy is now a man.” I whipped my head around to him and said in my meantest Mama-voice ever, “You better’ve worn a condom!”
He blushed. And yes, he wore a condom. A great contributor to the group, he is very smart, willing to work on the craft of writing, and is putting together modern-day spy novels. All of his in-depth research into the subjects of history, politics, and spying has made him an expert…
OR SO HE THINKS
What he has not yet learned is human nature and how that impacts everything. He’s young. Emotion leads him by the nose…a common trait among LDRs. He’ll settle down and get a clue…at least, I certainly hope so. In any case, this is how the boy must learn. I’ve included links where I thought it appropriate and have a few footnotes to see at the end that will shed light on a point, and have cut out anything not related to the topic at hand. I leave it here for you to parse as you will.
BEGIN EXCHANGE
Hi Angela,
I understand that you and many others feel upset, disappointed, and distressed about the 2020 election. Many people on the other side of the political spectrum, myself included, felt very similar four years ago. In the end, all we could do was wait out the presidency of someone we profoundly disliked until the next election and try again.
The pendulum swings back and forth in every representative democracy [1]. Someday, possibly within the next four years, a Republican will be back in the White House. That’s how the Founding Fathers designed our government…
…And consider this: If someone who had the blessing of no baggage from a previous political career still just barely managed to scrounge enough votes to win the first time, in 2016, how well can that person be expected to perform after they’ve been in office for four years? How well can that candidate be expected to perform when they’re no longer new and people know what to expect from them? Especially after a term as controversial, divisive, haphazard, and overall unproductive as the outgoing administration?
I understand you care about America and you’re scared for our country’s future but it is abundantly clear that Donald Trump lost fair and square. And believe it or not, some of Biden’s supporters can understand how you feel right now. We felt the same in late 2016-early 2017.
When we voiced our objections and terror, y’all said we had “Trump Derangement Syndrome”. Maybe it’s not unique to Trump and the Democrats? Maybe Biden has a similar effect on Republicans? Maybe our ideological groups have more in common than one would assume?
I wrote and deleted a previous draft of this email because I decided to extend an olive branch rather than start a feud. Both sides of American politics are losing their minds and this is pulling us closer and closer to an American “Years of Lead”. The mindset that one party is inherently good and the other is irredeemably evil is how democracies become dictatorships. People from both parties are fueling a toxic feedback loop that will do more damage to the US in the long run than anything Trump or Biden could initiate.
This might shock you, but Democrats love America just as much as Republicans. The baseless claims of Trump being cheated out of a second term are shown to have dangerous real-world consequences, as shown by the Capitol Hill Insurrection. I would’ve ignored this email from you were it not for what happened last week in Washington D.C.
I don’t think right-wing Americans realize how often left-wingers and centrists hold their tongues and restrain themselves when right-wingers go on angry screeds claiming to be “the real Americans”. Yeah, y’all are Americans, but not the only Americans. I’m an American, too. People who voted for Joe Biden are Americans, too. Right-wing Americans have the same rights as everyone else but our country and its government do not exclusively belong to y’all.
Neither your side nor mine owns America. We share it. That’s how democracy works.
Our government has never been designed for one party to monopolistically hold all power and neither party has ever attempted to do that. Frankly, anyone who thinks that one party should purge the other and seize all power is insane. No matter what the motivations, that’s an insane idea. It’s just as insane as claiming that your party is the good, moral side and the other is the evil, immoral side responsible for all of America’s problems.
That mindset is demonstrably false and downright divorced from reality. Our country is an extremely dangerous position right now and is behooves us to reach out across the political spectrum to deescalate the extremism. The left needs to stop making jokes about guillotines and the right needs to stop the bluster about civil war over Donald Trump not winning a second term.
The easy-to-debunk claims that the 2020 election was somehow rigged are tearing the United States of America apart. Anyone who identifies as a patriot needs to recognize this and do what they can to deescalate tensions rather than contribute to a fever pitch that already has and will very likely continue to spark major political violence.
Enough is enough.
Politics today seems to consist of one gang looking at another gang and saying “they’re gangsters and we’re not!” That’s what I hear when either Democrats or Republicans try to paint their party as the good side.
I and others who voted for Biden are not your enemy, Angela. We don’t consider you as our enemy. For God’s sake, this has gone too far for too damn long.
Warm regards, [NAME REDACTED]
MY REPLY:
Thank you for your information.
Anyway, what you need to understand about me is that I am neither for nor against any politician per se. My viewpoints always center around freedom and justice and how those are carried out and by whom. I point out hypocrisies and I also point out Biblical tie-ins. You’ve not read everything I’ve written and so you wouldn’t know these things.
I have many friends and acquaintances on all sides of issues and they ALL believe I think just like them. They think that because I listen to them and agree where they make sense. But they also get surprised when they find out I don’t agree with them.
I am a writer. I point out absurdities. I try to explain where my brain is. Then I let the words go out and land where they may with everybody free to think whatever they want. That’s what writers should all be about….See, I don’t believe that what is happening is political. Politics is merely a tool…as are politicians. I do know this is part of fulfilment of Bible prophecy. So I’m looking at these events from an even higher level. I am not a patriot [2] per se and get uncomfortable when people call me that. I am a Christian, first, foremost, and always, loyal only to my Heavenly Father when loyalty sides must be chosen. Only God’s kingdom by His Son as king will solve all those problems. In the meantime, we suffer, we laugh, we make fun, we attempt to cope.
I’ve never had the idea that all people in a group are identical. That’s just stupid…and I don’t think I’m stupid. You may rest your mind in that area. As a historian, you should dig into history. Not just of this country, but of previous world powers. Study the ebb and flow of power. Study how they came into power. Study how these themes get repeated. It will do you good in the long run.
HIS REPLY TO THAT:
You’re saying I should “dig into history and study previous world powers.” Yeah, I have. That’s how I got my Bachelor’s.
I’ve read the Bible cover-to-cover and I’ve studied history. Those two activities are why I gave up religion. It’s also pretty arrogant to say that you know for a fact something is God’s will prophesied in an anecdote mistranslated by dozens of chroniclers over thousands of years. [3] The likelihood that either of us will see the events of the Book of Revelations [sic] play out in our lifetimes is next to zero.
I REPLY:
So, my simply telling you how I believe makes me arrogant when it doesn’t agree with your beliefs? I am dumbfounded that you would insult me like that.
I’ve studied the Bible for over 45 years. I’m not the only one who’s done so. I’ve studied various translations comparing original languages to English translations. I’ve studied how the book came down to us. I’ve studied the history of mankind and governments and I’ve made conclusions…and not based on some feel-good notion of God.
Now, true, you may have a Bachelor’s in the subject of history, but that does not mean you know all about it nor does it mean you understand it all.
You believe what you believe because of the information you received and maybe the teachers you had convinced you in that by pointing you in certain directions. I don’t know about your personal educational experience, but I’ve seen this before.
The conclusions you’ve reached on that subject of the Bible are accurate according to the body of knowledge that you have and, obviously, you feel free in letting me know that your Bachelor’s has now imbued you with certainty and clarity. After all, you paid money for the degree.
What I do know is that you don’t have all the information, or all the knowledge, and I only hope that as you mature you will be open to finding out more and will feel free to question what you know, throw away what you find to be false, fill in where you have incomplete information and, remembering me after I’m gone, will shake your head and say, “What an idiot I was.”
Because the exact same thing will happen to you one day. A young whippersnapper full of himself will laugh at you, thinking you are an old man who doesn’t have a clue. And he’ll whip out that degree that he believes trumps yours, proverbially saying na-na-na-boo-boo and he’ll say definitively that you are wrong and he is right. And when that whippersnapper is one you thought respected you after years of sharing a deep love of a something you have in common, you will be dumbfounded. May even shed a tear or two. I remain dumbfounded, sincerely so.
HE REPLIES:
Angela, I apologize for hurting your feelings. What I said was way out of line. When you said I “should dig in to History”, I felt insulted because I spent four years pulling all-nighters doing exactly that. Yes, you are more experienced and knowledgeable of many things than myself, that is true. Let’s have this be the last time we email each other about politics.
MY REPLY:
I appreciate the apology. I do. But I wonder what I can talk to you about because it was not politics that brought out the insult from you. It was my mention of God. And how am I to know how things connect in your mind?
I do not begrudge you your opinion on any subject. I don’t want to be begrudged on mine, either. [4]
Through the years I’ve had conversations about God, doctrine, creation v evolution, and more, with everyone from atheists to a nuclear physicist to preachers of and believers in just about every religion you can name, and once even a man who claimed he was right because Billy Graham was his best friend.
I’ve been threatened for my belief in God.
I’ve been cursed.
I’ve been physically threatened with bodily harm.
I’ve had a shotgun pointed at me and told to shut up about God.
I’ve been held back from job opportunities because of my moral stance based on Scripture.
And I just rolled with those. All of which is worse than being called arrogant. But it was a friend who said that. So, forgive me for letting my feelings show. Actually, my response took me by surprise. I worry that it is my ego that got hurt more than anything else. But I don’t think so, though I will be thinking on it.
But if as friends — writers! — we have to start watching what we say in case somebody gets mad and will call names, then what the hell? From this point forward, please tell me, how am I to read and be able to comment on your writing during critique sessions if I have to worry about what I say to you?
So, I’m finishing my dinner. I’m drinking my wine. In any case, I will take you off my personal blog distribution list. This is a sad day for me. Sad. Sad. Sad.
HIS REPLY TO THAT:
What specifically set me off being told to do something as though I hadn’t been doing exactly that for several years. I took my grades and studying seriously, perhaps more than I should’ve in retrospect. I put a lot of time and effort into “studying some history”, as you put it. I don’t have nearly as much life experience as you, but I’ve spent much of what little I do have doing that. You can say whatever you want to me without condescending. My words were hurtful, immature, thoughtless, and also condescending. I lost the high ground when I sent that.
MY REPLY:
I was not being condescending to you when I said to delve into history. History is very deep and four years studying it is not a lot. There are people who have done it their entire lives and still have much, much more to learn. I assumed, wrongly I now see, that you knew that.[5]
HIS REPLY:
I understand now that wasn’t your intention but it was how you came off. You’re right that I don’t have lifetime’s worth of experience and study, like a professor. That much is true.
END THE EXCHANGE. BEGIN FOOTNOTES NOTED IN THE ABOVE EXCHANGE:
[1] A representative democracy is when eligible members rule a system of government and the power is held by elected representatives in a democracy wherein elected individuals choose what is best and citizens don’t really have a say. The United States is a Constitutional Republic in which the powers of government are limited to the Law of the Constitution. These two types of government are very different. While in a Constitutional Republic individuals are elected to handle citizens’ business, actions of the elected are constrained by an agreed upon set of terms and citizens have a say in how the elected carry out their duties. It seems many in Congress have forgotten what the basis for the US governing style is.
[2] Patriot, to me, is a limiting descriptor. Other words for it are loyalist, nationalist, flag-waver, partisan, biased, one-sided, follower, enthusiast. None of those words fully express a commitment based on a higher principle that does not change.
[3] Archeology itself proves the accuracy of the Biblical text as a whole. What minor differences there are between scrolls written hundreds of years apart do not change the meaning. However, starting in the Middle Ages there have been some inferior translations and versions, but even those still mostly agree with ancient texts. Therefore, all in all, Almighty God has done an excellent job of protecting those texts through the ages.
[4] Disagreeing is not the issue. It is the begrudging of a difference of opinion.
[5] I was merely stating to him what I thought he knew as a fact. I was wrong in my assumption.
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Born and raised in Georgia, Angela K. Durden is an author, publisher, editor, songwriter, performer, and more, living in the Metro Atlanta, Georgia, area. Support your Citizen Journalist and visit her Consolidated Author Page and buy a book. See more about Angela here. Want to watch a fun video? Click here.
