Individuals vs. The Masses

Most Democrats seem to believe that Republicans want to see children go to bed hungry. They believe that we are racist and intolerant. That we regard women as inferior, are greedy and mean spirited, and prefer war to peace.

Republicans, they believe, are “brain-dead” and “have never made an honest living” (Howard Dean). They are religious fanatics who revel in their own superiority and hate everyone who isn’t like them.

The reason that Democrats can believe this is because they see people as large groups. They can’t possibly believe that the actual individual Republicans they know and speak to every day believe these things, but somehow they believe that Republicans, as a large group, believe these things.

Isn’t that the definition of stereotyping?

Can they really believe that their Republican acquaintances and family members (there have to be some) don’t care if children go to bed hungry?

Do they really believe that the individual Republicans they know are racist? They may mistake disgust at a large portion of a certain group’s behavior as “hatred”, but that has more to do with the “content of their character” than the “color of their skin”. White people who act the same way disgust me, too.

Are the Republicans that they know really intolerant? I daresay that we tolerate more from them and their ideals being shoved down our throats than they ever do from us. We can no longer even speak our minds without fear of losing our jobs for something innocent that may be deemed “politically incorrect”.

Do the Republicans that they know treat women as inferior? I highly doubt it. They confuse the fact that we believe men and women are different with the belief that women are inferior. Republicans don’t create special programs for women because we believe that they are just as capable as men. Two of the most admired people in the Republican party are Condi Rice and Ann Coulter (Libs, fork the “evil eye” here).

Do they look at their Republican friends, family member and neighbors and see greed? They probably do when we speak of opposing taxes, but who is more greedy: those who want to keep their money to help their families, or those who want to forcibly take more money from you, thereby lessening your ability to take care of your family?

Mean-spirited? I can easily say that a far larger majority of the Republicans that I know are much nicer than the Democrats I know. Most of the Democrats I know are dour, cynical people with a very negative view of the world (see below). And I have yet to see the Republican equivalent of Dick Durbin, Al Gore MorOn.org or hundreds of other when it comes to meanness.

Is it possible that they think that we really prefer war to peace? I suppose that for someone who wouldn’t go to war for any reason, including their own survival, it would be possible to believe that. But when they speak to “Joe six-pack” Republican, do they believe that he actually revels in war? No, he just knows, as a mature adult, that sometimes violence is the only way to solve a problem.

Do they really see Republicans at work (assuming that they don’t work in academia, the public school system or a news outlet where there really are no Republicans), and think that they’re brain-dead and not making an honest living? My experience has been the opposite: most of the people I’ve seen who aren’t very good at thinking and who really don’t want to work have been farther to the Left.

Do they speak to religious people and think, “Man, what a fanatic!”? I, personally, know and work with some very religious people. They’re some of the nicest, most considerate people I know. They are not howling evangelists and not one has ever told me that I’m going to hell for anything. Quite frankly, they rarely share their religious views with me. The only reason that I know that they are religious is that I occasionally see one reading a Bible or some other religious book. That and we actually have (gasp!) a voluntary religious group before work-hours at my job.

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I don’t believe that all Democrats are the same. That’s because I look at the ones that I know personally and they don’t all act like left-wing extremists. A large portion do, but many of them live and act more like Republicans than the Democrats for whom they vote. And of those, I believe that most would become Republicans if they could be persuaded to pay just a little more attention to what’s going on.

Instead of judging Democrats as a large group, I judge them, and all people, on an individual basis. When I do seem to make blanket assumptions about Democrats, I’m usually speaking of the ones in Washington (although not always. See below).

Democrats like Howard Dean may say the same, but when he speaks of “religious fanatics”, I highly doubt that he’s speaking of only the Washington crowd.

The one thing that the vast majority of Democrats that I know do have in common is an inferiority complex and a certain “entitlement” attitude. They all see themselves as the “little guy”. I know people whose families earn well over $100,000 a year that still see themselves as the “little guy” who are being taken advantage of by “these big Corporations”. Therefore they are entitled to whatever they can get from the government which, oddly enough isn’t a “big Corporation”, but is made up of us. The “little guy”. That’s like getting mad at Peter, so you hit Paul. But they never make that connection.

They believe that the government is being completely run by these Corporations and that they have absolutely no input in the process. They don’t seem to understand that individuals in Congress will usually listen if enough people get together on an issue to threaten their seat in Washington.

And what’s really odd is that they seem to enjoy thinking like this. Part of it is the whole “victimhood” thing whereby they blame someone else for their shortcomings, and another part of it is that they think that it makes them sound worldly and cool. It’s like a little kid swearing.

I have a sign in my department at work that says, “I Hate People”, and it’s mostly true. Just when I start to think that maybe people in general aren’t so bad, all I have to do is get on any road or go grocery shopping to reaffirm my disgust with a huge portion of the populace. Most of them are non-thinking idiots. I know that I probably shouldn’t say that because some Lefty will take that statement and generalize it, applying it to all Republicans, but it’s the truth.

And there is the difference between Democrats and Republicans (at least in my opinion).

I have very little faith in the general populace, but there are many individuals whom I care about, respect and love.

Democrats have very little faith in the individual, but see large groups as this huge, omnipotent barely tapped resource for good. “Good”, in this case, being tax money, with which their Church of Governmentalism can fund their own “faith-based initiatives” like welfare, etc. (Why did you really think that they hated Bush’s proposal so much? Christian faith-based initiatives are, once again, stepping on their turf).

Or maybe it’s just me.