Boxing us in

Who the fuck are these people and do they even know any liberals or progressives? Jesus Christ, if I hear one more Republican try to put me in some cramped little "liberal" box, I'm going to puke. Yeah, I hate America. Yeah, I want my peanut to be a drug-addicted, amoral, sexually-deviant, playwright. Yeah, I love islamic radicals. Yeah, I love tiny little insects more than other people. The list goes on and fucking on and I do not understand where these people are coming from.

I insult Republicans. A lot. I call them douchebags. I suggest they have theocratic tendencies. I say that they would willingly shit on my head. I say a lot of nasty things. But I don't ever recall writing a "You must do X becuase you're a Y" sort of post about them. Fact is, I've known waaaaay too many conservatives to think that they're easily pigeonholed. Moreover, I know many, many liberals and I know that it's just as difficult.

Seamus Mitwurst is a gun-totin', beer-guzzlin', smack-talkin' paranoiac fruitcake. He's a progressive. Doc Shlomo is a pacifist, Christian, bookwormish, bicycling activist fruitcake. He's a progressive. I'm a potty-mouthed, bicycling, beer-brewing environmentalist fruitcake. I consider myself a progressive. Do any of us want our potential future progeny to grow up to be X? I don't know. Do any of us hate America? Hell fucking no. Do we love humanity? Without a doubt. Well, sort of. Do any of us fit some neat definition of "liberal" or "progressive"? I don't think so.

So why the fucking hell do Republicans insist on trying to do that? One answer: If they can convince voters that liberals are limp-wristed aesthetes, they can win their votes. I don't buy everything George Lakoff says, but it sure seems like Republicans making these sorts of statements are striving for a sort of cultural or sociological framing. So far, I think, they've been pretty successful.