He Called Her a Republican and Then She Insulted Him: Part 1 of 5

1. Introduction

After writing this post I think it's long enough that it needs to be broken into a series. 

One of the sentences that illustrates the way English uses "tone" to convey emotions is:

"He called her a Republican, and then she insulted him."

If the emphasis is on "insulted him" the person speaking thinks there's nothing wrong with being a Republican. If the emphasis is on "insulted him" the person speaking has just insulted anyone present who might happen to be a Republican.

I recently read, and it's stuck in my mind, an old blog post in which a writer I follow expressed indignation because someone else used the phrase "Loony Left." The writer identifies herself as a fiscal conservative who votes for Democrats because of her socially liberal positions; she thinks abortion might ever be a right rather than a wrong, and so on. 

I am a fiscal conservative who has, these days, found myself voting for Republicans because of my socially liberal positions. I keep noticing how many human rights the D party leaders seem willing to trample on as long as they can get away with screaming about abortion as a sop to women, screaming about racism as a sop to Black Americans, and saying "people of color" as a sort of cover-up for the fact that most D party leaders don't know one "color" ethnic group from another. 

There were times, in the past, when some Ds had something worthwhile to say about homeless people, and the unpalatable truth that in Washington the majority of them, in the 1980s, were working and/or retired people who were forced out of their homes by government bloat, sprawl, and consequent rent inflation. There were times when Ds recognized women as having some interest in removing barriers to productive self-employment, homeschooling, and getting some sort of financial compensation that would allow them to pay the bills while caring for disabled relatives. There were times when Ds did not display active hate for poor people who wanted to work rather than go on welfare. Those times were in the twentieth century. 

There are older D voters who still think about things like farmers' right to choose more sustainable forms of agriculture, teachers' right to say what they believe, women's right to keep their babies and stay home with them too, police officers' right to hold their organizations to standards of decency like not stealing valuables from suspects, parents' right to make real improvements in schools instead of merely throwing money at them, and anyone's right to express good will in the traditional ways of whatever tradition they choose to identify with and not be censored or censured for doing so. They still think about those things but they're not getting support from their party if they say them.

My mother voted and urged others to vote for Rs. Her sister, my beloved "Aunt Dotty," voted and urged others to vote for Ds. Dad had a second cousin once removed who was a R party organizer, and a third cousin who was a D party boss. I used to gravitate toward the Ds because that was what my generation did, but that was a long time ago. I was happily married to a D, but he's been dead eighteen years, for seventeen of which my Significant Other was an active R.

I don't think it's insulting to be called a right-winger when I post that socialism is a very bad idea, but I do find it strange. Ds didn't use to be socialists. Ds used to be cool, liberal, interesting people instead of screeching half-baked haters whose mental age is so low they may seriously believe that Bernie Sanders would give them free money, if he were President. 

Still, when I read that other writer's post, I felt bad. Why had she assumed that the term "Loony Left," at any web site--this site has been known to use it too--would have anything to do with her? I think of "Loony Left" as rather specifically excluding moderate Ds like her. 

Maybe she secretly holds opinions that are more extreme than the ones she talks or writes about.

Maybe she believes the partisan hype about Rs, or more conservative Independents, all being bigots.

Maybe she doesn't realize that when I classify ideas, writings, or writings as "Right" or "Left" I am generalizing, and I may or may not be disagreeing or dissociating, but I'm not blaming people or confusing them with the extreme Right or Left. I see myself as better balanced, closer to the head of the political bird, than people out on its "wings," but that doesn't make those people wingnuts; mostly it means that they are, or their teachers were, older than I am. In the rest of this series, as a public service, are some specific guidelines for interpreting this web site's use of terms like "partisan extremes" or "Rabid Right" and "Loony Left." Blogspot will automatically supply links to each post in the series, organized by date, on the right side of the page.