I think there are many more people out there like me. I am a life-long liberal/leftist who began to re-evaluate my political thought after 9/11. I don’t personally know anyone who would have even considered voting for George Bush. Well, one guy, one Friend who lives far away. Otherwise no. This presents a real dilemma. I don’t wish to lose friends over politics. It doesn’t bother me if somebody wants to vote for John Kerry. But the reverse is not true. You don’t have to be provocative or pugnacious. You don’t have to be David Horowitz or Ann Coulter and get in everybody’s face. Horowitz eventually made the decision to lose all of his friends. Ann Coulter, presumably, had no liberal friends to lose. But really, all you have to do to be excommunicated is to say something like:
Very meekly and mildly suggest that just perhaps overthrowing Saddam Hussein or the Taliban might just possibly, who knows, be a good thing.
Or that maybe getting rid of Roe V. Wade and turning it back over to the states might improve the political discourse in this country.
Or that America might in some ways be a force for good in the world.
Or that the President of the United States, might be, in some respects, a decent human being.
Or that perhaps there might be unintended, not wholly positive consequences from redefining the definition of marriage.
Or that just maybe there really isn’t a complete moral equivalence between suicide bombers killing innocent people, and Jews building a wall to keep them out.
That’s all it takes, and whamo, you have crossed the line into persona non grata land. There is no longer free political speech in liberal social circles, neither square nor hip. At least that has been my predominant experience.
And so, one is faced with a choice. Whether to keep one’s mouth shut and preserve social relationships, which may also be business relationships to some extent, or to say what you think and burn all your bridges.
Why is it like this? I can’t imagine writing off some old friend of mine because they believe that George Bush is Hitler or America is the greatest source of evil in the world. I am surrounded by such opinions. I hope to God they are kept out of power, but I have no problem with having a lively, no hard feelings, discussion about any of it. We can agree to disagree and go back to enjoying the things we enjoy about each other. I have not seen the same tolerance emanating from the other side. I can’t name names or specific incidents for that very reason. I don’t tell anyone about my blog. I don’t foresee a career as a political activist, writer, pundit. And so I, diplomatically, remain politically silent in social situations.
This is not healthy, in a democracy. And it is not healthy for liberals who wish to regain political power, in a democracy. It is, in a hyphenated word, anti-democratic.