Let me be clear: I consider myself a liberal. This is not an
attack from the other side of the aisle; this is a plea from someone who cares
about you. About this country. And who desperately wants to affect change.
Last week, I snuggled in to watch Bill Maher as I often do
on Friday night. I like hearing from different people on a single topic, and
admit it’s comforting to know people think like me. (I find it easy to feel isolated
in Trump’s America.) When the show was over, I realized we on the Left are
doing exactly what we are critical of the Right for doing. Not listening to
facts. Ignoring rational arguments. What I saw horrified me, to be honest. Bill
and his other guests ganged up on Piers Morgan who was trying to cite facts.
Facts that the other panelists didn’t want to hear, so they talked loud and
angry and told him to look at the chart. Which is exactly what he was doing.
Here was the argument (summarized). Bill and his other
panelists began talking about the president’s tendency to lie, and cited his
ongoing claim
that crime is the highest it’s been in 45-47 years. Anyone who is reading this
already knows that that is irrefutably and blatantly false. We have data --
collected the same as it has been for decades -- that show crime is, in fact,
way down. But Donald Trump keeps beating that same drum, so there are probably
a lot of people (I can’t bring myself to write millions…it just is so hard to
believe) who do, in fact, believe crime is way up. Piers Morgan kept trying to
insert the statistics about crime having risen sharply between 2014 and 2015,
and that it was likely to do the same from 2015 to 2016 (data is not
in yet for that time period).
Bill and his guests just kept yelling and telling him to
look at the chart. Crime is down. It was a verbal attack similar to someone
plugging their ears and saying “La La La” to drown out what the other person is
saying. It was disgusting on so many levels.
First, it shows that we can be major assholes. The side that
is fighting for the equal rights of women, immigrants, refugees, race,
religion, sexuality. The side that aligns itself with education, knowledge and
the ability to think critically.
Second, it plays right into what I am pretty confident Kellyanne
Conway meant by her ridiculous claim
of “alternative facts.” (To be clear, the term is absurd, as is the idea that
we can make up facts that fit the narrative we want to tell.) If I had to bet,
she was trying to point out that there are a lot of facts out there, and not
all get equal stage time. Case in point. Yes, crime is down. Way down. But it
also spiked. Recently. The latter is just as verifiable as the former, but is
not something we’re talking about nearly as much (very likely because the president continues to harp on and repeat falsehoods).
Third, and what’s worst in my mind, it shows that we can’t
go off script. We can’t take a legitimate argument from the other side (and
Piers wasn’t even claiming to be on Trump’s side) and have a discussion about
it. We can’t -- and won’t -- process it.
While conservatives might look at the world differently than
us, it does not make them stupid. It does not make them unworthy of opinions.
In fact, our country is as great as it is because
we have people of different beliefs and points of view -- making decisions,
driving change, helping us see alternate perspectives. When people with
opposing ideas come together, many times a better
idea is born as a result. But that does not -- and cannot -- happen if we all
just scream at each other while plugging our ears. We must recognize that people
who checked a box for someone different than you did has ideas, too. And,
likely, many of them good.
What is at risk here is huge. Most Liberals (including
myself) feel like they are suffering through a president they didn’t choose.
That makes us feel unsafe. And like our way of life is being threatened. Our very freedom. If we want to save ourselves -- and the country -- from
another four years of this, we need to be smart. We need to open our minds and
ears. We need to stop name calling and start listening. Reading. Thinking. We
need to stop opposing everything because it’s not progressive enough, and fight
for what really needs fighting for -- our democracy. The more we shut down real
facts for our real facts, the more we
push those who believe his falsehoods away. The more we give them cause to get
their news only from his Twitter handle.
The onus on us is tremendous. Almost too much so. We need to
be calm, on point, knowledgeable, open, welcoming, strategic and smart. For
four years. Slip ups -- no matter how small -- will give them more ammunition
to show up at the polls in 2018 and 2020. One thing I think we all could do
better: think critically. Look at situations before over-reacting. Ask
yourself and those around you what you might be missing. Chances are, there are
things you will miss because there is only so much one news story can give us.
The signs that we stand to lose our freedom are right in
front of us. We need to care as much about our approach to saving that freedom
as we do about saving it. What we stand to win is immense. But what we stand to
lose is even bigger.
