Liberals, It's Time to Look in the Mirror

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.