The Right is Dumb

Over the last few months I’ve come to believe something – the right is dumb.
Now before you start sending me hate mail, let me explain.
This isn’t a personal belief of mine; I believe it’s a belief of the misguided, far-left.
One of my favorite lines from the movie Spaceballs, and I think is rather fitting here is, “So, Lone Star, now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb.”
Maybe it’s because they don’t have any real comebacks, or maybe it’s a genuine belief that if you’re part of the right wing conspiracy, you’re just a dumb, ignorant American.
You haven’t experienced the world like they have.
Since I began writing my column last year, I’ve received several letters accusing me of being completely wrong in my religious and political beliefs.
Now while I don’t mind you disagreeing with me, I have to laugh and completely ignore any point you might be making when you resort to saying I’m just a poor uneducated soul.
Am I uneducated just because I have a belief system different than yours?
Am I uneducated because I grew up in the church, or because I grew up in public schools, or because I attended a Baptist university?
What is it that makes me uneducated?
When I was a kid, there were a few comebacks that were the end-all-to-end-all.
When the argument got to these points, you knew it was about time to throw down -- mainly because both sides had run out of any logical arguments.
“Well you fight like a girl.”
“Yeah, well you’re stupid.”
Those are fighting words when you’re a kid.
Now I just laugh.
Texas Monthly’s headline article this month is entitled, “Texas vs. the world! Yes, they hate us. Should we care?”
If you haven’t seen it – go pick up a copy or visit texasmonthly.com.
In the article, author Mimi Swartz points out that the same conservative, qualities that the world loved in J.R. Ewing (and still do) are the same qualities they loath in the leader of the today’s conservative right, President George W. Bush.
This past spring a television series entitled “The Texas Season” was broadcast in Great Britain on BBC Competitor, Channel 4.
While the show largely made fun of Texans, it also made fun of the values many Texans hold true to their heart.
An episode entitled, “Texas Teenage Virgins” mocked a group of Lubbock teens trying to adhere to Bush’s faith-based abstinence program.
“Having demonstrated that Texans were ugly, sexually repressed and bigoted, all that remained for the producers was violent. ‘The Texas Solution’ explored crime and punishment during Bush’s gubernatorial years,” wrote Swartz.
The narrator said Texans were big on forgiveness but low on mercy as they examined the death penalty and punishment in Texas.
Now as I read this article and thought about how Texas and many members of the political-right are looked upon as uneducated or too conservative -- it hit me -- I’ve done the same thing.
When my viewpoint on an issues tends to agree with the left (yes – it does happen sometimes) I’m quick to accuse those disagreeing with my viewpoint as being uneducated or living in a bubble their entire life.
“They don’t know what the real world is like,” I say. “They’ll wake up one day and realize that the world isn’t as perfect or as easy as they think it is.”
It’s easy to call someone names or make fun of their upbringing or belief system.
It’s easy to say someone is ignorant without offering a better suggestion of your own. The hard part is to sit down and discuss the issues face to face.
Someone once said, “Democracy is simply keeping the conversation going.”
But I guess we all stoop to the lowest common denominator when we run out of arguments.