My skin isn’t thick enough to endure criticism trailblazers like Harris, Pelosi, Gandhi, Meir, and Thatcher have had to suffer; but I have been inspired to follow in their footsteps, in my own ways. As Harris told Marie Claire magazine, “I want [young] women to know, you are powerful and your voice matters." Amen, Sisters. Amen.
Hatred Is NOT a Moderate Value
Big-Town Hatred
Last year’s mass shooting of Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue by an avowed anti-Semite was another egregious example of rampant hatred in America today. Before that, pipe bombs mailed by a right-wing extremist were intercepted before delivery to prominent Democrats.
In Senate hearings for Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court appointment, Kavanaugh could barely conceal his contempt for Democrats. Both Kavanaugh and his sexual-assault accuser reported death threats, further evidence of hatred.
Democrats justified efforts to block Kavanaugh, partly because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, from a hearing, much less a vote – for a full year, until President Trump took office. McConnell and Trump were outraged that Democrats delayed Kavanaugh’s confirmation for a few days.
Small-Town Hatred
Meanwhile, in a small Colorado town before 2018’s midterm elections, a volunteer canvasser (and Moderate Democrat) was providing information about candidates and voting. He was confronted by an elderly man, sputtering “I hate f***ing Hillary, and I hate all you f***ing Democrats; she should be in jail, and you should, too.” The man then tried to spit on the canvasser.
Colorado Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jared Polis said on 9/11 that Americans should try to unite again: “We must hold close our shared goals and hopes, and acknowledge that despite our differences, we are all Americans”. Who could argue with that? A local conservative columnist did, bitterly denouncing Polis and his policies on abortion (“protecting the right of women to kill their unborn children”) and the environment (“in Polisworld, people might be impoverished, but they would breathe pristine air”).
Colorado voters elected Polis Governor, apparently choosing unity over hatred.
Common Thread
These stories demonstrate rampant political hatred in America. Some trace it back to the 2016 Presidential campaign, when candidate Trump threatened hecklers: “I’d like to punch him in the face”. He led cheers to “lock her up” (his opponent) – although she had never been prosecuted, much less convicted, for any crimes.
In a torchlight march in Charlottesville, VA, in 2017, neo-Nazis chanted “Jews will not replace us”. Clashes between them and counter-protestors left many injured, including police officers. A white nationalist drove into a crowd of counter-demonstrators, killing one. President Trump’s reaction: “there were very good people on both sides”.
Many blame Trump’s heated rhetoric and refusal to unify ALL Americans (ratcheting up his supporters’ anger instead), with creating a climate where hatred and its progeny, violence, are tolerated or even encouraged.
Both sides blame the other for their hatred, but where does that lead? Endless retaliation, where neither side seeks respectful compromise with the other, so our challenges intensify and threaten to overwhelm us.
Hating others because they have different beliefs, or look different, is an EXTREME attitude, not a Moderate one – and decidedly un-American.
Related Posts
Community Guidelines
The Modern Moderate welcomes readers’ ideas and discussions of issues. We do insist, in Moderate fashion, that comments should be as respectful and informed as possible, to keep our site constructive for our readers. Therefore, posts deemed hostile, obscene, untrue, or misleading will be deleted, and authors of those comments may be blocked from posting comments in the future. Thank you for your cooperation.
Share Your Thoughts
test
Greetings! Very useful advice in this particular post!
It’s the little changes that produce the biggest changes.
Many thanks for sharing!
I’ve been browsing online more than three hours today, yet I never discovered any other articles as interesting as yours.
It is valuable for me. In my opinion, if all bloggers made content as you did, the internet would
likely be a lot more helpful.
Hi there superb blog! Does running a blog such
as this require a large amount of work?
I understand this is off subject but I simply wanted to
ask. Thanks a lot!
Hi, Jeramy. THANKS for the compliment. It does require a lot of work; but if you enjoy it and believe in it, doesn’t seem like work.
Your style is really unique compared to other people I’ve read stuff from.
I appreciate you for posting when you have the opportunity, Guess
I will just book mark this web site.
Hello, Neat post.
Superb, what a website it is! This blog provides helpful facts to us, keep it up.
I have been surfing online more than 4 hours today, yet never found any other interesting articles like yours.
It is pretty worthwhile for me. Personally, if all site owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the net will be a
lot more useful than ever before. Thank you for the auspicious write-up.
With having so much written content do you ever run into any issues of plagorism or copyright infringement?
My site has a lot of unique content I’ve either written myself or outsourced but it seems a lot of it is popping it up all over the internet
without my permission. Do you know any ways to help prevent content from being stolen? I’d certainly appreciate it.
We don’t know any way to prevent that. If you find any, please let us know. Thanks
Have you ever considered publishing an e-book or guest authoring on other sites?
I have a blog centered on the same topics you discuss and
would really like to have you share some stories/information.
I know my subscribers would appreciate your work.
If you’re even remotely interested, feel free to send me
an e-mail.
I also am a blogger, and I was curious about your site; nice.
After exploring a few of the articles on your website, I truly like your technique of blogging.
I bookmarked it to my bookmark website list and will be checking back in the near future.