Freedom for me and not for thee
This dichotomy between what conservatives believe and how they act can be a puzzle sometimes. However, consider what’s at the core of the economic and social thought behind the beliefs. I worked hard. What’s mine is mine and you can’t take what is mine. I need to have the freedom to live my life because my way of life is under assault from all of these other people that have different ways of life. They want to push their way of life onto me. They must be stopped.
This is conservatism in a nutshell. We can rail against the man and I certainly am guilty of that, but what is more bothersome are the sheer number of people willing to carry that water for him. We have Supreme Court justices openly flying stop the steal flags (plural) at their homes (also plural). We have others with spouses that were directly involved in the movement that are still ruling on cases directly involved anyway.
We have Congresspeople and senators gladly pushing wild conspiracy theories and making outlandish statements and pushing policies that would limit our freedom. The problem is that they don’t view it this way. They think they are advancing freedom because they either fundamentally don’t understand the concept or they understand all too well and want to deny that to a group of Americans.
People that are progressive, liberal, leftists, or just caught in the middle want some way to combat all of this. They are looking for a lifeline. A large part of the complaint is that there is just too much. Just imagine the number of news stories that have occurred in the last two weeks that somehow have not made the first page of the major newspapers.
Freedom is a difficult concept. It means allowing people to live lifestyles you would not approve of or want for yourself. In exchange you get to live your life the way you see fit. Harrison Butker can live his life as he sees fit. His wife is free to submit to his will if she is willing to do so. It doesn’t mean than any of us have to do the same thing.
In the same way, anyone in the LGTBQ+ community can live their truth the way they see fit. Conservatives don’t want that. They see freedom differently. Freedom for them means that their lifestyle must be protected and preferred. The others must be suppressed. You can feel free to be gay on your own time, but don’t tell me about it and certainly don’t act on it in public. They believe in freedom if it means agreeing with them. I really don’t think most of the people trumpeting Butker are racist necessarily. They trumpet him and disagreed with Kaepernick because they agree with Butker and disagreed with Kaepernick. It’s really that simple.
The GOP calls themselves the freedom party. The most extreme members of their party call themselves the Freedom Caucus. This election and all future elections rest on this single issue. How do you define freedom? If it means you get to live a conservative lifestyle but others don’t get to live theirs then feel free to vote Republican. Just keep in mind that you are okay as long as no one finds something you do as objectionable. The end game is easy to see here. They will continue to attack people on the fringes and until there is no more fringe. Then, they will attack themselves. There will be one lonely one left and no doubt that dumb son of a bitch will attack the mirror.
This seems to be a specific case for Nic’s essay:
https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/texas-voter-intimidation-19476949.php
I actually thought my brother in Denton was joking about these mailings, but they’re apparently real. So “freedom” means being “reported to President Trump” if you fail to vote in the Republican primary. I suspect none of the Texas clients of the Salon got one, it’s just for those registered for earlier Republican primaries.
1You about covered it. I would add a couple of things- the cult that is the repugnantican party and the hypocrisy when they are questioned. There’s lots of examples to choose from when congress critters and other high profile repugnanticans are questioned with uncomfortable questions about trumpf’s character and criming. A good example is self-proclaimed righteous Mike Johnson. It’s no comment. Same with Nikki Haley when asked why she now supports him. Then the obvious cult nature of the gop and followers (magats) makes matters even worse. Really unprecedented times.
2Time to develop a universally-understood definition of freedom:
“The enjoyment of the respect of government.” That’s how the ancient Athenians understood it.
When you are free, your opinions get heard. They might get supported, they might get shot down, but people listen to you.
Being able to do whatever you want is not freedom; it’s just a matter of your impulses occurring in the right place at the right time.
3The GOP definition is “Freedom for me, not for thee.”
4They want the freedom to do whatever they want and if you don’t agree with them you deserve no freedom in their book.
Another point I would make regarding conservatives and “freedom”, is that they see freedom as a finite source. They believe that if I, as a gay man have the freedom to be gay, then they don’t get as much freedom as they once had.
5cgregory@3 @ the other Mike@4: A long time ago, I realized that for everyone to reap the benefits of democracy, they must ALL be somewhat happy and unhappy in equal parts.
It seems to be an extremely hard concept for some, and others don’t give a rat’s ass.
6I especially like how Gov. Ron DeSantis declared “Freedom Summer” by mandating that bridges in Florida can only have red, white, and blue lights on them. Seems like a prime example of an oxymoron to me.
7You are entering the Twilight Zone of The DrumpfReich…
8Happy Memorial Day. When I mentioned hypocrisy in my response above, these are examples of what I was talking about:
9https://open.substack.com/pub/jefftiedrich/p/republicans-hate-our-troops-and-no?r=2di6n7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
I love his work.
10Ya, Nick, he definitely calls out the hypocrisy and subjects using language that I think of using but don’t (at least when people are around, usually).
11A little off subject- This weekend, my wife and I spent several hours (10) at our grandson’s little league tournament (he had 3 games, yikes). A bunch of teams playing with many parents and grandparents (and kids of course). For hours, I observed an idiot exhibiting his poor judgment wearing an obnoxious magat shirt. On the back, it had “DADDD” above a disrespected American flag (of course) and below “dads against daughters dating Democrats”. I almost walked by (3 times) to say “cute shirt” but didn’t want to cause a big scene. Example of the cultists of maga showing their poor judgement on school property in front of kids.
My better half sent me a link to something a friend of ours put on a text thread I’m not on because of my work schedule.
It’s the Documentarian and historian Ken Burns giving a commencement address.
I’m purty sure everybody in this joint is gonna appreciate it.
All I can say is that I would add one more vocational accomplishment to his resume.
Orator
12https://youtu.be/9n1OqPzIKH4?si=PxrlPszno1YQNowk
In-justice and Mrs Alito have been proven to be liars when they claimed their upside down flag was flown in protest of what a male neighbor said to Mrs Alito. Police report of incident with neighbors happened nearly a month after the flag episode.
Cougars are not the only indigenous lions in America. All magats be lyin’.
13P.P.- thanks for the Ken Burns link. Well worth the 21 minutes to watch and listen to his commencement address. He’s a national treasure.
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