There are a plethora of toxic books, by right wingers, excoriating liberals. So I came up with an idea. Do the opposite. Write a fun, funny book about how to love right wingers.
This is the first in a series of articles I'll be doing, and I invite others to get involved. How can you not love someone whose brain is so confused, so mushy, that he actualy prefers Dubya over... almost anyone? You have to have loving compassion.
The bible teaches to love thine enemy. Well, I want to work on loving right wingers. It's not like I haven't been working on it. I have close family who are right wingers, who think liberals are idiots, morons and fools.
I figure, this effort could do some good. I'm hoping to make it an extended project, so I invite other opednews.com writers and readers to take a shot at it, especially, if, for example, you are married to one, have an adult child or a parent or sibling or, horrors, an in-law.
I'd love to know how you do it. How do you love the right wingers in your life? My hope is to turn this into a book. Ann Coulter and other loveable neanderthal right wingers (see, I'm trying) talk toxically about liberals. But liberals are warmhearted (as opposed to reptilian... but sweet... we must be nice, remember, Ann Coulter. Oh. Did I spell her name wrong? Oops.)
Let's lay some ground rules for this project. First, don't be cruel... unless you say up front that this is not really about love. Funny is good. Al Franken and Michael Moore have dissected right wingers with wonderful humor.
I'll start off by making it clear that it is possible to love someone who is impaired. Matter of fact, it's hard to find someone who isn't impaired in some way. And if he or she isn't then, he or she is too damned perfect and that becomes, in itself an impairment.
There are all kinds of impairment. And it's pretty easy to start listing the kinds of impairments right wingers suffer... and cause others to suffer along with.
Actually, I can envision going through the DSM4 manual of Psychiatric Diagnosis published by the American Psychiatric Association, hunt and pecking for potential diagnoses that apply. Of course, we also have some mental health professionals who have already written about this, sometimes focusing on a particular right winger, like Dubya, or certain demographics. I figure, for this project, they're all fair game.
Speaking of demographics, there are some subgroups within which I expect to find some rich material-- and some where I've already found it. Then again, some of my prior writings have not been guided by the intention of love. I'll have to take another look at some of them, particularly those focusing on the diagnostic category first described by Michael Moore-- "Stupid White Men." Hell, millions of women have their own personal "stupid white men" they love. It'll be fun to interview and hear from some of these gals.
Here's one good reason to love right wingers. They wake up. Okay, let me back up. The DSM III-R, a probably out of date edition of the psychiatric diagnostic manual, though good enough for my non-clinical purposes, refers to diagnosis 307.46-- Sleepwalking Disorder.
One of the descriptions or criteria for this diagnosis includes:
Hell, at least metaphorically, this sure sounds like a lot of right wingers to me. I've thought a lot about waking up right wingers. And since I started talking about waking up right wingers, a few years ago, guess what? A lot of them have woken up. Just look at the polls in the recent primaries-- 50% of NH Republicans and 46% of Michigan Republicans were just not happy with Bush. That's a lot of people waking up.
We don't not love someone because they are sleep walking, because they have not woken up. Matter of fact, one of the most touching, heartwarming experiences parents report is watching their children sleep.
Of course, when they're awake, they could be spoiled brats who terrorize the house, hyperactive destruction and chaos machines-- but when they're asleep, they're lovable.
Of course, there are those spouses who snore in their sleep. Voting right wing in one's sleep, or sleepwalking-- going through the world enjoying right wingnut radio pukes... I mean, lovable, radio talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh... well, that's worse than snoring, isn't it?
A note about Limbaugh, Hannity and Savage. The process of learning to love right wingers is a long road. We're just starting on the journey. Being able to actually love Rush, Sean and Mr. Savage is really a challenge that should be saved for the end of the journey-- it's almost a holy grail search. Of course, when the holy grail is found, the kingdom is healed. So even the idea of loving Rushbo... has some merit. Just don't be too hard on yourself, if, at the start of the road you have difficulty thinking of him as something other than a toxic blowhard, spewing mental farts. Or add your own thoughts on him.
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