Via Instapundit: A reporter discusses wether it is bigotry to call all Republican’s assholes.
He never seems to define bigotry except by implication that it is being “intolerant and mean” toward some group of people. Its like racism, which is usually defined as not liking people because of their race. Actually it is often defined even more strongly as not liking people of another race, even if the reason has nothing to do with their race. For example, if a black person is rude to me and I don’t like him, I’m considered racists by some. I think this later definition is really only used for political or psychological gain. But real legal definition of racism involves action, not just feeling. I can only practice racism, not think or feel it. Only if I have the power to hurt, physically or economically, as I a racist.
Probably you don’t want you kids to grow up hating a group of people because of their race, or skin color, wether they have the power to hurt those people or not. So the middle, feeling definition works practically. Now what about bigotry? When I started this entry I would have said it required action, but now I don’t know. If it required action, the only bigot in the story was the woman who left the table when she found out he was a Republican. Which is stupid because a lot of people marry people from other parties and do fine.
But given a feeling definition I’d have to now agree with the author these people are bigots, because they feel hatred toward a group of people because of their political beliefs. Frankly political beliefs aren’t equivalent to moral beliefs. My personal opinion is most people want the same things from government, they just want them in different ways. They want government to help people live happy lives. For some that means there should be as little government as possible, so people can make their own happiness. For others that means there needs to be a lot of government to make their happiness happen.
Guess that’s why it is good to have two parties, because some people are going to need government help and some aren’t. Not forcing a compromise will leave one group out. Now I’m going to go with the let people make their own happiness, because there is just way too much government interference with people’s lives right now.
One thing not mentioned is are Republican’s bigots toward Democrats? Given that “liberal” has become a curse word, I’d have to say there are definitely some. And I confess to ill feelings when I read liberal rants, but I’m not willing to put all Democrats in the same boat, which is guess is what makes something bigotry. You have to generalize people and feel bad toward them.