Anti-Personal Politics

I had one of those e...pi...pha...ny things last week. I finally realized why I don't understand liberals (the modern American variety, not classical liberals)...It's because they don't really exist!

Wow! Talk about fodder for a conspiracy theory.

I was talking with a friend about taxes and all the wonderful uses (NOT!) to which government puts my money when he had the audacity to disagree with me. He told me of how well his family had done over the last decade financially and asserted that their good fortune was due primarily to the economic policies of our beloved William "Slick Willie" Clinton.

Having difficulty believing that any kind of meddling the president might take upon himself could possibly have a positive effect on the economy, I asked for a specific example of Clinton's wise leadership. "Officially sanctioned racism," he replied fervently. (Although not quite in those words. I think he actually said something like "Offering a helping hand to the under-advantaged by mandating a more equitable percentage of government contracts go to minorities." Or something of that ilk.)

"Uh-huh." I said, a finger scratching the inside of my ear.

He went on to point out to me that all white people in any kind of position of authority try to keep people of color down. The only way that white people will ever give blacks or Hispanics a fair piece of the pie is if they are forced to it. I'm white. He's not.

I asked if he could remember anything I had ever said or done that would indicate a racist attitude. No, he replied. Then how could he say that all white people are racist?

"I'm not talking about you and me," he explained. "I'm talking about society in general."

I'm not white? I'm not a part of society? What is society if not more of you and me?

"Let's not make this personal," he said.

What could possibly be more personal than hiring men with guns to take my money to finance a program to thwart my supposed nazi business tactics?

"But I'm not doing anything, I just voted." Of course you are. You voted for him, didn't you? You've publicly supported his policies, haven't you? You took that money from his hired goons didn't you?

The problem here is not racism or even economic policy. The problem is that people don't seem to understand that the those they see and talk to every day really exist. Politics is for real. The guns that will accompany the men who will force me from my home if I refuse to financially support the racist policies of affirmative action are real. When laws are passed, those laws affect real people. The next time you vote for something or someone who promises to use government force to right some alleged wrong, remember that you are the one behind the trigger and your next door neighbor is at the end of the barrel.

Without you and me there is no society.

I like my friend. He's a pretty good guy. He just hasn't quite grasped cause and effect.