Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Workout Buddies

I know we're supposed to love nothing more than the idea of Chuck Schumer and John Cornyn being gym buddies and running side by side on treadmills (Chuck really was gym buddies with Jeff Sessions). Every Thanksgiving liberals (for some reason only liberals?) get lectured on how we're supposed to be nice to our conservative family members. But Chuck Schumer, for all his flaws, isn't actively trying to ensure that women die, and those annoying Thanksgiving liberals aren't actually questioning the basic humanity of much of the US population. My point is these are basically bad people in a way that can't be covered up in the age of Trump and Kavanaugh.

And, really, they are bad people. If conservatives want to think all liberals are bad people because we are baby killers... fine. If they believe that (most are full of shit about abortion, but not all!), they shouldn't want to hang out at the gym or slice turkey with us either. My point is that this idea that we should be buddies with people who have views we find abhorrent is ridiculous. These mostly aren't debates about top marginal tax rates or whether cash grants or food stamps are the better for poverty reduction. This isn't just abstract debate stuff club. Sure I have plenty of friends who disagree with me about things, but I have no interest in being friends with, you know, racists, or homophobes, or misogynists. Why the hell would I be? Why the hell would anyone claims to care about that stuff? Oh, gee, that Andrew Sullivan, so charming as he walks around with his caliper set at parties.