“I’m pretty open minded and usually end up with people that I didn’t fit into a checklist.”
That was written on her Jdate profile. Since the goal of this blog is to elevate the level of discourse in society, rather than lower it, her name and profile number shall remain unidentified. I contacted her, wrote a very pleasant note, and told her that I would be happy to email her pictures of me (I do not post pics on the internet because there are alot of wackos online. It is a privacy/safety issue). I also told her she could check out my blog, where I have a picture of me posted. I woke up the next day to the following email.
“You seem like a really nice guy, but unfortunately, I can’t stand republicans and from your blog, I believe that you are one. It’s probably the ONLY dealbreaker I have.
Best of luck!”
Whether or not this woman is beyond hope is not my focus. I do hope that other people read comments like these and understand that…again…hatred of republicans is no better than hatred of blacks, gays, women, etc…it is ideological bigotry, and it is just as pernicious as racial or any other type of bigotry.
When actress Julia Roberts states that “If you look up the word republican in the dictionary, it falls between repugnant and reptilian,” I can chalk it up to a Hollywood celebrity spouting nonsense, which lately seems redundant.
NY Congressman Charles Rangel claims that conservatives are racists by simply being conservatives. “They used to wear white hoods and yell (insert the s-word for Hispanics and the n-word for blacks. I find those words offensive and choose not to say them of my own free volition). Now they wear blue suits and red ties and say let’s cut taxes.” I find it disgusting that economic theory can be connected to hatred of anyone. Supply side economics cuts the taxes of black people as well. Taxes are race neutral. I can wash away Mr. Rangel’s comments because he is a pandering politician, which again has an ounce of redundancy to it.
What makes the Jdate girl’s “republicans need not apply” attitude worse is because she is Jewish. This does not make the comments by Julia Roberts or Charles Rangel acceptable. They are contemptible remarks. However, there are so few Jewish people in this world. There are many people who want to kill us simply for being Jews. We should be united. This does not mean we have to agree on every issue. Anyone who has sat around a Jewish dinner table knows it is often a charged environment. However, it is one thing to disagree with people. It is another to say you can’t stand them without having met them.
The woman admitted that I came across as a nice guy. Yet she saw I was a republican, and automatically she had to cancel that assessment. The rationale is simple. If a republican could be a nice guy, than maybe republican ideas are not evil. If a good person thinks things, then maybe those things are not as bad as initially suspected.
People are normally not static. They are dynamic. I am a free thinking individual who is not beholden to pre-programmed rigid ideas. There are conservative democrats and liberal republicans.
I am not going to lose sleep over the fact that this woman and I will never meet. To quote rapper and actor ICE-T, “If you don’t like my lifestyle, f*ck you.” What truly concerns me is the fact that this woman represents a larger number of people than some would suspect. If a majority of Jews are liberal, than to say that a plurality might be afflicted with the cancer of ideological bigotry is not a large leap.
The Nazis in World War II did not discriminate between Jews who voted democrat and Jews who voted republican. Neither did the Islamofacists that killed us on 9/11 and then blamed us for it. With over 50% of young Jews not married, we really should not give in to the madness of limiting that pie even further. To quote an old Jewish summer camp song, “To love your fellow Jew…just the same as you…that’s the basis of our Holy Torah.”
The Torah does not tell Jews to hate republicans. Orthodox Jews spend their whole lives reading the Torah, and 70% of them vote republican. They might be on to something. More importantly, they do practice what they preach. They love all people, including all Jews. They would even reach out to this Jdate woman, and others like her.
Someone should reach out to these people, and explain to them that 6 million of us did not die for them to be unable to stand their fellow Jews, republican or otherwise.
Hineni. Here I am…republican, Jewish and proud always…and tolerant of others.
eric