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Friday, June 20, 2008
What’s behind the liberal - conservative ideological divide in America?
Shaunti Feldhahn, a right-leaning columnist, writes the commentary this week and Andrea Cornell Sarvady, a left-leaning columnist, responds.
Rebuttal
We all come across as patronizing at times. That’s human nature. Yet to suggest in this day and age that “a certain type of liberal intellectual elitist” is responsible for the division between left and right is downright laughable. With daily battles playing out in the media, with commanders like Karl Rove and foot soldiers like Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity, the epicenter of the fault line can be emphatically traced to….political science professors? Charles Kuralt?
Though the left has its share of verbal missteps and deliberate put-downs, it simply can’t compete with the far-right arsenal when it comes to divisive rhetoric. Janeane Garafalo’s Air America is no match for legions of followers addicted to the bellicose braying of Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly, the top junkyard dogs of political discourse. I won’t pretend that Democrats lack the stomach for down-and-dirty name-calling — the blogosphere proves otherwise every minute. Yet, for some reason, liberals aren’t drawn to the siren call of major media provocateurs in nearly the numbers that conservatives are. Keith Olbermann’s blistering attacks on the current administration have made his MSNBC show “Countdown” a money-making hit, yet fellow word warrior O’Reilly has more than twice as many viewers.
Rather than keeping score, however, why don’t we look at facts that indicate a new reality? The current election cycle is proving that many of us are putting down the weapons, trying to find a way to work together; it’s why John Edwards’ battle cry of “two Americas” rubbed voters the wrong way. You know that instead we’re looking at a New America when some young evangelicals find themselves drawn to Barack Obama and some older Democrats find a compatriot in Republican John McCain.
I’m as guilty as anyone for engaging in the childish “Mom, she started it!” debate about who created the poisoned atmosphere between liberals and conservatives. So let’s agree that, no matter who widened the divide, we’re all responsible for moving past resentment and blame. I propose the following plan for liberal Democrats and Christian evangelicals alike: We won’t think you’re insane for holding your beliefs if you won’t think we’re going to hell for ours.
Can I get an amen?
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Commentary
By Shaunti Feldhahn
The fault for the widening liberal-conservative divide can be laid largely at the feet of an unwitting minority: those liberal intellectual elitist university professors and media leaders who are disproportionately influential in society. They probably have no intention of being agents of intolerance, division or elitism, but they are.
Barack Obama infamously commented that small-town, economically disadvantaged folks, “get bitter [and] cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them … as a way to explain their frustrations.” Hiding in those words are two chilling assumptions held by many a liberal elitist. First, Obama assumes the worst motivation for conservative values — social policy disagreements must be rooted in “antipathy to people who aren’t like them.” Second and more scary, liberal elitists believe no rational person would even hold conservative beliefs unless there was something incredibly wrong in that person’s world - those couldn’t possibly be a sane person’s real values.
As the late television journalist Charles Kuralt once put it, “What on earth did conservatism ever accomplish for our country?” Or as New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger proclaimed at a 2006 graduation, “You weren’t supposed to be graduating into a world where we are still fighting for fundamental human rights, whether it’s …the rights of gays to marry or the rights of women to choose… For that, I’m sorry.” Or actress-activist Janeane Garofalo: “The dumb and the mean find a nice home in the GOP…..What you have now [are] people that are closet racists…[and] homophobes … identifying [themselves] as conservative.”
Most liberals aren’t this elitist and condescending. But the small minority that are tend to have built strongholds in positions to spread their beliefs and influence how others think. For example, a 2007 American Enterprise Institute study found that liberal professors outnumbered conservatives five-to-one in fields like political science, and 20-to-one in fields like sociology. And the volume of bias is staggering. The Institute for Jewish and Community Research found that 3 percent of professors viewed Jews unfavorably, Nine percent viewed non-evangelical Christians unfavorably - but 53 percent viewed evangelical Christians unfavorably.
It is ironic that in their evangelical fervor to spread their beliefs, surrounded by others of like mind, liberal elitists may not even see how dangerous is their own “antipathy to people who aren’t like them.”