An Open Letter to the Right

Inspired perhaps by my coworker Jeff, I wrote a letter to the editor (of the LA Times) today:

Still smarting from Kerry’s defeat, the 55 million of us who voted for the Democratic nominee now are subject to the critique that we did not and cannot win because we think we are better than the rest of America, that we on the coasts have written off the middle of the country as ignorant, fly-over territory. But electoral maps do not tell the story well. With the exception of voters in Washington, DC, most of us live in states that are more accurately some shade of purple. And that is what inspires the widespread sense of shock and disbelief among those of us still proud to call ourselves liberals and progressives. We know you. We work with you, we shop in the same grocery stores you do, we attend movies and concerts together, we stood in line next to each other at the polls. Some of you are our friends, even relatives. And we cannot understand how you could willingly choose to continue on our present course. Do you know what the media is saying about you? They are saying that you were driven to vote by the desire to deny rights to people because of who they love, that you are passionately committed to “saving the lives of the unborn” but you are willing to write off more than 100,000 civilian dead in Iraq as “collateral damage,” and that you believe the invasion of a sovereign nation is okay because “the world is a better place” now, but you are not interested in intervening in the genocide in Darfur, nor were you interested in taking action against the genocide in Rwanda. And why this latter seeming inconsistency? Because you want to ensure full tanks for your SUVs and Hummers and are unwilling to legislate fuel efficiency limits because, god knows, you need to drive a military vehicle to take your children to soccer practice. In short, it is hard to view you as anything less than selfish, xenophobic war-mongers who cloak themselves in righteousness and talk of compassion while fervently pursuing an agenda that costs thousands their lives and millions their rights. Yes, we do think we are better than you, most assuredly. We in blue believe the best ideals of our country have to do with tolerance, justice, and equality. We think you have abandoned those ideals. And we plead with you to prove us wrong because you are our friends, our neighbors, our relatives.