Liberals pride themselves on being tolerant. Are they really just suckers?

[alp227]

by Sally Kohn, a community organizer and founder of the Movement Vision Lab think tank. She has written for the Huffington Post, American Prospect, Colorines, and Alternet and contributed this opinion piece to Saturday's Washington Post.

The list of liberal laments about President Obama keeps getting longer: He extended the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy. Health-care reform didn’t include a public option. In the frantic final hours of the budget negotiations, instead of calling the GOP’s bluff, he agreed to historic cuts in progressive programs. And now, in response to conservatives’ focus on the deficit, Obama said Wednesday that we have to “put everything on the table.”

What is the problem here? Is it a lack of leadership from the White House, a failure to out-mobilize the tea party or not enough long-term investment from liberal donors?

The real problem isn’t a liberal weakness. It’s something liberals have proudly seen as a strength — our deep-seated dedication to tolerance. In any given fight, tolerance is benevolent, while intolerance gets in the good punches. Tolerance plays by the rules, while intolerance fights dirty. The result is round after round of knockouts against liberals who think they’re high and mighty for being open-minded but who, politically and ideologically, are simply suckers.

Social science research has long dissected the differences between liberals and conservatives. Liberals supposedly have better sex, but conservatives are happier. Liberals are more creative; conservatives more trustworthy. And, since the 1930s, political psychologists have argued that liberals are more tolerant. Specifically, those who hold liberal political views are more likely to be open-minded, flexible and interested in new ideas and experiences, while those who hold conservative political views are more likely to be closed-minded, conformist and resistant to change. As recently as 2008, New York University political psychologist John Jost and his colleagues confirmed statistically significant personality differences connected to political leanings. Brain-imaging studies have even suggested that conservative brains are hard-wired for fear, while the part of the brain that tolerates uncertainty is bigger in liberal heads.

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/liberals_pride_themselves_on_being_tolerant_are_they_really_just_suckers/2011/04/13/AFhsTZjD_singlePage.html

[DontTreadOnMe]

1. "a failure to out-mobilize the tea party"

could this not be more clearly spoken

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. A failure to be recognized by the "non-partisan" media.

Could this not be more clearly spoken?

[Doctor_J]

15. 'tis a total canard

From Stewart/Colbert vs. Beck, to the Madison numbers, liberal gatherings generally number about 10 times as many as teabagger rallies. Big Media is the most fascist of the cabal currently running the country.

[Drale]

2. Sometimes it is really hard to be tolerant

to stupid people.

[The Magistrate]

4. She Is Quite Right, Sir

[FiveGoodMen]

5. It all depends on what you're tolerating

Someone uses language you don't like -- be tolerant.

Someone looks funny to you (or AT you) -- be tolerant.

Someone's sex life is good for them but wouldn't work for you -- be tolerant (at least!)

Someone tries to steal other people's life savings, take away their civil rights, deny them health care (but force them to pay for it anyway)?

Then FUCK TOLERANCE! IT SHOULD BE WAR.

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. +++++

[a simple pattern]

8. +1000

Sums it up perfectly.

[bemildred]

14. +1.

What is missing is judgement.

[demosincebirth]

6. Many liberals are not tolerant of any postition they don't agree with. I found

that out here on DU.

[less lee]

9. Tea Party? What tea Party?

Cocktail Party? Martini anyone?
You know how we libral elitist are! Darling!

[Syntheto]

10. This silly shit....

... about actual brain structure changes depending on one's political views, (which some conservatives and some liberals keep pushing) is at best, on par with phrenology and at at worst, adheres to a quasi-racist, if not specie-ist worldview. Enough of this! What this country needs is about five more political parties. Then, when folks see a KKK-dominated party marching with their sheets and burning crosses, as well as full-blown Communistic marchers with their hammer and sickle banners and singing the 'Internationale', they'll be able to connect with more reasonable political action groups, given the revulsion of the extremes. Everyone should be careful what they wish for - the enemy is actually totalitarianism, where it doesn't actually matter as much what the political philosophy of ruling clique, as much as the fact is that they run the police (both official and secret) and military (those with the guns, kids) If you actually believe that there is a physical difference between 'liberal' and 'conservative', then it is a small step to start rounding the 'others' up for whatever you decide is the proper disposition ('undermenchen, anybody?) What happens then? You get rid of those diametrically opposed to your worldview based on some bogus criteria, and suddenly, you're faced with those in your own circle whose views are either too far to the right or the left of your own. I know! Thought police!!! Of course, we'll do 'scientific' analysis of your brainwave patterns (much like a Josef Mengele might, had he the equipment available at his laboratory at Auschwitz) to ensure heterodoxy and keep all the faithful honest.
Sorry, but no thanks. Either a political system stands on it's own merits, or it falls. That's because we're Americans - not Europeans, not Chinese, not Pakistani, or anything else.

[BobbyBoring]

13. The right would like nothing more

than to get rid of those that are "diametrically opposed to your worldview based on some bogus criteria". The more caustic of the TV and radio blow hards constantly call for "all the leftists to be thrown out of America".

What you say does have merit, especially in light of the currant grid lock in Congress today. However, Americans just aren't very good at thinking outside the box. To most, all another party does is throw elections to the wrong person.

[polichick]

11. Interesting piece - makes me think "How's that workin' for ya?"

[BobbyBoring]

12. "conservatives more trustworthy"?

Oh really? I wouldn't trust the Cons in DC to get me a loaf of bread. Trust worthy my ass!