A look at our friends across-the-aisle … who move from abstraction to action when things-get-real, after the jump ….
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This is not the first diary on this site to broach this subject …. but we need reminders from time-to-time, and “What Digby Said” this week reminded me.
In recounting some of the conservatives who have expressed disapproval over the “James Comey Affair”: the intrepid blogger Heather “Digby” Parton noted Fox legal analyst Jeanine Pirro (a former county prosecutor). Pirro said she suffered a similar experience in 2006 when she was running for New York attorney general and the FBI and the Justice Department announced they were opening an investigation. Digby has long focused on something that has bothered me, too:
This is another example of Republicans having no capacity for empathy unless they've experienced something personally. Pirro is rightly upset that a prosecutor would flout the normal rules and inject himself into an election just days before voters cast their ballots. But clearly the only reason she's able to see the unfairness of this is because it happened to her.
To give her some credit: there are people like her who would find a way to defend Comey's actions even if it had happened to them, rationalizing that it's completely different … because they didn't deserve it and Clinton does. But there is very little evidence that Pirro had her eyes opened generally about abuse of power. It's just that this very specific incident reminds her of her own experience.
I’ve often thought that conservative empathy is not an oxymoron … simply that it is limited — and I tend to categorize them into these categories, in descending order. (1) If it has happened to a conservative personally, (2) or to a family member, (3) if something happening to liberals might (some day) then be used against conservatives, and (4) if it affects their constituents (the last of which is not always enough to sway their ideological minds).
One example of (1) includes a soon-to-be-former (we hope) senator:
(Aug, 2013) — U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) called his first trip to Springfield since his January 2012 stroke "great," … and said he's working on legislation to improve post-stroke treatment for low-income people through government programs.
Just wow. And another example of (1) was when a former high-flying, tough-on-crime law enforcement official …. went to jail for tax fraud, conspiracy and making false statements. Afterwards, Bernard Kerik decided we needed ….. prison reform. As the Crooks & Liars analyst Nicole Belle notes:
I'm very happy for Kerik that he's seen the light. I'm grateful that something has pierced through the hardened shell of his heart and made him realize that not everyone who sits in a jail is a loser moocher on society with no redeemable qualities. (But) It only becomes a legitimate discussion when a reformed conservative finds empathy on the issue.
Sometimes, it takes a family member’s woe (2) to move conservatives to action. Last year, it was an Indiana state rep who had two sons who began using heroin — and while the AP story gave no indication that Rep. Cindy Ziemke had been a lock-’em-up type beforehand, this experience did open her eyes ... noting different conditions where one of her sons was now living (versus her own state):
Unlike Indiana, Southern California boasts a wide range of treatment options and, as a result, a much larger sober living community. There is a wider array of housing options for those in recovery, and employers are more open to hiring recovering addicts, she said. It’s a stark contrast to Indiana, with its limited treatment options.
To that end, she’s sharing her experiences more frequently. She mentioned Sean’s struggle during the last legislative session when she sponsored a bill expanding the availability of naloxone, the overdose antidote that helped save her son’s life.
Another example of (2) was former Indiana congressman Dan Burton, who voted with Democrats to allow the federal government to negotiate pharmaceutical prices (for those on Medicare) because his wife died of breast cancer, then spoke with others at the cancer center … and saw the stress they were under. Back in 2007, Digby noted that when you see a hardline conservative who has progressive views on stem cell research or mental health …. it may be due to this:
This is a big problem with Republicans. They reflexively object to any government program until they are confronted personally with a situation that requires such intervention. They have no empathy for people in the abstract, always assuming that whomever is saying they are in need is a whining malcontent who could be just as healthy and self-sufficient as they are if they truly tried.
Until something happens to them or someone they love, that is, at which point they are converted.
An example of (3) was when many conservatives expressed anxiety over the 2012 trial of John Edwards— which Ari Melber in The Nation cited National Review’s editorial that sneered at the idea that the Edwards campaign “should have treated payments to the candidate’s mistress as official campaign expenses”. They were not the only GOP outlets to echo that concern. After a partial acquittal and a mistrial (plus a decision not to re-try Edwards) — I have a tough time believing that they based their decision on anything other than a There But for the Grace of God motive.
And another example of (3) was Ohio GOP senator Rob Portman’s 2013 change-of-heart on same-sex marriage … after his son came out as gay.
With reason (4) — while constituent needs often do not outweigh ideology, sometimes it can. Digby noted the reaction to requests from FEMA can vary, depending upon whose district is involved:
You can often see this in national emergencies where they suddenly clamor for federal help after disdaining the same requests by people in other parts of the country (and constantly voting against such measures on a programmatic level).
As someone with an autistic nephew, one conservative congressman who receives much praise from autism research activists is the viruently anti-abortion congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ):
(In) 1998, he was contacted by autism parents Bobby and Billie Gallagher of Brick, New Jersey, who had concerns about the number of families with autism in their community. Because of this constituent concern, Smith asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research the prevalence of autism in New Jersey .. (which) has one of the highest rates of autism in the United States.
Yet as noted, conservatives do not always respond to the plight of their flock. Let us not forget the essay by the National Review’s Kevin Williamson, in writing about white Trump voters:
If you spend time in hardscrabble, white upstate New York, or eastern Kentucky, or my own native West Texas, and you take an honest look at the welfare dependency, the drug and alcohol addiction, the family anarchy—which is to say, the whelping of human children with all the respect and wisdom of a stray dog—you will come to an awful realization. ... The truth about these dysfunctional, downscale communities is that they deserve to die.
With that, dear readers: I turn this over to you. Can you please note any examples of a movement conservative ideologue changing their minds ….. when it is no longer an abstraction affecting only other people?
However next week’s election shakes out — and I am still confident our side will prevail — I do hope that the end result is that we do not lose our empathy. If there are casualties from this horrible nightmare, may we be spared. And the late cabaret singer Nancy LaMott … has advice for all of us.
x YouTube Video Hopefully, our reward later this monthNow, on to Top Comments:
From belinda ridgewood:
In Garrett's diary Ninth Inning Tied Seventh Game World Series Live Blog— once the Cubs had won, plantdokta started and finished this funny thread, with contributions by cardinal and palantir in between.Flagged by Sylv:
In the diary by First Amendment about high expected turnout among Latino voters — this post written by thickasabrick should be a Top Comment.And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the diary by BFSkinner about your-friend-and-mine Kim Davis attempting to evade paying the legal fees in her case — there was a cogent analysis by tonyahky about Christian hucksterism in the Bluegrass State .………. and then in the diary by Dartagnan about the abuse that NBC reporter Katy Tur has had to endure from the Trumpster’s minions at his rallies — during a discussion about her future at the network, there was a suggestion by JWC about whose place she could fill were … a certain employee to retire.And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:
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