7 Things Conservatives Need To Stop Saying To Liberals

Spend any time on a social media and you are bound to run into the conservative who thinks they have stumbled upon the Holy Grail of debate facts, by hitting you with something brilliant?like “criminals don’t obey laws”. They will triumphantly announce a self-evident truth as?if they have just made an earth-changing discovery in quantum physics.

While we?hate?to disappoint the conservative online debate team after they have spent hours honing their skills at Infowars, Free Republic, ?and Breitbart, most of these clever?”facts” simply aren’t game changers. Sorry to disappoint, but to save our right-wing friends?time in the future, here are seven things we liberals already know:

1. The KKK was started by Democrats.

Yes, in Tennessee. In 1865. On Christmas Eve, no less. We know. But Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi weren’t there. We checked.

2. Lincoln was a Republican.

Yes. We are aware of that. Is he running in 2016? Because if he is, we might consider him. Why not? We have a recent pattern of supporting candidates from Illinois.

3. Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.

Of course, which is why we support background checks on people. We also know a loaded gun left on your front porch won’t shoot anybody by itself. But somebody might pick it up. Which is why you shouldn’t leave it there. Duh.

4. Criminals don’t obey laws.

Yes, pretty much by definition. So by definition, if we eliminate all laws, we eliminate criminals. Great idea. Crime solved. What could possibly go wrong?

5. Black people are killing other black people in Chicago.

Yeah, we know. But at a much lower rate than they did twenty years ago, in case you didn’t know that. That still doesn’t mean white cops who shoot unarmed black men should get an automatic pass. Two different issues, don’t conflate them.

6. America is a constitutional republic, not a democracy.

Call it what you want, but its both. Yes, it is a representative democracy not a direct democracy (aside from citizen ballot initiatives), but it is still a democracy of sorts. If you want to disenfranchise people, skip the obtuse semantic arguments and just come out and say it.

7. It snows in Upstate?New York in the winter.

Yes, it does. It snows in the Northern Hemisphere in December. Who ever expected that to continue?with average global temperatures up two degrees from a century ago? I mean we all knew?it snowed?back when it was?26 degrees outside, but at 28? Unthinkable.

We probably left some out, so feel free to throw some more our way, and we will be happy to let you know if you have discovered something we were not aware of. We welcome your efforts, but we won’t be holding our collective breaths.

Let us know your thoughts at the Liberal America Facebook page. Sign up for our free daily newsletter to receive more great stories like this one.


keith bio pic

Keith Brekhus is a longtime political activist who currently resides in Red Lodge, Montana. He has a Master’s Degree in Sociology from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He was a Green Party candidate for Congress in 2002. His most recent political job was working as a Field Organizer in Arizona’s White Mountains, in support of Democratic Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick’s successful 2014 re-election campaign.
 


VI-blog-sliders-800x450512
 

Keith Brekhus is a progressive sociologist who resides in Red Lodge, Montana. He is co-host for the Liberal Fix radio show. Keith is a former Green Party candidate for US Congress (2002 in Missouri's 9th District). He can be followed on Twitter @keithbrekhus.