On Being Liberal, Conservative, Nice or an A... hole

by Tom Kando

Here is a question for you: Is there a correlation between how nice a person is and how liberal?

Logically, liberals should be nicer than conservatives. They believe in giving to the poor, in sharing wealth, in making love and not war, in turning the other cheek, in kumbaya. Conservatives should be mean. They believe in competition, the survival of the fittest, in selfishness, in fighting wars, etc. 

But then, why do I know so many liberal a....holes and so many nice conservatives?

During my forty years as a professor, I had many conflicts with many colleagues. Several of them were a...holes, and as everyone knows, most professors are liberal.

On the other hand, many conservative people are as kind as can be; they are the salt of the earth. So there are four possibilities: 1. Nice liberals. 2.Liberal a....holes. 3. Nice conservatives. 4. Conservative a....holes.


1. Nice liberals: I hope that I am one of them. I am sure that my wife is one, and I believe that President Obama is one.

2.Liberal a....holes: I have met many of them, especially among intellectuals, academics and in Europe. These are people who are always convinced that they are right, and who are very unfriendly towards anyone with whom they disagree. They are very critical and judgmental. It’s true, though, that many of them are right. That is because they are very smart and knowledgeable. An example of a very liberal public figure who at the same time seems to be an a....hole to me is MIT linguist Noam Chomsky. I may be wrong, since I have never met him.

3. Nice conservatives: Had I written this a generation ago, I would have said this: Many conservative Americans are deeply religious and they live what the good book preaches. Thus, they are often extremely kind, hospitable, giving, generous and compassionate, as the church taught them to be. 

Unfortunately, America has undergone a cultural revolution: Evangelicals and the rest of what Jerry Falwell used to call the silent majority have metamorphosed into a shrill and militant social movement - the Tea Party, the followers of Donald Trump, Rush Limbaugh, etc. They have been led in this direction by the hate-spewing demagogues at Fox and on talk radio.

So it is difficult for me to maintain that many conservatives today are nice people.

Nevertheless, over the span of my life, I have met many absolutely wonderful, giving and kind “rednecks,” simple people in the many provinces of this great country, including the rural Midwest, the Deep South, and yes, even in Texas!

I am sorry, my liberal friends: I still have many conservative friends, whom I like because of one simple reason: They are NICE.

4. Conservative a...holes: As I just said, there is now the problem of an increasingly radicalized right-wing populism in America, a resurgence of racism and other forms of hatred. However, rather than condemning the millions of simpletons who are flocking to new false prophets such as Donald Trump, I would hold those snake oil peddlers themselves responsible.

The true conservative a....holes today are the likes of Sean Hannity, Charles Krauthammer, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham and others.
© Tom Kando 2015
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