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“Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you.”
Stealers Wheel, 1972
I have two sets of friends. Conservative Republicans and Liberal Democrats. These two groups have never met one another or, if they had, they did not realize it.
The Conservative Republicans fear Communism and Socialism. They have a good reason for this. Many of them escaped totalitarian societies in which they were forced to surrender their possessions, spent significant amount of time in prison and ultimately lost their nationality and homeland.
The Liberal Democrats come from a lineage of people who fled a fascist dictatorship in which they also had to surrender their possessions, spent time in prison and lost their nationality and homeland.
Many people lost their lives on both sides. The Communists are pretty good at killing. Their targets were mostly political dissenters or people who did not subscribe to their political philosophy.
The fascists, on the other hand, didn’t really care what you thought. What they targeted is who you were – your ethnicity and your religion. You could change religions, but your ethnicity is what it is. You can’t change it.
Either instance is pretty bad because some political power comes along (sometimes elected, sometimes not) and changes your life – takes away all of your stuff, throws you in prison, starves you, and sometimes kills you. Firing squad, gas chamber, electric chair, it doesn’t really matter because you’re dead.
So one might legitimately ask the question – if these two groups suffered such extreme hardships, at the hands of radical political philosophies, how come it is that they have such a hard time understanding one another or finding a common ground.
The answer is simple – fear. Fear of anything that remotely resembles your oppressor. It is definitely reasonable to live in fear based upon past experiences, regardless of whether those experiences occurred as a result of a left-wing dictatorship or a right-wing dictatorship.
For American Jews, their oppressor is a Fascist (e.g., Hitler). For Latin American political refugees (including Cuba) it is a left-wing communist dictator (e.g., Castro, Maduro, etc.).
So when we talk about American politics what is confusing to me is why these two groups do not understand one another and spend so much time feuding – in newspapers, coffee houses, on television and social media. If liberals and conservatives had a better idea of what makes one another tick – for example, fear, perhaps each group could develop some empathy for the other and stop obsessing over how to avoid the second coming of their worst enemy. Maybe the worst enemy for a liberal is a Communist. Maybe the worst enemy for a Conservative is a fascist. You are probably not going to really know until one comes along and, of course, by then, it will be too late.
Maybe my liberal and conservative friends would consider joining me in the middle. In this way, you may be able to avoid the impact of both radical political philosophies which have wrought havoc on the whole world while decimating entire populations, defalcating significant property interests, causing mass migration, poverty, starvation, homelessness and death.
Please consider joining me in the middle. It may be safer there.