Republican friend, maybe you can help me with something, because I’m stumped here.
I just do not get you.
I don’t understand how you see the world.
I don’t know what motivates you.
Maybe we're wired differently, but I don't wake up in the morning burdened to be cruel to people; to actively push them to the periphery or place obstacles in their paths or deny them the things I have been fortunate enough to have received. I just assume they're trying as hard as I am and that their lives are already difficult enough, and I don't want to make them more difficult.
What makes you want other people to feel unnecessary pain?
I don't feel compelled to take healthcare away from those who are sick or to make it more costly for families battling insidious illness. I don’t want anyone to have to choose between healing their body and paying their mortgage.
What possible reason can you have for denying health and life to strangers?
I have no desire to prevent two adults who love each other from marrying one another or adopting children, or to decide how anyone should feel comfortable in their bodies. It would never occur to me to insert myself into other people’s bathrooms and bedrooms.
Why do you get satisfaction in causing trauma to human beings whose lives and love do no harm to you?
I don’t feel that someone else’s pigmentation makes them intellectually or morally inferior to me, or that the color of my skin denotes some divine anointing that marks me as special or separate.
Why is it so difficult for you to live alongside and value people with deeper melanin than you? Just what story do you tell yourself about people of color and about your elevated worth?
I don't feel qualified to claim ownership of America, to be a merciless gatekeeper for a place my ancestors came to as visitors, a place I know I was fortunate to be born within. I find no joy in another human being’s violent expulsion.
Why do you believe you've earned the right to decide who gets in, who gets to stay, and whether or not they're welcome?
All of this to say, Republican friend, help me understand your cruelty? What is it getting you? What is your point?What is your endgame here?
I know you'll be tempted to dismiss this as a simple hit piece; a lazy caricature of you that ascribes motives to you from a distance, but I promise you it's not that. These aren't partisan talking points and they aren't veiled insults. This is me looking at you and at what is measurable: the politicians you support, the party you endorse, the legislation you champion, the tactics you applaud, the stuff you post online.
I don't get any of this on the most elemental human level; how you manage to feel no empathy for the struggles and sorrows and suffering of others, why you seem to be hell-bent on hurting people. Where is your love for your neighbor? Where is your kindness? Where is your compassion? Where is the Golden Rule?
Listen, life is incredibly difficult for all of us. Everyone is hurting, everyone is grieving, everyone is carrying sorrows and fighting battles and busting their asses just to get through the day—and I just don’t understand why you want to exacerbate their pain and multiply their burdens.
I hear hatred in your words, I see terror in how tightly you hold things, I sense fear in the many enemies you manufacture, and I wonder where that all comes from or how it’s helping you.
I imagine you might feel marginalized right now, but I promise you that isn't reality.
No one is telling you that you can't marry the person you love or that you shouldn't be able to care for those dear to you who are sick. No one is telling you that you don't belong here, that the color of your skin or your faith tradition or your nation of birth disqualifies you from inclusion here.
No one is trying to exclude you.You're fully included.We're just wondering why you seem so burdened by the need to exclude everyone else.
So tell me, Republican friend, why are you so cruel?
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