By Bobby Jindal
Friday, January 13, 2017
A typical weekend in our family involves my wife
traveling to a baseball tournament, while I go to a soccer tournament, or vice
versa, with grandparents often pitching in. Though the odds, and genetics, are
against our kids playing in college, much less beyond, we are hopeful the
lessons learned will be applied beyond the world of sports. Our kids have
played on teams that seemingly cannot win, and others that go undefeated.
Like so many parents, we want our kids to learn the value
of hard work, striving, discipline, teamwork, and winning and losing
graciously. I welcome the competition, and smiled inwardly when my kids kept
score even when the adults tried to discourage them from doing so. My kids have
shed tears in the face of hard defeats, and worn proudly their unwashed winning
jerseys. Simple experiences, like learning not to blame the referees or make
excuses, will serve our children well as they mature and enter the real world.
The growing sense of entitlement and victimization
evident in our society makes me wonder if our political leaders ever learned
these lessons. I am not simply condemning partisanship or suggesting we all
holds hands and sing “Kumbaya.” While I would like to see less name-calling and
more cooperation in the political arena, I also believe that substantive
disagreements over consequential issues can and should arouse passionate
debate. What worries me is that the Left seems determined not just to win, but
to also delegitimize their opponents.
Americans Are
Tired of Elites Who Sneer at Their Beliefs
It is hard to find common ground, while recognizing real
differences, if one is quick to condemn any who disagree as racists, sexists,
or otherwise immoral. Those terms rightfully carry a powerful punch, but risk
losing some of their impact if used promiscuously. I believe one of the reasons
for the populist surge that powered Trump’s candidacy is the frustration many
decent, middle class Americans feel as academic, political, and cultural elites
sneer at their practices and experiences.
While conservatives have been busy running and building
things in the market, liberals have done a good job at capturing the academic,
entertainment, and media citadels that together define so much of our popular
culture. (I am reminded of the students that once derided my classmates and me
as “doers, not thinkers.” We regarded the epithet as a compliment.) University
faculty, Hollywood stars, and reporters are so much more likely to be liberal,
that it is noteworthy to find the conservative exceptions. However, supposedly
conservative-leaning institutions, e.g. the military and the business world, do
not exist entirely apart from the popular culture and are therefore not immune
from these liberal influences.
The result has been a dominant liberal mindset that
values pluralism and diversity above all else, except for those who disagree
with them, i.e., conservatives. I once asked Larry Summers, when he was
President of Harvard University, about the underrepresentation of conservatives
among the school’s faculty and students. He replied this was due to the fact
that evangelical Christian parents were less likely to want their children to
attend Harvard, and that was good for them and for the institution. (I think
the irony of Harvard’s Christian heritage was lost on the luncheon audience.
Perhaps they are still atoning for their role in the Salem Witch trials.)
Liberals
Increasingly Live In a Bubble
The danger for our society is a liberal mindset convinced
of its own virtue a priori, and unwilling to contemplate different conclusions
if presented with different facts. We used to call such people fanatics.
Witness the controversies on university campuses, with students agitating
against the right of speakers to present ideas with which they disagree, the
ridicule conservatives face in popular culture, and the opposition Republicans
routinely encounter on editorial pages and in nightly newscasts.
It is too easy in an increasingly heterogeneous society
for an individual to grow up, be educated, and live their lives surrounded by
others who affirm their political, religious, and cultural preferences. Many
liberals genuinely find the experiences of gun-toting, church-attending, small
government conservatives to be foreign. In years past, even when there was not
agreement, at least familiarity bred respect. Too many liberals no longer feel
the need or see the point in trying to persuade others, thinking the
superiority of their positions to be self-evident. They are more in the
business of shaming than converting.
The shifting lines of political correctness and
accompanying indignation threaten not only conservatives, but also the legacy
of past liberal icons like Presidents Wilson and Jackson, as well as more
recent liberal heroes, as President Clinton had to defend his crime bill and
welfare reforms on his wife’s campaign trail. (Imagine the liberal outrage when
they discover Harriet Tubman’s attachment to the same guns and religion so
famously derided by then Senator Obama!)
We Must All Learn
to Win And Lose Graciously
Rather than simply sneering at their opponents, liberals
will have to learn to respect them and truly welcome the open discourse and
competing ideas they claim to champion. The splintered reaction to Brendan
Eich’s “outing” two years ago evidences at least some self-awareness among the
Left.
However, after winning a Supreme Court case decision
recognizing gay marriage, the Left continues to bully bakers and photographers
into participating in those weddings, rather than simply finding other more
willing providers. The Left continues to try via Obamacare to force religious
organizations to provide health care services that violate their sincerely held
religious beliefs, rather than simply providing those services directly. The
point seems less in procuring a cake or an abortifacient, and more in
embarrassing the opposition.
Our kids have learned to shake hands with the opposing
team, whether they have won or lost. They have learned today’s runner-ups can
be tomorrow’s champions, as no team is likely to win every time. They have
learned how to win and lose graciously; today’s liberals can learn a lot from
these kids. Maybe the Left should have spent more time in Little League.
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