Here are three paragraphs from a column by Roger Cohen in today’s (or maybe tomorrow’s) New York Times.
A German Who Explains Trump
BRANDENBURG AN DER HAVEL, Germany — Klaus Riedelsdorf calls himself a German patriot. He’s tired of German shame over its Nazi past: enough of “schuldkult,” or guilt celebration. He did not give up East Germany, a vassal state to Moscow, to join a united Germany that’s a vassal state to the European Union and Washington. He wants his country back. “We need to be sovereign in our land,” he tells me.
[snip]
Later he writes to me. In East Germany, he says, everyone was taught to love peace, socialism and each other. But as soon as the wall fell, there were racist attacks against blacks, the Vietnamese, other foreigners. Riedelsdorf’s conclusion: “It makes no sense to force people to think this or that when they don’t believe it. They will do the opposite as soon as they can. Political correctness will lead to the opposite!”
[snip]
I disagree with this German on just about everything. But I think it’s important to listen to him. It’s critical to listen to people you disagree with, however difficult. Oh, and I don’t think Riedelsdorf is an anti-Semite.
Klaus Reidelsdforf is a member of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party but doesn’t seem to be a politician. The column doesn’t make it clear, but he seems to be someone the column presents as an example of a German who voted for the AfD in the recent election. I urge everyone to read the column; as Cohen says, “It’s critical to listen to people you disagree with, however difficult.” It was difficult for me to read the column; I stopped twice before going back looking for Mr. Reidelsdforf’s explanation of Trump. It wasn’t there. He doesn’t explain Trump in words, but by his example of the frame of mind that could make someone vote for Trump.
There’s one thing I agree with Mr. Reidelsdforf about: his observation that it just doesn’t work to teach people to love each other. That’s asking too much. It’s only human to be turned off by some people. We’re all going to find some people distasteful. We’re all prone to finding whole groups, cultures, belief systems, and religions distasteful, even grating. We progressives tend to put thought and effort into staying open minded about people and ideas foreign to ourselves, and we can be proud when we succeed. But we sometimes fall into a trap when people who aren’t foreign but are mostly like ourselves seem distasteful. We let ourselves think of them as deplorable. I do it. I don’t get upset when I see a lady with a Muslim type head covering, but my stomach turns when I see a picture of Mitch McConnell. Almost all of us fall into the trap of looking down on some people for some reason or other.
Long ago I read an article that pointed out how our government isn’t built on our highest values, if only because we don’t agree on them. Our constitution and government are built on the highest values we can all agree on. Since almost all of us are in that trap of looking down on someone or some group, the best we can do is make rules that we have to tolerate each other, based on the highest values we hold in common. I agree with Mr. Reidelsdforf that asking us to love each other is a pipe dream, and a government that expects us to do so will be on very shaky ground.
Roger Cohen is right when he says, “It’s critical to listen to people you disagree with, however difficult.” I appreciate that he made it less difficult to listen to Mr. Riedelsdorf. I must say I think we liberals try not to be too hard for conservatives to listen to, at least some of the time. We don’t often call right wingers deplorable, though we may be condescending a lot of the time. I see plenty of examples of right wingers being inflammatory as possible. I agree with Hunter that we don’t owe Kellyanne Conway any effort to listen to her. She spouts lies and half truths much faster than they could be addressed in any reasonable two-way conversation.
We don’t feature any reasonable conservative voices here on Daily Kos. Partly I suppose that’s because the unreasonable right wing claims come so fast and thick and seem to get treated as serious by mainstream media that we need a forum to refute them. But it also gives us a chance to indulge in righteous outrage and feelings of moral superiority. When Stephanie Miller had a radio show, she said she listened to the right wing nuts so we wouldn’t have to. If there’s a forum for right wing opinion offered in a way that isn’t inflammatory, I’m not in touch with it. Can anyone suggest one? Listening to reasonable people with whom we don’t agree may be one of the highest forms of patriotism.