Will you only talk to a “progressive” if you must? Do you fear speaking out against Big Government Talking Points promulgated by the Main Stream Media? Are you worried that the liberal-left’s invincible ignorance will spin you into fits of rage? Are you concerned that a conversation with a knee-jerk lefty will turn into an epithet filled, spittle drenched tirade labeling you a bigot, racist, sexist, “homophobe”, “Islamophobe”, “xenophobe” or fascist? To quote the “progressive’s” Big Government secular saint, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
I walked the dog to a small coffee shop in my North Seattle neighborhood, on a beautiful Sunday morning (we do have those now and again in Seattle), and splurged on a Ham and Cheese croissant and medium latte (I refuse to knuckle under to ridiculous habit of calling a medium, a “tall”. It is Small, Medium, Large, and Extra Large. Anything else is idiotic pretentiousness.). I sat down with my copy of Russell Kirk’s The American Cause and “The Wall Street Journal”. Little did I know I would be offered two chances to proselytize conservative values. One chance concerned the Right to own and bear a firearm. The other concerned taxation.
I was minding my own business, browsing the Journal, when a woman, sitting alone at the table next to me, said, to no one in particular, “A woman shot a man at a bus stop yesterday.”
I glanced up at her, but said nothing … at first. I paused for a moment and thought about the lack of civil conversation between neighbors so I put down the paper and said, “Was that recently? Where did that happen?”
She told me that in downtown Seattle, a woman got into an altercation on a city bus with, what appears to be, a mentally disturbed man. The man followed her off the bus, and, when he rushed her, she shot him (Seattle Times article about the incident is here). The woman in the coffee shop mouthed the typical liberal response, “People shouldn’t be able to have guns.”
I could have kept my mouth shut and thought to myself, ‘Oh, brother, another brain-dead liberal mouthing the Party Talking Points.’ Instead I asked her, “Do you know how many times a gun is used by a civilian to stop a crime?” She had no idea how often that happens. When I told here that research estimates about 1.5 to 3.4 million crimes are stopped annually when a firearm is brandished, her eyes opened wide in amazement (exact stats on this are hard to find, since law enforcement does not keep good records on when crimes are prevented by civilians).
I went to on to explain how a firearm equalizes a confrontation between a woman and a violent, more physically powerful man. I then asked, “What if this guy followed the woman from the bus to an isolated part of Seattle and attacked her, raped her and left her for dead? What if the woman’s firearm was the only thing that kept her safe and alive?” These were ideas my neighbor at the coffee shop had never heard, let have someone directly ask her to consider.
The second proselytizing moment occurred when a massage therapist I know came in and sat down next to me. He was there to provide chair massages and no one had signed up for the first few hours he was there so we started chatting. We started with American driving habits and public transportation, which led us to government spending and taxation.
My massage therapist friend, who happens to be from Eastern Europe, extolled the European vision of big government and taxation to get people to do what the government wanted them to do. I did the most important thing anyone can do in a conversation. I listened. I let him make his points, and repeated them back to him to make sure I understood him correctly. Only then did I engage him with my perspective on government and taxation. Before that, however, I noted the points where we agree; some level of taxation was necessary in civil society, there are some services that government should provide. The conversation then calmly shifted principles of taxation.
After much back and forth he simply asked me what I would propose regarding taxes. Here was an opportunity to present some ideas my friend may not have considered before. I gave him my opinion that the only just taxation would be 1) taxing only what people spend, i.e., the Fair Tax, or 2) the Flat Tax, i.e., everyone pays a flat percentage of income earned, no deductions, no tax shelters, nothing; whether one earns $100 / week or $10,000 / week everyone pays some flat percentage. As I think about, the latter idea strikes me as more workable rather than the former, since the former would require repealing the 16th Amendment, which I doubt is feasible. I made the points about how much in income taxes the top 10% earners in America pay, and how much the bottom 50% pay (in 2006 it was about 70% and 3% respectively). I wish I had asked him how much one has to earn to be in the top 1% or 5% of income earners.
I then asked him why it is, in tough economic times, private citizens and business all cut back on spending, but government does not. Government, more often then not, spends more. The reason being, I believe, the lack of discipline that comes from spending Other People’s Money. “Imagine,” I said, pointing to the Cleaners across the street, “if I forced you to pay my clothes cleaning bill. I have no incentive to cut back on my cleaning bill. In fact, I would be inclined to take everything I have there and just make you pay for it. Why should I care? It isn’t my money.”
He finally paused for a moment. No one had ever articulately presented the idea of a Flat Tax or of limited government and, nor explained the concept of spending of Other People’s Money to him.
My point is simply this: Do not be afraid to engage those you know and those you do not know with the ideas embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Do not get angry. Why should you get angry if you are right? Will you always meet people who will pause a moment and think about what you say, like the incidents described above? Probably not. You will meet people who will call you names and marginalize you. They are still wrong and you are still right, and you’ve shown everyone who the bully is. Do not devolve to their level. Do not stoop to slinging insults. That is what they want you to do.
If you just keep your mouth shut and mind your own business when people around you start mouthing the Big Government Party Line, then you can be certain that everyone will continue believing the lies and distortions on which this Party Line feeds. Be silent no more. Be confident and speak up. Do not be afraid. If you are afraid to defend your ideas and opinions, then their ideas and opinions will always win the day. Silence equals acceptance.
Nicely done, and written! Its nice when the “facts” are enough to get someones mind working.