Wolves and foxes

By Albert DeSimone

I admire Martin Luther King, but I dig Malcolm X. Malcolm’s brutal honesty was, and still is, a voice of clarity and strength in the turbulent Sixties. This quote says it all:

“The white conservatives aren't friends of the Negro either, but they at least don't try to hide it. They are like wolves; they show their teeth in a snarl that keeps the Negro always aware of where he stands with them. But the white liberals are foxes, who also show their teeth to the Negro but pretend that they are smiling. The white liberals are more dangerous than the conservatives; they lure the Negro, and as the Negro runs from the growling wolf, he flees into the open jaws of the "smiling" fox.”

Malcolm’s words speak far beyond the issue of race. He is describing the basic difference between the conservatives (wolves) and liberals (foxes), and it applies even more today. 

You might not like what the wolves are doing, but at least you know where they stand. The foxes, on the other hand, are the sly friends whose motives are wrapped up in so much glitter and patronizing superiority that you’re not even sure you are, or ever have been, friends. 

I grew up in the late-stage hippie era, the counterculture decade, or just “The Sixties.” I turned 15 in 1970, so I was too young to enjoy the full impact of all that free love. By the time I was 18, I was subjected to the abomination of the disco culture. 

How can a young man see that transition—from patchouli to Hai Karate—and not be changed forever?

I didn’t solidify my political point of view overnight. In fact, it took several decades. I was somewhat ambivalent for many years. I even voted for Ross Perot as a protest vote, even though I’m not exactly sure what I was protesting. 

I voted for Clinton’s second term, Gore in 2000, and Obama both terms. The former two got my vote because of Gore’s awareness and soft regulatory stand on the Internet. 

By the way, Gore never claimed he invented the Internet, but he was responsible for making it ubiquitously available. 

Now we come to Barack Obama and a face-to-face with my own biases and prejudices.

I had nothing to do with his being Black. I  was way beyond that. It was the misguided association with the Muslim world, based on his middle name. I just couldn’t get “Hussein” out of my head.

I have learned that the most important way to confront biases is to stare them right in the face. I did my own opposition research and realized I was falling prey to a silly stereotype.

I cast a virtue vote. I was wrong to prejudge and made up for it by casting my vote for Obama. 

Things went well his first term. Obama did well with the Great Recession economy he inherited.  

In the end, however, Obama created a racial divide we may never overcome. He was also a coward who, along with his globalists pals, let Russia walk into Crimea. 

He claimed American manufacturing was a thing of the past. Good-paying jobs were going overseas and not coming back.

Finally, his self-aggrandizing world view made America look like the world’s patsy.

That was the end of my virtue voting and the beginning of my shift to conservatism. 

During my transition, people of peace and love turned into a vicious pack of rabid chihuahuas nipping relentlessly at my intelligence, morals, and compassion anytime I uttered the name “Trump” without including a preceding pejorative.

Overnight, I turned into a racist redneck who burns crosses while relentlessly abusing my wife and children. 

I turned into a liar, an uncaring misanthrope, a boot-licking billionaire lover, rapist, swindler, and cheater. Every negative they attributed to Trump became manifest in me. 

And these people were my friends. 

I was constantly accused of projecting  microaggressions, and I didn’t even know what that was. 

The people with whom I had generally identified because of our common egalitarian view suddenly became insufferably superior. 

They anointed themselves to be better than their conservative counterparts—an arrogant betrayal by hypocrisy. 

To this day, the liberal arrogance is insufferable. With every social media post I engage in, and with every conversation I  have with members of the liberal faction, there is a clear sense of superiority in their attitude. 

Arrogance breeds hypocrisy, and I have grown weary of the sanctimonious hypocrisy and complete inability to engage in civil discussion by so many people on the ardent left. The minute the discussion turns away from their biases, I become their enemy, their moral inferior. Nothing more than a “MAGAt.”

Gay Rights. Minority Rights Transgender Rights. Women’s rights. But certainly no Right Rights. 

How about just human rights?  The liberal has in no way cornered the right to rights. 

Just because you catch a whiff of Old Spice when I walk by doesn’t mean I don’t believe in comprehensive human rights. 

I don’t give a damn who you play Pokeman with, but I am in no way obligated to walk around with a sign saying that. 

Seriously, do you really think Bubba from Barnesville, who is riding around in a pickup truck full of Bud Light cans with  bullet holes, is really going to change his point of view when he sees a rainbow coffee cup from Starbucks?  

Like The Great Bard said, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

Albert DeSimone resides In Bishop