Please Don't Call Them Idiots

I bought Glenn Beck's latest bestseller, "Arguing with Idiots," for the young adults in my family who work in Manhattan. All during last year's presidential campaign, they'd moan about the "idiots" they worked with who knew nothing about how the government worked; nor could they articulate any reason for voting for Barack Obama other than "He's not Bush" or "It's time we had a black president."

Mr. Beck's book is highly entertaining and informative but, more importantly, it's also well researched. It's the title that bothers me, however, since I believe that just because people are not in agreement with me doesn't mean they're idiots.

What we do have here is a colossal failure to communicate with each other. Many of the people whom Mr. Beck would classify as idiots because they "just don't get it" are our loved ones.

Whenever I attend a function of like-minded conservatives, they usually share the same frustration I have of not being able to understand why our friends and relatives can't recognize what's so obvious to us. I've come to believe that the reason for that is that we all live in different universes.

Those of us who regularly watch Fox News or log onto sites like drudgereport.com, lucianne.com, freerepublic.com and Americanthinker.com are able to access news from multiple sources with diverse perspectives. This variety of viewpoints is absent from left-of-center sites such as dailykos.com or moveon.org and from network television, CNN and MSNBC in particular.

So all of us swim in different waters and our opinions tend to be formed by whatever environment nourishes them. Consequently, we're likely to avoid conflict and debate with those of a different ideological mindset in order to maintain our comfort zone and preserve peace. That old adage "never discuss religion or politics" has become the operative rule today in many familial and social events.

Last Thanksgiving, our family enjoyed a wonderful reunion with relatives who traveled here from California. I'm the sole Republican sister, and my siblings were in a post-election euphoric mood, and the teasing about my loss was taken as good-spirited.

If we hadn't avoided discussing politics, we wouldn't have had such an enjoyable holiday.

But the problem with this disconnect is that our deeply held convictions never get debated in a civil manner. Hate mail I receive is filled with invectives rather than addressing the points made in my columns. Emotions are way out of control because of the frustration of not being able to inform those in opposition of facts we've uncovered.

For example, my dearest friend, who's highly intelligent, told me before the election how impressed she was by Mr. Obama's book, "Dreams of My Father," and that that was why she was voting for him. Because her main news source is the New York Times, it's doubtful that she's aware of doubts that have arisen about the memoir.

Dare I tell her that one literary forensic expert, Jack Cashill, determined that it was William Ayers who ghost wrote it because of the stylistic similarities to his own autobiography, "Fugitive Days." A recent book by Christopher Andersen, "Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage," may have unwittingly lent credence to that theory by revealing that Michelle Obama suggested that Mr. Obama ask Mr. Ayers for help when he could not complete the manuscript. Even more disturbing was a recent admission by Mr. Ayers that he didn't just edit the book, he wrote the whole thing.

Naturally, the New York Times insists Mr. Ayers was joking and puts the story down to a right-wing conspiracy instead of investigating the credibility of the allegations, so it would be pointless to risk a dear friendship.

Last April, after the first tea parties were held in the nation, comedienne Janeane Garafalo was on Keith Olbermann's show on MSNBC and said, "This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up and is nothing but a bunch of tea-bagging rednecks, and there is no way around that."

After this defamatory statement, many conservatives branded Ms. Garafalo an idiot, but she is merely someone who swims in a pool of liberalism and has no idea what conservatives really believe. If she'd ever ventured over the past few years to one of the conservative forums, she would have known that the person all of us were clamoring to be the next president was Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She represented the complete embodiment of a superb candidate, experienced and super-intelligent. She was our dream candidate, an American Margaret Thatcher. Web sites were launched to encourage her to run, but, alas, she couldn't be persuaded.

Does Ms. Garafalo know that one of our favorite columnists is Thomas Sowell? Does she even know who he is? In her world, all Republicans are racists and easy to demonize. That's why the media can target Rush Limbaugh using bogus quotes. They are emulating Joseph Goebbels, who invented the following formula: "Invent the lie; repeat it often, and it will become the truth, no matter what the facts are."

It was during the 1992 presidential campaign that I learned how the mainstream media was manipulating public opinion against the Republican Party. It was the first time I'd ever watched C-Span, which was covering the GOP convention unfiltered by commentary. I soon became aware that whenever blacks or Hispanics were on stage speaking about their inspiring commitment to the principles of the GOP, the camera on ABC and NBC would pan away to the anchors -- at that time Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw -- neither of whom would acknowledge their presence. Instead, the camera would pan what the anchor described as "a mostly white audience."

This manipulation was still present during the recent September 12th Washington march. Several network and CNN reporters noted that they saw no blacks or Hispanics at the march. Perhaps, if they had looked at the stage, they would have seen my friend Deneen Borelli speaking passionately against the Obamacare plan. Did they even notice that the American tea parties have an anthem written and song by Lloyd Marcus (www.lloydmarcus.com)?

Given the powerful forces against truth and understanding, the problem of uniting this polarized nation may seem an insurmountable task. But I was reminded last week in a sermon by the words in a parable that "with God, all things are possible."

That would mean respecting others as fellow human beings instead of "idiots."

Alicia Colon lives in New York City and can be reached at aliciav.colon@gmail.com and at www.aliciacolon.com.