Do conservatives feel they (and they alone) are allowed to criticize America

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@D_Anconia

There are no constitutional issues involved in this situation.

When the police as an organized body refuse to protect (or even attack) those who says things they disagree with, it’s the end of democracy.

There are endless examples from American history. The police busted up unions. They attacked socialists. They refused protection to blacks. They harassed communists. They pounded on hippies. They let gays be beaten.

They did all these acts with the support of the powerful or the majority, of course. Sometimes the force did it as a whole, sometimes individuals acted on their own prejudices. Always those in charge looked the other way until public sentiment finally swung in the other direction.

Whether these acts were legal or extra-legal made no difference to those on the receiving end. Nor to us at the far end of history. We condemn them all. When the police become the enemy it is the end of democracy. If there is something larger than a constitutional issue, this is it.

[kaylasdad99]

@Shodan

No it isn’t. As has already been explained, this is voluntary moonlighting, not related to their duties as police. If it were part of their duty, they would be obliged to do it. It isn’t. They aren’t.

Regards,
Shodan

Were they (the police officers declining to sign up for the extra duty) asked to publicly explain why they were doing so?

[drewder]

I think Evan Sayet said it best:

I call myself a 9/13 Republican. I grew up a liberal New York Jew; you don’t get much more liberal than that–although it was lower-case “l,” not what’s considered Liberal today. I graduated from high school knowing only one thing about politics: that Democrats are good and Republicans are evil.

I tell a story. It’s not a true story, but it helps crystallize my thinking that brought me to become a conservative. I say: Imagine being in a restaurant with an old friend, and you’re catching up, and suddenly he blurts out, “I hate my wife.” You chuckle to yourself because he says it every time you’re together, and you know he doesn’t hate his wife; they’ve been together for 35 years. He loves his daughters, and they’re just like her. No, he doesn’t hate his wife.

So you’re having dinner, and you look out the window and spot his wife, and she’s being beaten up right outside the restaurant. You grab your friend and say, “Come on, let’s help her. Let’s help your wife,” and he says, “Nah, I’m sure she deserves it.” At that moment, it dawns on you: He really does hate his wife.

That’s what 9/11 was to me. For years and years I’d hear my friends from the Left say how evil and horrible and racist and imperialistic and oppressive America is, and I’d chuckle to myself and think, “Oh, they always say that; they love America.” Then on 9/11, we were beaten up, and when I grabbed them by the collar, and I said, “Come on, let’s help her. Let’s help America,” and they said, “Nah, she deserves it.”

At that moment, I realized: They really do hate America. And that began me on what’s now a five-plus-year quest to try to understand the mindset. How could you possibly live in the freest nation in the history of the world and see only oppression? How could you live in the least imperialist power in human history and see us as the ultimate in imperialism? How could you live in the least bigoted nation in human history and, as Joe Biden said, “see racism lurking in every dark shadow”?

[Exapno_Mapcase]

I agree with Evan Sayet. That is not a true story.

[wolfpup]

@drewder

I think Evan Sayet said it best:

So all American liberals hate their country? That’s good to know. Brought to you by Evan Sayet, the guy who also wrote for the Heritage Foundation the wonderful essay How the Modern Liberal Winds Up on the Wrong Side of Every Issue. Every issue, you understand. I think it’s kind of a definitional thing: if you’re a liberal, you must be wrong.

Those are his two contributions to the Heritage Foundation, the right-wing organization that is still relentlessly fighting climate science. Climate change is yet another thing all liberals are wrong about. It ain’t happening. You can tell the science is wrong because so many scientists are liberals.