There is a mindset historically common amongst R voters that goes something like this: “If you have something, it takes away from me in some way; therefore, I will try to keep you from having that thing.” We see it in the discussions about civil rights, about healthcare, and about education access. This punitive “gatekeeper” mentality says that there is only so much to go around here in the richest country on Earth, and if you get a piece of the pie, that's just that much less that I could have. I see this mindset spreading to the left, and wonder if I'm the only one who notices. “That candidate is getting press coverage at the moment. I prefer a different candidate, so I'll attack the one in the limelight and her/his supporters and tear them down.” “People are sad about something, but I want them to focus on a different thing I think they should be sad about instead, so I'll shame them for caring about the first thing and imply that they're bad people
My cousin is a cop. My godson's dad is a cop. The guy I grew up calling "Uncle" (in actuality a family friend since my dad was a kid, but as much family to me then as the ones I was genetically related to) was a cop until he retired. And my great-uncle was a cop. I grew up holding his tiny, antique NYPD badge every time I could get my hands on it, turning it over and over in my fingers in awe and reverence. I am very, very pro cop. That's one of the reasons the recent events gnaw at my stomach so fiercely. "Recent events" - as if that were a reasonable way to describe the seemingly endless stream of people of color dying at the hands of those sworn to serve and protect. And yet the horror is so overwhelming it seems to defy any brief summary, any shorthand. How do you reduce lives - human beings with friends, enemies, families, dreams, flaws, hopes, loves, and hates - to a sentence when you're trying to get your head around the whole picture, the sp