I want to ignore the portion of the Republican Party that is truly libertarian, and even the part that really doesn't care about social issues, but just espouses them. Essentially, I want to ignore much of the Washington establishment and business establishment Republicans. I want to focus on the true extremists in Congress who really are worried about this stuff, and the base-Republican-voter who is worried about losing their country. They hold extreme views on race, religion, guns, gay people, and crime.
In short, they are Holly Fisher, who I think is a perfect example of the ignorant and intolerant breed of conservative that is growing in it's influence over American debate. Holly Fisher thinks she's sticking it to people like me, liberals, when she poses in front of a Hobby Lobby in a "Pro-Life" t-shirt. I mean, that's nice and all, but I don't particularly care. I'm sure some people tweet her back, and while i'd prefer they wouldn't feed the wild animals, they are gonna exercise their first amendment rights, like Mrs. Fisher. Mrs. Fisher is pro-life, pro-gun, and as she describes it, "pro-God." She doesn't just want to live her life that way though, she wants all of America to be like her. She even wants people who are inherently different than her to be like her. Now I'm sure she'd say she's not racist, homophobic, anti-immigrant, or anything else negative, but she just wants everyone to behave like "Americans," even if her version of what an American is like is not grounded in reality. If you're going to live in her country, then dammit, live like her.
You see, to this breed, it is not enough to just live your life as you want. It's not enough to live in her pro-life, extreme-Jesus home and live to her own values, she wants to export that nationally, especially to people who don't want it. Don't believe in her "traditional marriage" views? Well then, you need to see her drink a soda from Chick-fil-A. In this sense, she's a lot like the British crown we fled, wanting everyone to adhere to her views on the world. The non-believers need to bow down and get with the program, or at least be tortured by her views through her stupid slacktivist tweets.
The problem for people like Fisher is that I don't care, nor do about 90% of Democrats she means to offend. I'm a white, straight, Christian/Catholic, male. I live a relatively conservative lifestyle. I just look at someone like her and assume she's ignorant. I assume the need to somehow push her views through her stupid pictures means she's very insecure about different people. I assume that her fears about people opposed to mass-proliferation of guns in America, or who are atheists or in other religions, or who have a different sexuality, just means she's ignorant to the fact that those people living different won't effect her life. She won't be harmed by different people, kind of like I won't, and a mature person realizes we should want more diversity and cultural openness in our society, because it won't hurt us at all. We don't have to make people in our country just like us, there's nothing to fear if we don't.
The aggressive opposition to "others" by people like Fisher are amusing, but we shouldn't totally dismiss them. As the picture above shows, the distance between our intolerant extremists isn't far from the intolerant extremists we've been very worried about for years. The clinging to weapons, the bible, and patriotism/factionalism is a dangerous combo, and well, she has it. These people live in our country. They are in our neighborhoods. They are very extreme, and paranoid. None of this is good.
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