Ask "Them": "Why Don't You Feel an Obligation to Protect the Poor"?
by Davis
I spent many summer nights as a teenager throwing water balloons at cars. It’s not a terribly responsible or considerate thing to do, but it was either that or dry ice bombs, which never really seemed to work and almost always resulted in an intense, never-ending round of “It’s not blowing up. Go screw the lid on tighter.” “YOU go screw it on tighter.” “No, YOU go screw it on tighter.” I remember one particular night in which a car hadn’t passed by for the better part of an hour. Just as we had decided to call it quits and go watch “The Arsenio Hall Show,” headlights painted the mailbox up the street from our hiding place. I waited for a few seconds and then jumped up and whipped a pear-shaped water balloon at the passing car. It probably took about a second for the balloon to travel end-over-end from my hand to the side of the car, and this second was ten times longer than the amount of time I needed to realize that the car was a police car, to recognize that throwing a water balloon at it had been a mistake, and to wish I could extend my arm and take it back.
I experienced that exact sensation as I read the comments and emails that were written in response to the first post in this series. My regret wasn’t that I wrote a post offering to try to explain how I, a straight white Republican Mormon male, think about political and cultural issues in the hopes of fostering a dialogue with people who see things differently than I do, but rather that I wrote it in a way that struck many of you as smug and mean-spirited, which completely undermined the intent of the endeavor.
My original idea was to use humor as a playful way of drawing you in and getting you to let your guard down so we could have a sincere and fun conversation. That does not seem to have worked! At all! Lenny-like, I have crushed the thing I loved!
I didn’t mean to belittle or mock Wiccans, transgendered people, or anyone else. It was teasing, in the hopes of building camaraderie. But as we all know, tone is difficult to convey on the Internet. And also, we don’t know each other! So, now we do a bit, I’m sorry for that, and I hope we’ll have some interesting and productive discussions.
A few other orders of business before I tackle some of your questions.
First, thank you very much for your comments and emails. It took me a while, but I read every one of them more than once. There were 242 comments, and 10 or so emails. Over time, I hope to at least address most of the broad themes and ideas you collectively raised.
Second, I want to be clear that I claim no particular expertise in matters of policy or politics. I try to stay informed and engaged, but I don’t spend my weekends reading white papers from Brookings. There are plenty of things I don’t know enough about to have an opinion on, and even on those matters where I do know a little bit and do have an opinion, my general view is that the world is a very complex and complicated place and my views are thus tempered with a healthy dose of skepticism and uncertainty.
Finally, please keep in mind that I won’t be trying to convince you of the rightness of my views or of anyone else’s. My hope, rather, is that in explaining why I think the way I do that you will be able to understand the ideas and experiences that have informed my views and-to the extent you don’t already-see that it’s possible for a religious Republican also to be reasonable, informed, and well-intentioned.
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To today’s topic: Jesus, the poor, and government. Commenter “My Number Is My Address” asked this:
Why don’t you feel an obligation to protect the poor and downtrodden (who create the wealth of the country and the country club) instead of waging war against them in the name of free-markets and God? Is it not the moral duty of the strong to defend the weak from predation?
There seem to me to be three assumptions embedded in this question: 1. Caring for the poor is a central tenet of Christianity; 2. Conservative and/or Republican politics tend to frown on many of the large social programs that provide goods and services to the poor; and, 3. Busted! I’m on board with the first two assumptions, but not the third.
There are all sorts of reasons for wanting to help the vulnerable while at the same time opposing some or all of the government programs that are designed for that purpose, including but not limited to: The belief that people shouldn’t be coerced to help other people; the recognition that government often doesn’t do things very effectively or efficiently; the fear that we could end up being unable to afford all of the entitlement programs we’ve created; and the conviction that private or market-based solutions to certain problems are in many cases more effective and sustainable than government ones. In other words, tax-funded government programs are not the only way to help the less fortunate, and it therefore doesn’t necessarily follow that opposition to these programs amounts to opposition to helping the poor.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “I can’t believe how good ‘Friday Night Lights’ is! I wish Coach Taylor was my Dad!” Actually, that’s what I was thinking. You were thinking, “That sounds to me like a pretty good list of excuses not to pay taxes to help the poor, but if the government didn’t force you to help the poor through taxes you would just use that money to buy a hot air balloon decorated on the side with a huge picture of you, Magnum P.I., Rick, T.C., and Higgins making it look like the five of you were friends in real life rather than them being TV characters you allowed yourself to start talking to during a particularly rough stretch of 7th grade.” And here’s the thing: it probably is an excuse for a lot of conservatives/Republicans.
But it isn’t just an excuse for a lot of others. I spent a while working in international development and it was during that time that I had some experiences that made me think that markets and private initiatives in many cases offer better and more sustainable solutions than governments do for reducing poverty. I appreciate that private initiatives have plenty of challenges and lack the centralized approach that governments can offer-and I don’t actually believe that government should get out of the “protecting the vulnerable” business altogether. Many good and smart people believe that government needs to be the primary means though which our society tries to reduce poverty and suffering at home and abroad, and on many counts I respectfully disagree.
But just because we disagree on the means doesn’t imply that I don’t care about the end. And I think that’s fair to say about a very large number of conservative Americans out there, perhaps the religious ones most of all.
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Let’s wrap things up with a speed round where I answer a few more comments/emails:
Q. Mormonism: Really?
A. I know, right? But yeah, really! You should try it: there’s a basketball gym in most chapels, and whenever we move we can count on 10–20 people showing up to help for free.
Q. What is it with pleated pants?
A. They’re slimming.
Q. Shouldn’t everyone support the President, despite disagreeing with him, in the interest of national security, etc. Isn’t that the same position you had during Bush’s 8 years?
A. Yes, absolutely. I disagree with President Obama on many things, but he’s the President and I respect him as the holder of the office. What’s more, I have a great deal of respect for him as a person. He strikes me as brilliant, thoughtful, and well-intentioned. Indeed, like, Chris Matthews, I’ve even felt a”thrill going up my leg” when hearing him speak!
Q. When are you moving to Somalia or Saudi Arabia, you no-government religious-conservative hypocrite?
A. When you move to Sweden. And when my shipment of gold bouillon and rocket-propelled grenades gets through customs in Mogadishu.
Q. Please explain why Republicans hate women.
A. I can’t, at least not now. They’ll kill me if I do. But I’ll contact you from Mogadishu with answers. You can reach me there at ask a republican @ gmail.
Davis lives in New York with his wife and their puppy. He blogs at Don’t Do Dumb Things.