Right-Wing Friends and Tribes

Over the holidays I had the chance to visit with a friend who is a fervent right-winger-- that is, he supports the so-called "War on Terror", and thinks that the actions of the Bush administration will be shown to be the right thing to do. Above all, he has nothing but disgust for those on the other side of the debate-- he truly believes that we are naive if not stupid to not see how invading Iraq was absolutely necessary. He threw his hands up in the air in frustration that we could not see how obvious this all was, and warned us that we'll feel differently when "they" come to get us.

Is that all this is about? Did I miss something on September 11th? Am I a bad person because I didn't feel personally attacked? Is it bad that I'm not afraid that a Muslim extremist is going to show up in my office and blow me up? It's only reasonable to think that that is highly unlikely, so what am I missing?

I think it comes down to a sort of tribalism, the definition of the "other". Since September 11th, fear and anger has run rampant in every direction. People struggle to define who they are, and who their friends are. Safety is found in numbers. President Bush defined two teams: "with us" and "with the terrorists". Some chose "with us", while others, seeing this tactic for what it was, chose "against Bush". Both camps were full, and had plenty of cocoa.

But 5-plus years removed from that day, and the camps are still around. However, Bush supporters have a huge advantage because their message is simpler. Left-wingers can debate the correct course of action all day long, but no one really knows-- the damage is already done. Right-wingers need only have faith in their leader and keep chanting "stay the course". The wrong was committed when the war machine was allowed to run roughshod over the truth, and while we try to show how this happened, the right-wing scoffs at us, and people continue to die.

We are not arguing about the same thing, and that's why we can never agree.