A New Golden Rule
Do onto others as you would have them do onto you.
Luke 6:31. The Golden Rule. One of the cornerstones of the New Testament. A simple 11-word phrase that represents not only one's duty to others but a fundamental ethical principle for all to live. Within this guiding phrase is an embedded empathy for those around us. To put ourselves in others' shoes. To treat others as we would want to be treated. For nearly 2,000 years the followers of Christianity have been entrusted to use the Golden Rule as a guiding light with not only their fellow Christians but for all of those with whom they interact in their daily lives. The hope, the dream, the vision to create a world where all of humanity shares a collective duty to be good to one another. A noble and ambitious aspiration to be sure, but one that would surely be achievable in the long run.
Flash forward nearly 2,000 years to this recent article about my home city's winter snow removal.
Current city laws delegate most responsibilities for sidewalk snow clearance to abutting property owners, with enforcement by the city’s code enforcement officers.
Under these rules, the city itself is already responsible for the many sidewalks abutting its parks, schools, and other facilities; the city also takes responsibility to clear sidewalks on city-controlled bridges.
But because the current system disperses snow-clearing responsibilities among thousands of different people, even some of the city’s busiest sidewalks can be effectively impassable for days following large storms.
Between Saturday’s storm and Wednesday morning, 656 citations for sidewalk snow violations had been recorded on the City of Boston’s code enforcement database.
Yes, apparently doing onto others does not include shoveling snow off your sidewalk in the year 2022.
While articles like these should disappoint us, they should no longer surprise us. What we've seen over the past two years is that an alarmingly high number of Americans will no longer do the right thing when it comes to the public good. For two years now, we've asked our conservative friends and neighbors to be selfless and make small sacrifices for the greater good. We've asked them simply to do what we're doing: wearing masks in public, social distancing whenever possible, and getting vaccinated and boosted. Our ask wasn't merely for ourselves but for the elders in our families, our immunocompromised friends and colleagues, and our youngest children. We asked our conservative friends to make these small sacrifices so that we could eventually get back to normal and that all of us, regardless of our political leanings, could get back to doing the things that we loved. All we asked was for our conservative friends to do the right thing.
Yet they refused to do so.
They refused because like the Boston property owners, they have zero empathy for anyone but themselves. While the Boston owners will at least be charged a fine, there are zero repercussions for those that have chosen to be pandemic pricks, openly fighting against public health and safety measures. Not only are they endangering their own families but they are endangering our most vulnerable community members like those that cannot be vaccinated for reasons relating to age or immunization status. They send their kids to school with our kids knowing full well they are unvaccinated. They protest at restaurants they know full well have mask mandates and vaccination policies. And when they ultimately get sick thanks to their bullshit anti-science nonsense, their dying act in this life is to endanger the lives of the doctors and nurses whose lives have been made miserable for the last two years thanks to them and their ilk.
If you were to ask me to explain the difference between the two major political parties to an alien, I would share this one word: empathy. Democrats are the party of empathy. Empathy for people of color. Empathy for women. Empathy for immigrants and refugees. Empathy for the LGBTQIA+ community. Empathy for workers. Empathy for families. Empathy for seniors. What we've seen the last two years is that Democrats are the ones actively trying to end the pandemic while Republicans have gladly prolonged it to make Joe Biden look bad. From Ron Desantis to Greg Abbott to now Glenn Youngkin, Republican leadership has been more than willing to ignore scientific experts and sound public health policy to instead cater to the extreme voices of the Republican Party. Saving the lives of your constituents would be fine and dandy but having several thousand die so you can hype yourself up as a champion of personal liberty is much better for your future political aspirations. A party that once obsessed over the death of 4 Americans in Benghazi has seen over 300 times the death that we saw on 9/11 and counting and guilt and remorse are the farthest things from their minds. The pro-life party stopped caring about life and started caring more about playing politics with people's lives and if a few hundred thousand Americans had to die in the process then so be it.
Democrats are the good guys. We, as a whole, are good people. We are the ones who do our best to follow the Golden Rule. We mask up in public. We get our vaccinations and boosters. We shovel our sidewalks so that others, not just us, can safely pass by. We do all this because it's how we were raised. It's how we interpret our faith, whether through religious dogma or simply having an intrinsic desire to treat others the way we would expect to be treated. But when dealing with a suicidal political party, all bets must be off the table. Democrats must fight back and fight back hard. That's why it's been so rewarding to see Democrats go all-in on gerrymandering ahead of the 2022 midterms. After all, we've seen what happens when government switches from Democratic to Republican leadership in a place like Virginia. There is no such thing as a moderate Republican. For six years now, it has become the party of Trump and a prerequisite for being a member of that party is a complete abdication of the Golden Rule. Trump may have won nearly 80% of the Evangelical vote in 2020, but they are only 14% of the country as a whole. And with 76% of the country having received at least one dose of the vaccine, it's becoming glaringly obvious which eligible population will be holding out until the bitter end.
Going high when they go low is a noble sentiment. But we're dealing with a suicide cult of tens of millions of people. A suicide cult that is openly embracing fascism by wanting to censor our schools, our teachers, and our history. This is America's first open war with fascism in our 240-year history. We know we can't rely on our compromised media. We know that no matter how much good we do as individuals in our own social networks, our opponents will continue to endanger us, our children, our seniors, and our immunocompromised friends. This is an ideological Civil War, niceties be damned. That's not to say we stop believing in the tenets that make us loyal Democrats. But in addition to following our core values, we now must gerrymander, fundraise, and continue lawsuits against Republican overreach. We absolutely must choose the best Senate candidates in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. We must protect Senate seats in New Hampshire, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona. And we must continue to share the Biden-Harris Administration's ever-growing list of accomplishments with our easily-influenced friends and family members on social media.
Do onto others.
It was a noble intent. But today, in the year of Our Lord 2022, the only way for us to save the republic is to get down and dirty and fight in the mud. We can no longer rely on shared values like the New Testament envisioned. There's simply too much at stake. We all need to roll up our sleeves and fight like hell to save the republic. History does not frown upon the fake invasion and intelligence that Allied forces "leaked" to the Germans ahead of D-Day to throw them off. Nor should history frown upon Democrats doing whatever it takes to stave off Republican fascism in 2022. We are on the right side of all this and as contrary to our nature as it might be, the time is now to fight fire with fire. When an opposition party threatens not only our lives but the lives of our families and loved ones then that is the time to rise up and rise above it all. It is at this time in our history, when the Golden Rule has failed, that we must finally understand that the greatest threat to our safety and security is not some distant terrorist but the entire Republican Party and all of its members. They must be stopped at all costs.
Even if we have to act un-Democratically to do so.