We Bleeding Hearts

Liberals. We all know the stereotypes. To the Right Wingers, and even Moderates, we are seen as pansies, wusses, politically correct hippies, and other such things. They seem to have a point. There are plenty of us who worry about offending people. Who worry about being overly 'politically correct'. So why would anyone be a Liberal? Who wants to be 'weak'?

That's easy. I'm a Liberal, and I'm a Liberal because I have empathy. Empathy is not a weakness. Being able to see how people in other situations feel is a strength. Being able to relate to your fellow human beings who aren't like you is a strength. Wanting the same rights for all human beings, regardless of race, creed, orientation, gender, ability, class, etc., is not weak. There is nothing wrong with asking people to stop saying hate words. Racial slurs don't help keep us united. Racial slurs keep us divided into cliques. They make it 'us' and 'them'. Asking others to be tolerant does not make us pansies. It makes us the bigger people. How is asking people to not say those things, or to treat everyone as humans and equals, weakness?

The Right Wing calls us weak and wusses so they can try to justify their bigotry. They say we are all too worried about being politically correct so they can keep saying what they want. By declaring Liberals weak, they make it so they can denigrate anyone who isn't like them. It's the tactic of bullies. Make your opposition look weak, and anything they say seem like it's sissy, and the public will think you are strong. You can then get away with saying any horrible thing you want. Hell, we have the Tea Party going on about how they are racists, and proud! How can they get away with it? Because they make us out to be weak. We say all people deserve respect, they say that only wimps think that, and this is 'Merica! (They use a double whammy of bullying and patriotism.) It's sickening.

Liberals need to show we are not the weaklings they think we are. We aren't weak, and we never were. We have to show them that caring for everyone, even those not just like us, is the right thing to do. We need to spread the message that equal rights is just that, equal rights, and all people deserve them. We bleeding hearts need to show that empathy is not our weakness, it's what makes us strong.