From Glendale AZ to Uvalde TX, conservatism and the absence of empathy
“I call him religious who understands the suffering of others.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
On Friday, in a scene repeated countless times during graduation season across America, a local big-wig gave a commencement speech to high school seniors. In this case, Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) gave a speech to the seniors at Arizona Virtual Academy’s graduation ceremony in Glendale. Her offering lasted ten minutes. And she was heckled off the stage. Why? Let graduate Juliana Butler explain.
“I have heard other commencement speakers make speeches, and they were just very motivating. Nothing to do with politics, or religion, or anything. It was just about the graduates. And she seemed to not grasp that and not put that like in her speech at all.”
“I thought it was very inappropriate, and I was honestly really shocked that that was even allowed. I don’t know who OK'd that.”
Butler also said Lesko failed to mention the graduates and their accomplishments. And Lesko also polled the audience on school choice and federal student loan forgiveness.
Juliana’s father Charlie added,
“This should have been all about the kids and their accomplishments. And, and it wasn't, and that's why parents got frustrated. And that's why she was only there for 10 minutes. And that's why she walked out as soon as she was done.”
It does not take much empathy to understand that a graduation ceremony is about the graduates. They are the ones wearing robes and mortarboards. They are the ones trooping up to get their certificates. There are certainly examples of where the commencement speaker becomes the star. But they did so by congratulating and inspiring the raison d’être for the occasion — the students.
Lesko lacks even that minimal concern for her fellow human beings. And in that, she is not alone. If there is one feature common to all conservatives, it is a complete lack of empathy. Take the Uvalde school massacre.
Nineteen children and two teachers were gunned down. Twenty-one families will never again feel the love of the one they lost. The parents of the dead children will never attend the graduations, marriages, and other rites of passage of their kids. These children will never have children of their own to love. And the children of the teachers killed will live with the loss of a parent taken too soon. In one case, both parents.
The natural human reaction is to feel the pain of these poor people. To ache for their loss. And to hope that maybe this time something will change. But that is not how a conservative feels it. Their first calculation is to protect the rights of gun owners. Not all gun owners, mind you. Just the minority who believe their interpretation of the second amendment is sacrosanct — no matter how many have to die.
Governor Abbott wanted his audience to know that heroic law enforcement had prevented more deaths, saying, "The reason it was not worse is because law enforcement officials did what they do." And then, when the true callousness of the police's lack of response became plain, he wanted the public to know he was “livid” that he had supposedly been misinformed.
Who gives a shit? The only thing Abbott should have been talking about was the tragedy of young lives cut short and futures extinguished. It was not the place to congratulate an agency for screwing up the job they were entrusted, trained, and paid to do. His job as Governor was to console. And at that, he failed.
It echoed another Texan incompetent blowhard, George W. Bush, and his ludicrous attaboy for then FEMA Director Michae Brown — "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." A job that Brown so thoroughly botched that he was relieved of his duties a week later — after the death toll of Hurricane Katrina reached 1,833. Note: Bush was the last significant Republican to speak of “compassionate conservatism”. None have tried that hose-job since.
I do not expect conservatives to change their policies. But are they so empathy-free they cannot understand how hateful their words are? Or do they know how hateful they are, and say what they say, because they are sociopaths who revel in inflicting pain?
Back in Texas, Ted Cruz proved to be the scorpion that cannot change its nature. This loathsome man, who once abandoned his responsibilities by fleeing to Cancun because it was cold, thought nothing of kissing the ring that feeds him, by attending the NRA’s death fest in Houston before the first Uvalde victim was even buried. His fellow Senator, John Cornyn, at least had the decency to blow off America's leading sponsor of mass murder by suddenly remembering he had something to do in DC.
But Ted cannot do decency anymore than most Americans can speak Chinese. This excrescence made damn sure that everyone knew he was not going to lift a finger to address gun violence by addressing gun ownership. Ted is so lacking in feelings it did not register with him that he could have lied that nothing was off the table. He would not have to change his position — he could have quietly clung to his gun absolutist stance — but it would have allowed him to sound human. But for him, it was too big a lift.
We should not be surprised. The modus operandi of conservative politics is to convince white, cisgender-male, Christian Americans (aka “The Winners”) that they are the victims of discrimination and hateful agendas. And they can rely on the fact that the vast majority of white cisgender female Christian Americans will buy into that absurd misogyny.
Conservatives demonize the LGTBQ+ community with “don’t say gay bills” — adding extra bile for trans-Americans by banning the medical attention they need. They dismiss minorities with CRT bans. Immigrants with “go back home rapists”. Women by criminalizing abortion. And the poor with caricatures of Welfare Queens and slurs about takers vs. makers. Meanwhile, they ban any book that tells of the experiences of “the other”. And metaphorically burn anything that celebrates life outside the white heteronormative narrative.
And they will not — cannot — see that all of those they demonize and dismiss are individuals — each with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is nothing new. Southern conservatives dehumanized Blacks as slaves. Much as the Nazis would later dehumanize Jews as subhuman. To whip a slave or gas a Jew, had the same moral consequences to a conservative as stepping on a cockroach.
Yet if you ask a conservative if they care about others, they will be sure to tell you that they are good Christians. Although they show no familiarity, in word or deed, with the teachings of Christ. The insurmountable problem with conservatives is that often what they say and do is evil. Yet in their hearts, they think they are being good. And everything will be all right because they are “born again” and tight with Jesus.
Meanwhile, liberal religionists, and non-believers of every stripe, know that a moral life is one in which you try to care for others as individuals as you do for yourself as an individual. It is a goal rarely achieved — but at least it is a noble aim.