(updated)
I see that you can't get this shirt from the GOP anymore:
The National Republican Congressional Committee appears to have removed a t-shirt from its website that advocates against saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."Josh Barro of Business Insider responds to this with a post titled "Republicans Had Better Get Comfortable With 'Happy Holidays'":
In a tweet last week, the NRCC promoted the t-shirt....
As of Monday, the shirt looks to have been removed from the NRCC website. The online store is still selling a t-shirt milder version that says "Not Afraid to Say 'Merry Christmas.'" ...
... Republicans don't understand how their anti-outsider messages aggregate.I think that's true. But I don't think that's how right-wingers see things.
Most voters are straight, so opposition to gay marriage shouldn't be an electoral problem. Most voters aren't Mexican-Americans, so they shouldn't be too bothered by thinly-veiled (or unveiled) anti-Mexican messaging on immigration.
Add these things all together, and you get a political party that looks like it's engaged in interest group politics for straight non-Hispanic white Christians. That's not too appealing to the increasing share of voters who aren't straight non-Hispanic white Christians....
Right-wingers not only root for straight white Christian males, they expect people who aren't straight white Christian males to root for straight white Christian males. So we get right-wing rabbi Daniel Lapin explaining why people should say "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays." This is a guy who, back in 2005, along with radio host Don Feder and comedian Jackie Mason, formed a group called "Jews for 'It's OK to Say Merry Christmas.'" Or consider Ben Stein, who in 2006 said this in a commentary on CBS:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish....That's the model right-wingers expect emerging minority groups to follow: deference to the majority, and the refusal to stand up for the rights of one's own group.
It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year.
Who's the most admired right-wing thinker on the subject of feminism? Phyllis Schlafly. Ann Coulter has frequently praised Schlafly, best known for her opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, for her "stunning accomplishments," describing her as "brilliant, beautiful, principled, articulate, tireless and, most important, absolutely fearless." And, of course, Coulter herself has asserted that women shouldn't be allowed to vote.
Who's the most admired black person in government among right-wingers? Isn't it Clarence Thomas, who rejects every societal effort to improve the lot of black people?
And on it goes. The right believes in deferring to straight white Christian males, and expects everyone to agree. The fact that some people don't want to do that is not just infuriating to right-wingers -- it's baffling. Right-wingers simply don't understand it.
*****
UPDATE: Just spotted this at Fox Nation.
I think that says it all.
Merry Christmas doesn't piss me off (I'm an atheist). But neither does Happy Holidays. And the latter seems far more inclusive to me so if I had to pick between 2 stores based on nothing other than that I would pick the happy holidays one.
ReplyDeleteIt would not be an important factor at all. But this stuff works far more strongly at a sub conscious level, and what's killing the RWNJs is that even amongst Christians, the nut job ratio ain't as high as they hoped.
What is Christmas, after all? It's a pagan holiday that clever businessmen turned into a shopping spree by "using the Lord's name in vain." On some level, it has become a time of good will to all, but Republicans don't roll that way.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about our Conservatives.
ReplyDeleteThey'd really love it if minorities started forming groups like, "Jew's for the Inquisition," "Native-Americans for A New Trail of Tears," 'Gay's for AIDS," etc.
The Koch's and other billionaires would gladly help fund these groups.
Like unknown above, either greeting is fine with me, but "happy holidays" seems more inclusive. If I know that the person I'm talking to is Jewish, I'm going to moderate my greeting toward "happy holidays" - no problem there for me, and if by chance I did happen to say "merry christmas" to a Jewish person, I'm sure they wouldn't mind - although it's likely they'd find it much more welcoming to here "happy holidays."
ReplyDeleteIt's what in the old days we called "good manners."
The funny thing about it, is you probably couldn't find an example of a non-Christian person complaining about the choice of greeting they were given; it would be bad manners, after all.
The people who are REALLY upset about the "wrong" greeting being used are the conservatives. It's they who have decided to turn what normal people think of as sensible good manners into a badge of tribalism - and even hatred.
That T-shirt's message is pretty clear "those-people-I-see-as-bad say 'happy holidays' but Our Tribe says 'merry Christmas.'"
It's ironic that they use the occasion of such deep religious celebration to celebrate their tribalism.
Got no problem with the Trail of Tears if white dogs are walking it - at gunpoint. Dragging the old, young and ill. With nothing but rags. The day is coming.
ReplyDeleteWhite dogs want a race war, that's not a problem. Their common dog, the dog.of Abraham, can sort them out.
No fear.
That one gent didn't take the free jacket.
ReplyDelete