Are You Different

Chris Bowers strikes again with a wonderfully insightful post today entitled "Different People Suck."

People who are different suck. Because Obama likes different stuff, you shouldn't like him. Even though I am a straight white dude from the suburbs who grew up Catholic in the predominantly Catholic northeast, I've been dealing with this shit since about the fifth grade. Even if you are demographically identical to the local plurality or majority, if you don't like the same stuff as everyone else, then you still suck. And while it is certainly not to the same level as what people face for demographic differences, it still goes for your interests in music, food, clothes, television and pretty much any cultural or consumer object you can name. Being different means you are bad, and should be scorned.

This attitude of scorning those who are different has been the primary dividing line in American politics for a long time. It is the basic conservative mantra, and it can be seen quite clearly in voting patterns. - OpenLeft

He gets at a very key insight in the post - a coalition of the non-majority is, in fact, a majority. The Democrats have been and continue to be a coalition of the non-majority. No one single subset of the Democratic party is a majority (or even a good plurality) of America. Even christian white male Democrats (like yours truly) are merely a small minority in the Democratic party (outnumbered by, for example, women).

This pattern isn't surprising in the least. Given that the conservative message is constantly "different people suck," it was pretty much inevitable that all of the different people, even if they are all different from each other, would eventually band together and turn against that message. Functionally, it turns our political discourse into a never-ending replay of what most people experienced since they first entered adolescence: the freaks versus the norms. - Chris Bowers

This has been my experience as well, and I am sure the experience of many of my friends. We're band geeks and nerds. We've only found strength in each other, and had to constantly fight for respect and recognition. Now, the tables are turning as the outcasts can band together to form a new majority, one that will keep America looking forward, rather than backwards. And that's a good thing.

So yeah, I am different, and damn proud of it. I'm a Band geek wannabe engineer Democrat. And I'm coming for your vote.