Conservatives are racist. Or so I’m told.

I recently attended a gathering where my husband and I were chatting it up with a guy who had grown up with some of our current circle of friends.  As we swapped stories about some of these mutual friends, this man commented on one, saying, “You know, I’m kinda surprised she married a black guy because, judging by her Facebook posts, she is way conservative.”

I didn’t know the dude well enough to say something snarky, besides the fact that such a comment caught me off-guard, but here’s what  I wanted to say:

“Because conservatives hate blacks, right?”

Or, “You know, her husband’s probably conservative, too.”

Or, if I really wanted to get into it, I could launch into how his characterization is a gross oversimplification of conservative views on race in America.  And how racist his comment was.  And how living in the echo chamber that is California has done nothing to enlighten him on the true views of conservatives in our country.  Gosh, he’d have to leave L.A. to find a real live conservative and who wants to do that, anyway?

Stop telling us conservatives that we hate people who aren’t white.  Stop suggesting that we can’t possibly care about the LGBTQ community.  Stop insinuating that our policies are not minority-friendly.

It’s such an asinine argument really.  Not to mention manipulative.  Calling the opposition “haters” in an attempt to make them feel stupid for even thinking differently than you.

My seven-year-old does that when I don’t give her exactly what she wants.  “You don’t love me, mom.”  “Why are you so mean to me, mom?”  All in the hopes that I’ll feel badly that I’ve hurt her so deeply and will, against my better judgment, cave to her demands for perceived justice.

Guess what?  Liberal social policy is like bad parenting to me.  Giving people what they want to appease them, or to maintain a voting bloc or to be able to pat yourselves on the back and say “See everyone?  I’m not a hater.”  All the while implementing short-sighted policies that provide incentives for poor behavior and don’t improve society in the long run.

All in the name of appearing “fair”.

The welfare system, affirmative action, social security, just name the entitlement program.  Designed to promote equality but resulting in anything but.

I was born in New York City, lived in Asia long enough to think I was Asian, had a stint in Texas, attended early college in Boston, graduated from Brigham Young University and have hopped around the intermountain west ever since.  My friends are both rich and poor, black and white, gay and straight, married and single, liberal and conservative.  I’ve lived 39 years of life rich in diversity and I am not a hater just because I am a conservative.

I’ll be darned if I let someone bully me into believing otherwise.