The Con$ervative Who Stole Christmas

There was an notable LTE in yesterday's Amarillo Globe-Republican. Samuel G. Dawson relays a story that Safeway stores will be open on Christmas, and that labor unions are outraged that some employees will have to work on the holiday. This is interesting because it is one of many issues where left and right recognize a common problem, but have dramatically different takes on the cause and solution. Dawson blames the "unions (and others)" because they support separation of church and state (I assume the "others" he refers to are liberals in general). Dawson's interpretation is flawed for a couple of reasons. First, he assumes that unions and "others" are irreligious. That certainly isn't true. Secondly, it is because of unions and other such organizations that the weekends and holidays are even available to commoners like us.

While it is probably true that a lack of respect for Christmas as a holy day, or even as just a day for families to be together, motivated the decision to keep Safeway stores open, one has to ask who ultimately made that call? Was that person a liberal? A member of a trade union? Or was that person a card-carrying con$ervative Republican who decided that the money to be made on Christmas day was worth the time and trouble of opening the stores? Is it liberalism that drives retailers to haul out the Christmas merchandise earlier and earlier with every passing year? Is it liberalism that makes people stampede like cattle into Walmart the day after Thanksgiving to buy a bunch of cheap-ass crap?

I almost feel sorry for people like Dawson. They see their world being taken apart bit by bit, but acknowledging the true nature of con$ervative ideology means acknowledging they've sided with the enemy. The Big Business/Wall St. crowd cares little about Dawson's corn-fed, Bible Belt values. Until that realization dawns upon him he will continue to twist logic in anyway he can in order to cast blame upon the rampaging hoards of godless, communist, hippie, faggot liberals that exist only in his head.