{"id":117180,"date":"2017-09-05T09:59:12","date_gmt":"2017-09-05T17:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=117180"},"modified":"2017-09-05T09:59:12","modified_gmt":"2017-09-05T17:59:12","slug":"conservatives-in-america-like-marranos-in-medieval-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=117180","title":{"rendered":"Conservatives in America \u2013 Like Marranos in Medieval Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dennis Prager writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

There is, of course, no Spanish Inquisition in America today \u2013 no one is being tortured into confessing what they really believe, and no one is being burned at the stake. But there are millions of Marrano-like Americans: Americans who hold conservative views \u2013 especially those who hold to conservative positions on social issues and those who voted for Donald Trump for president.
\nMillions of Americans who hold conservative and\/or pro-Trump views rationally fear being ostracized by their peers, public humiliation, ruined reputations, broken families, losing their job, and being unable to work in their field. Under these circumstances, they have decided that coming out as conservative or pro-Trump is not worth the persecution they would.
\nIn terms of the percentage of the population affected, there is no parallel in American history. Coming out as a homosexual prior to the 1960s-70s, or publicly announcing that one was member of the Communist Party in the 1950s would have often led to similar dire consequences in one\u2019s social, work and family life. But gays and Communist Party members comprised a tiny percentage of the American population. And one of them, Communists, supported true evil.
\nI wish I could share all the emails sent to me from professional musicians who play in some of the premier orchestras of America. They wrote to me following the nationally publicized attempts by left-wing members of the orchestra and of the Santa Monica city government to prevent me from conducting: they publicly called on members of the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra to refuse to play, and members of the public to refuse to attend, when I conducted a Haydn symphony at the Walt Disney Concert Hall three weeks ago.
\nThese emails were written to encourage me, and to tell me how they are compelled to hide their conservative views \u2013 how they live, in effect, as Marranos.
\nA violist with one of the most prestigious orchestras in the country (I figured out which orchestra using the Internet; she was afraid to tell even me) wrote to me last week about how quiet she is about her conservatism. While she could not be fired for it, she said, she would be socially ostracized within the orchestra with which she has played for decades.
\nAnother middle-aged professional musician told me that he wears his hair very long in order to appear hippie-like as a decoy to camouflage his conservative politics. He is no more likely to tell fellow musicians that he supports President Trump than a Marrano in medieval Spain would have gone public with his Jewish beliefs.
\nAnd here\u2019s part of an email to me from a musician in Minnesota: \u201cI was a professional musician from the age of 17. I wanted you to know that I, too, lost my career because of my views. My choice, actually; I just could no longer take the abuse.\u201d
\nI\u2019m fortunate. As a radio talk-show host and columnist, I\u2019m paid to express my opinions. And as to my avocation of conducting orchestras, I\u2019m lucky there, too. Because the permanent conductor of the Santa Monica Symphony and the orchestra\u2019s board remained principled, and because so many people support me and my values, the efforts to thwart me failed. Disney Hall, all 2,000-plus seats, was sold out \u2013 a first for a community orchestra in that venue.
\nOf course, American conservative Marranos don\u2019t only live in the world of music. They are in every profession. We know about the high-profile cases, the conservatives whose careers have been ruined by saying the \u201cwrong\u201d thing or supporting the \u201cwrong\u201d candidate or ballot proposition; we know about the conservative speakers who have been physically attacked and prevented from speaking on college campuses. But we don\u2019t know about the millions who are just afraid to speak up, who remain silent in a business meeting or at a dinner party when someone casually expresses a view that they strongly disagree with. These Americans live in fear, legitimately so in many cases, that if they do speak out, there will be severe consequences \u2013 a job lost, a promotion not given, even a child who will no longer speak to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dennis Prager writes: There is, of course, no Spanish Inquisition in America today \u2013 no one is being tortured into confessing what they really believe, and no one is being burned at the stake. But there are millions of Marrano-like … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21791],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-america"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t