So these past few weeks I have been riding on a Harry Potter high after going to Harry Potter World in Orlando (only word to describe the park: awesomeness).  The new movie is coming out soon, I’ve been re-reading book 7 at home—I’m just in a general Potter-y place.  Additionally, the midterm elections were last week.  The combination reminded me of a slogan I’ve been seeing around lately:  Republicans for Voldemort. 

I personally think this slogan is pretty hilarious.  And just generally silly, in that good, I-feel silly-but-also-find-a-small-grain-of-truth-to-this-statement-so-that-makes-me-feel-even-sillier way.

So out of curiosity, I looked up the slogan on UrbanDictionary.com, just to see if it was listed.  Oh, and it was.  Hoo boy, yes it was:

——————————————————————————————————-
Republicans for Voldemort
A slogan seen on t-shirts and bumper stickers. It was made by someone who was attempting to be clever, and failed epically in that attempt. It’s only used by people whose knowledge of politics is so dismally lacking, that they must boil down the entire American political system into the basic Good vs. Evil of the Harry Potter books, and associate the bad guy with the political party that they’ve been told to hate, even though they don’t actually know why they hate it. Anyone who, (a) has read the Harry Potter books, (b) has at least an elementary knowledge of politics and history, and (c) has an IQ above room temperature, should be able to figure out that Rowling clearly based Voldemort and his Death Eaters on Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. Both want a totalitarian government, both wish to oppress, persecute, and exterminate those that they see as being born genetically inferior based on the “purity” of their blood. They blame all of their problems on a certain group of people. They manipulate school curriculum in order to indoctrinate children against this group. The “pure blood” motif is also very similar to the outdated British Nobility system, of which the few that remain still cling to.

Ex: Even though you see “Republicans for Voldemort” crap everywhere, Voldemort really has nothing whatsoever to do with the Republican party of the U.S., or any other modern political party. If a comparison MUST be made, the Republicans are most like Scrimgeour: determined to protect us from terrorists, but perhaps a too heavy-handed with security. Meanwhile, Democrats are more like Fudge and Umbridge: in denial that such a big threat exists, over-regulating everything with too many rules, and dominating most media outlets.

(The tags for this post were: ignorance, childishness, uninformed, ridiculous, halfwit, red state, blue state) 
——————————————————————————————————-

This definition, while making the good point that nothing in real life can be boiled down into good vs. evil, is also completely blindsighted by its own bias.  To me, the slogan is just a silly jab at a political party, which compared to some of the interesting things that have been on Tea Party posters lately, is an obvious joke.  I get that some people may not find this amusing or may even be offended by it; everyone’s certainly entitled to their own opinions, that’s cool.  But the author of this definition is also perpetuating broad, unfair generalizations of Democrats, doing precisely what he/she accuses the slogan of doing in the first place.  Not all people blindly “hate what they are told to hate;” some people actually have reasons why they may disagree politically! 

So I was saddened that this was the only definition that was up there.  If not only to have another political view voiced on the UrbanDictionary page, I decided to submit a definition of my own: 

Republicans for Voldemort
The original definition of this slogan has a blatantly obvious bias.  (As will this definition, most likely.)  In the past, Republicans have voted against civil rights proposals and supported extreme interrogation tactics: voting against the Violence Against Women’s Act, voting against equal marriage rights, an administration that waterboarded suspects, etc.  I agree that Voldemort’s regime is most akin to Hitler’s, but also to any view that dealt with “purity” of blood (a.k.a. racism) or any view that does not promote equality for all (which is more relevant in today’s political climate).  Nothing is black and white, and I understand it is unfair to select examples out of context.  But people who find the slogan amusing are likely frustrated with actions that seem to promote some form of social injustice, and chuckle at an extreme analogy that does not pretend to be a thesis of well-reasoned political analysis: it’s referring to Harry Potter, for goodness sake.  It is a slogan made to show distaste with a political view, much like the numerous smear campaigns of the midterm elections.  Meanwhile, those campaigns were 100% serious and had actual political impact.   Politics rarely depicts “fair” representations of either party, which the original definition’s author did nothing but perpetuate by comparing Democrats to Umbridge and her regime (which some may argue is just as bad as Voldemort’s, if not worse, as their selfish motivations impeded every progressive political maneuver in the name of “good”.) 

 
Ex: Damn man, I’m just so frustrated by some of the referenda that Republicans keep shooting down, sometimes I think that Republicans would have supported Voldemort.

And on that note, I will leave you with a very serious political video:

rant by Liz (who actually doesn’t like wearing confrontation-pants and very much prefers open-political-dialogue-pants)