I just figured out one good reason that Republicans hate Harry Potter

[Rabrrrrrr]

Because there are no characters in the book that they can actively and publicly support that aren't boneheads. The only good Republican type characters are jackasses (just like muggle republicans) or ineffectual and married to rules and fear: Umbridge, Fudge, Crouch, and so forth.

While I think that Republicans have a tendency toward evil, I don't think many would support Voldemort. Cheney might, but not many.

So they can't be pro-Voldemort.

Which leaves the only option to be pro-Dumbledore and pro-Harry.

But Republicans can't be for either of them, because they represent breaking rules, standing up to authority when the authority is wrong, suffering for truth, self-sacrifice, creativity, freedom to fail and be forgiven/learn from it/find reconciliation after it, a steadfast refusal to allow people to live in and suffer from fear, empowerment of children, empowerment of the disenfranchised (squibs, muggles, and mudbloods), trust in people, and love.

So they can't be pro-Dumbledore or pro any of Dumbledore's people.

I think Republicans are secretly in favor of Lucius Malfoy, but they know that if they admitted it to anyone, they would be lambasted and held up to public ridicule, except by their asshole brethren.

So their only option is to speak out against Harry Potter books.

[XemaSab]

1. I already developed a similar theory

I'll send pm.

[coffeenap]

2. The best part of your accurate observation is that millions

of kids have gobbled down these books and might just grow up with subconscious ideals that will turn them into progressives! (Oh, there's more reason for Repubs. to be afraid of the stories.)

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. Even Ron Weasley gets health care

Nobody seems to have to pull an insurance card out of their sleeves, they just get fixed up. Universal health care like that will drive Repubs crazy.

[EstimatedProphet]

4. Actually, I don't think it's that complicated

I think it's because they're stupid.

Repubs don't care much for critical thinking. They go in for easy black and white solutions that can be understood by the fifth-graders that usually whoop up on the in trivia contests. They like a world with easily-understood rules and regulations, where problems can just go away if you don't tnk about them at all, and there's no such thing as a complex character. to put it another way, they want characters in books that don't have to think in order to act, and they like books that are so clearly clear-cut that there can be no debating as to who is good or evil, and they like storylines where the hero can do anything because he's a hero, and everything he does is automatically good because he does it. that's why they love 24. Jack Bauer tramples on the Constitution every episode, but it's OK because he's Jack Bauer, and that makes it a good thing to trample on the Constitution.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

6. Republicans Hate Books...

Well, at least any book that wasn't written by Tom Clancy. If you look at any work of literature, there's a fundamentally humanist ethos to the story, and that is often at odds with conservative ideology. Let's face it -- Republicans would look at Huck Finn and Jim as lawbreakers who should be punished for violating the Fugitive Slave Act. Tom Joad was a shiftless bum (and a convicted felon). And Catherine Earnshaw was a goddamed slut.

Literature should always challenge the readers' worldview and sensibilities, but that sort of thing is immoral to the right wing. On a level of broader appeal, conservatives loved the television show "Touched by An Angel" because it gave a simple, non-threatening spiritual message. They hated "Nothing Sacred" and "The Book of Daniel" and even demanded that those shows and their far more complex view of spirituality be taken off the air.

So, yeah. They're stupid.

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. I think that's a big part of it - repukes and freeps can't handle grayness.

The heroes in Harry Potter all have flaws, which to a Republican is impossible and infuriating, and the bad guys (many of them, anyway) have good qualities, which is also impossible and infuriating for republicans to accept.

Thus, Reagan is all pure goodness, no matter how bad some of his acts (like adultery, divorce, and all his evil acts as president). And they get all shitblown when Democrats freely criticize some of Clinton's acts or policies that we don't like, because to a republican, to criticize one of one's own is to be a traitor, and they can't handle the fact that we are capable, in our more evolved brains, to both love and appreciate something or someone while at the same time finding faults with it.

[jobycom]

5. They know they are being mocked, but can't really prove it without looking dumb.

"Hey, Draco Malfoy is like Bush! That's mean!" Everyone would laugh at them.