Published on Facebook, 11/18/2011
I'm frustrated. I've finally come to the conclusion that I just don't understand liberals and it's start to depress me because it's looking increasingly like I never will. I've listened and I've tried and tried- I own all seven seasons of The West Wing. I read Huffington Post every single day probably- I check out Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos from time to time. I love NPR. I can't get through a day without it. Shit, I've ever started reading Mother Jones all in an attempt to understand and finally achieve that long sought after break through so I can finally understand just where the hell liberals are coming from.
And don't get me wrong: I'm not a Republican by any stretch of the imagination. There's a fundamental hyopcrisy about modern conservative though that just nauseates me. I can't stand sermons about the evils of government followed by demands for control of pornography, marriage, women's bodies, what's on television and what we listen to in the very next breath. Either you're for small government or you're not. Pick one.
So I can't be Republican. I just can't do it. I might be able to dabble in aspects of Libertarianism and even (the chill, non-violent, I'm a political theory class so leave me alone, all right?) bits of Anarchism, but other than that? Pass.
Problem is, intellectually try as I might, I just can't get all the way onboard with the whole Progressive-Liberal-Lefty thing and after much deep, dark, deliberation I think I've come across some reasons why:
It makes me insane when liberals keep throwing the past in my face. What are y'all? Conservatives? You can't throw the whole 'but the Republicans want to take us back the 50s and the uptight, racist, misogynist Leave It To Beaver Crap' when Progressive ideology seems bent on achieving the ultimate goals of the New Deal- from the 30s!. Fight for unions, you say- you can take bathroom breaks and have the 40 hour work week and 8 hour work day, thanks to them. And I do thank them. But when unions are fighting for two-tiered wage systems that penalize younger workers (like myself) in favor of older ones and when new teachers hired and usually the first fired, I've got to ask: just what have they done for me lately?
Take to the streets, you say- protesting stopped Vietnam! I remember when my Russian politics professor told me that on the eve of the Iraq War. We were going in there, come hell or high water and I had resigned myself to it at that point- I was just praying that we could do the job with a level of competence that wouldn't cost our fighting men and women their lives needlessly. I was wrong about that- and it still makes me angry to this day- but we were going in there. The decision had been made and no amount of drum circles or nostalgic rallies trying to get the graying ranks of academia to recall the follies of their youth was going to change that. The hard work of true Revolution is done at the ballot box- something that I'm hoping the Occupy Crowd wakes up to sooner rather than later.
And then, there's socialism. My God, all this weird obsession with socialism. European Social Democracy must be imported immediately! Nationalized health care! Nationalized banks! Take all the profits from the rich, greedy bastards and redistribute them amongst the masses! After all, it's only fair. After all, it's equal, after all- it works! Look at Europe! Yes, let's stop and look at Europe for a moment shall we. The Soviet Union collapsed in a heap and the European Union is about to implode. Still want to be like Europe? Still want nationalized health care? You probably shouldn't. Everyone think it'd be awesome if the government covered everybody and sure enough, everybody would have access to health care- but it's free health care. Just because something is free doesn't make it good, in my book. Do you really want the quality of your health care dependent on the government we elect? Sure, we elected Obama who seemed pretty competent at the time- but then again, we elected Dubya as well. Would you want him running your health care system? Then there's the most damning thing of all: people want the government to do things for them in this country. They just don't want to pay for it. Until you can square that circle at the ballot box with a convincing win- true national health care will remain just that: a dream.
The obsession with recapturing their youth that drives the Baby Boomer Generation is doing horrible, horrible things to Progressive-Lefty-Liberal politics in this country. The insistence on marches, because marches change the world! Occupation, because camping out in a park is going to make a difference! It's chock full of the same attitudes that pissed off 'the silent majority' way back in 1968 and got Nixon elected. When Newt Gingrich starts shopping around his secret plan to end the war, I'd start looking for ways to move to Canada, kids.
But despite my issues- I tend to lean left on a lot of things- and if not left, the pure hardcore libertarian. I want legalized pot. I want to end the Drug War because it's a waste of money. I'd like to end the Death Penalty for the same reason. I believe in marriage equality and get angry when a Democratic President doesn't have the balls to do the right thing because his 'views are evolving.' I do get queasy about abortion- I'm sorry if that's a true piece of heresy, but I do. Not because I know what it's like to have a uterus or anything, but because I think it sends a terrible message to young men that 'sowing your wild oats' is free, easy and for a few hundred bucks and cab fare to Planned Parenthood, entirely without consequences- at least for the young men. That offends me, because I was raised to take responsibility for my actions- and so, I think were a lot of other people. But aside from that I have problems with the notion that 'government knows best.' It doesn't. Abortion, whatever your feelings on it ultimately comes down to the actions of individuals faced with that choice.
And thus we expose the hyopcrisy inherent in modern Progressive-Liberal-Lefty thought: for drugs, marriage, abortion, the death penalty and a whole host of other issues- the government most definately does not know best. For everything else though, it does. And that confuses me. Congress, while millions of Americans are out of work and there are war raging across the world, today decided to declare that pizza was, in fact, a vegetable.
And you want these people running our health care system?
Now, I know what you're going to say: but Tooooooommmmm, it's not Congress, it's the evil corporations and banks that hold them in thrall! If we just get the right people in there, we can really get a lot of good things done for the country.
That's not going to do the trick kids. We send good people to Congress all the time. They've got modest incomes and big dreams and genuinely believe in public service and doing good for people yet somehow they stay forever retire after 20 years and step right into a lobbying job to soak up the big bucks. You want to get serious about this, you have to neuter the entrenched political class... but there are too many sweetheart deals heading to the Lefty-Progs-Liberals, so you won't.
It's all the more depressing, because I really do worry about the health of democracy in this country. (Some people worry about paying their bills, this is what I worry about. I'm a PoliSci freak- so don't judge!) I want strong, sensible, consistent ends to my political spectrum. I'd like voting reform so we can squeeze in at least one more party to keep the other two honest. I'd like a government that can lend a helping hand when people genuinely need it and then leave everyone else the hell alone as much as possible. I'd like to go to a Caucus and not worry that I need neurological examination because I believe the candidate who wants to put us back on the Gold Standard is the least bad option of all the options out there- left and right! I'd like to be proud to vote for a true Liberal or even a true Conservative- a true anybody would be a good start!
I know that true Revolution is more than camping in a park or marching in a street. It's meetings- a shitload of 'em. (Tell me where, kids, I'll show up.) I know we can do better as a country- I'd just like a little hint that I'm not alone in that thought. I'd like to put hardcore, fierce Independents directly into the mainstream of political discourse in this country and I'd love to take down the entrenched establishment in the process.
But when it comes to mainstream- whatever that means- politics in this country, I feel a lot like Fox Mulder right at the very start of The X-Files. Big glasses, crappy haircut and a burning, feverish desire to believe.
I want to believe. Can you help me, please?
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