Why am I a liberal?

That, my friends, is a short question but it requires a somewhat complicated answer. In a nutshell I suppose that I could say that I have seen just how destructive the new brand of “compassionate conservatism” can be, but that’s too easy. In fact it’s a bit of a cop out. I’m not a Liberal merely because of the destructive nature of the ever devolving Republican Party. There are very real and very positive reasons which explain my affection for and dedication to progressive thought.

First and foremost I have never really believed that life is a series of blacks and whites, that things are either all one way or the other. Perhaps it’s because I like to study and analyze the issues and situations, but I came to to a conclusion at an early age that life often presents us with a series of gray areas, with subtleties and nuances for which black and white thinking are entirely inappropriate. I simply don’t believe, and to cringe when I hear comments such as “you are either with us or against us.” And I want to regurgitate when I hear national leaders pigeon hole others and situations as either good and evil. Sorry, friends and neighbors, but life is never that simple. People, indeed nations, behave as they do for a myriad of reasons, and the minute we assign the “good or bad” or “black or white” or “light or dark” label we are dismissing and ignoring possibilities and solutions that a thorough examination of nations, people, and situations might otherwise reveal. On other words, the authoritarian, us verses them thinking under which we have been living since 911 has not served us well and we may well have overlooked complicated solutions to complicated problems. The opportune word in that last sentence being solutions.

Secondly, I have never been able to tolerate the idea of human suffering. The strongest, and most roll models in my life were my very progressive and open minded aunts who taught me early on that when I see someone in trouble, or when I see someone who needs help, that I have an ethical and a moral duty to extend a helping hand. Okay, so I was always the geeky kid in high school who was less interested in shopping than she was in helping out at the local nursing home or food pantry. I took a lot of ribbing during those years, but I wouldn’t take them back for anything. I wouldn’t change a minute of those years. Anyone who has ever volunteered to help anyone knows that there is a n unexpected reward, based less on self gratification and more on seeing good works done, when you move out of yourself and try to place yourself in the other person’s position. And yet, we have people in this country who are SO self-involved, and SO addicted to making additional bucks that they will never live long enough to spend that they can’t see the value in another human life much less reaching out to help that person or those persons. And by now I am NOT talking about personal volunteerism. I am talking about our economic policies. Perhaps it’s because some of us have become spoiled; Perhaps it’s because some of us truly believe that personal gratification rests in the acquisition of things, material objects; perhaps some of us truly believe that hoarding money we will never be able to spend will indeed bring personal happiness–I don’t know–but it seems to me that something has gone very wrong with the American psyche. I’m sorry, dear readers, but something has gone very, VERY wrong when we base our economic policy on the dysfunctional premise that “enlightened self interest” (a true oxymoron if ever there was one). Something has gone very wrong when we as a people accept the idea when we as a nation, believe that greed is good. Why is that that some of us are so willing to preach the values of volunteerism on one hand, but then, knowing full well that charitable acts, while beneficial, are not always enough to handle genuine national need? What are we trying to accomplish? Are we trying to assuage our own sense of guilt? Are we trying to convince ourselves that we deserve success while others struggle in abject poverty?

I won’t other you with the facts and figures that we already discussed in our recent series about the 1920s and the Great Depression. We all know the sad, tragic story: How tax cuts and fiscal policy in this country has been geared to benefit those who need nothing more at the expense of those who need the most. But I will bother you with the following question. What kind of moral, ethical person can sleep well at night, with a full stomach in a house full of possessions that he or she takes for granted, while people are quite literally begging in the streets? When people are being forced out of their homes? When the middle class if vanishing before or very eyes and worn, weary people work two or three jobs just to keep their heads above water on a daily basis? What in the hell is WRONG with us? Again, I am a Liberal because the idea of human suffering, preventable sickness, and premature death are disgusting to me. I genuinely believe that there is such a thing as the extended human family and that the bag lady or so called bum who begs for a dollar for a cup of coffee is indeed my brother or sister.

And then there’s that little matter of social libertarianism. Unlike so any people who are acting as God would act if God only knew what is going on down here, I see no reason why what people read behind closed doors, or do in the privacy of their own bedrooms should be any of my business. All I ask is that people not exploit one another and that when it comes to sexual matters that we recognize the rights of consenting, unrelated adults to do as they wish as long as no harm is done to themselves or anyone else. Beyond that I don’t care what you do. I don’t care what books you read. I don’t care what God you want to worship. I don’t care with whom you sleep. Things like that are simply none of my business. People accept whatever form of morality they accept for an endless variety of reasons, and–as far as I’m concerned–personal morality is just that. Personal.

Shall we talk about civil liberties? Unlike conservatives who believe that the Constitution is a dead piece of rock, I prefer to believe in a viable, living document which grows and develops with the times. The Founding Fathers, the Framers of our Constitution, were among the most brilliant individuals this nation ever produced. But they were not infallible; they were not Gods. Does anyone truly believe that men of the late 18th Century could have possibly foreseen the invention of television, radio, and the Internet? Do we really believe that the key figures of the Enlightenment could have imagined the possibility of organ transplants, gene therapy, CAT Scans, PET Scans, MRIs and Bone Scans? Are we really supposed to believe that Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Hamilton, and Washington could have foreseen the complexities of modern day pollution, Global Warming, and poisons in our environment? of course not. A literal (some might say “fundamentalist”) interpretation of the Constitution assumes that nothing has changed in this country since 1787 and yet, as we look around our modern world we CLEARLY comprehend the truth, that modern day technology, science, and research have created an entirely different world in which a dead piece of rock is next to useless when it comes to interpreting our every day rights. A liberal interpretation, however, allows the Constitution to evolve, to grow and change with the technology, the times, and the belief systems which change with societal and technological change. Moreover, I don’t want to live in 1787–a time when women couldn’t vote; when a black person was considered 3/5 human; when we didn’t even have the direct election of our own Senators, ad nauseum. You get the drift. I want a document that will expand human rights, not limit them to a select few. So once again, I find myself embracing liberalism.

And since I believe in the extended human family I am thoroughly disgusted with racism and homophobia. Everybody is human. So if I don’t care what Deity you worship or chose not to worship, I certainly am not going to judge you by the color of your skin nor by the gender of the individual with whom you are having intimate relations. The former, in my opinion, should be irrelevant to anything. The latter is no body’s business. And the quicker we get over the superfluities and begin to accept people as our brothers and sisters, the better this country, indeed this world will become.

SO now I’m tossing the question out to you. Why are you a liberal? Why do you embrace progressive thoughts and ideas? I’d really like to know.

*The War on Poverty picture includes this quote: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. Dwight D. Eisenhower, From a speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953 34th president of US 1953-1961 (1890 - 1969)-Dusty

Share This