I’ll tell you what I mean by this in a moment. First, should you care how I feel about liberals, or about you? Not necessarily. You have the right to care, or not care. You have the right to see things as you do, and feel about things as you do. You have the right to love or hate George Bush, love or hate conservatives, and agree or disagree with me on every issue. I don’t have the right to tell you how you ought to see things, or feel about things.
On the other hand, I have the same rights as you. I have the right to think and feel as I do, about all these issues. I have the right to agree or disagree with you on everything, and to feel about you and your philosophies as I do.
I’m not out, then, to change your mind about anything. I’m not out to alter the way you feel about anything. My only purpose in writing this blog is to get you to be careful. Seek the truth. If you are careful and seek the truth diligently, and come to a different conclusion than I, and feel differently than I do, then I respect you and your thoughts and feelings. I may disagree with you. I may not understand you. But I’ll respect you.
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I will still try to present the truth as I see it, and hope that you’ll see things as I do, but this is just a hope. It is not a demand. I am sure I am wrong about some things, so I must remain humble. For example, I am very much in favor of the war in Iraq. I admit, though, that I might be wrong on this issue. You might be right, and I might be wrong. I think I am right. In fact, I’m sure I’m right. But, only God knows if I’m really right.
So, if you read me, then I am honored. I’ll return the favor. I’ll read you, and listen to you. I’ll still go on, though, most likely, believing what I do and feeling how I feel. I’ll go on bashing charlatans and wrong-headedness, and pacifism, and communism and socialism. And you’ll go on bashing Bush. And I’ll hate you when you do this. And you’ll hate me for supporting Bush, and on and on. We’re a democracy.
If you win the upcoming elections, then there is a reason for it. If we win, ditto. Nobody is stealing elections. Again, I respect your right to believe that elections are being stolen. I just believe you are wrong on this, and unnecessarily upsetting yourself over nothing. Concentrate on the issues and try to convince me and the electorate that you can do better than the Republicans, instead of bashing us and accusing us of voter fraud.
I Love Liberals
Wikipedia defines progressivism as anideology that mostly belongs to the political left wing, but not every leftist is a progressive. Progressives support the continual advancement of workers' rights and social justice within the context of a mixed economy. The first progressives were some of the earliest proponents of anti-trust laws, the welfare state, and the regulation of large corporations and monopolies, and among the first advocates of environmentalism and the creation of National Parks and Wildlife Refuges.I think the progressive, leftist instinct is a noble one. These are the people, after all, that brought us women’s rights, civil rights, unions, anti-trust legislation, Social Security, welfare, unemployment insurance, disability insurance, the Great Society, anti-trust laws, environmentalism, health insurance, anti-hate laws, and many other good things.
Since I am so often on the other side of issues than liberals at this time in history, and at this time in my life, I don’t want it thought that I don’t appreciate them. I think they are wrong about a lot of things at this time. Plus, a large percentage of them have slipped into hatred instead of concentrating on their noble goals. On the other hand, even if they are wrong a lot, we need them. They still have their noble instinct, which is the desire to improve life for their fellow man. They may be misguided sometimes, as we are too, but they want good things for all of mankind.
I’m not trying to be patronizing. I sincerely believe that we need both liberals and conservatives.
For example, the present crop of Republicans, who are supposedly conservative, have made a mess of things in congress, no matter which side of the aisle you see them from. They’ve abandoned their conservative principles, and their morals it seems, and blown the chance to lead with honor at this crucial time in history. So now, the Republicans might pay for this with their jobs. The Democrats might step in to fill the void. Then, they will have the chance to live up to their, liberal we presume, principles.
I’ve never been against liberalism, per se, nor even against progressivism. Rather, I’ve been against the perversion of these great philosophies by charlatans like Michael Moore and Cindy Sheehan.
Liberals of the past I love are Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Hubert H. Humphrey, and Robert F. Kennedy. Three liberals of today I love now are Barack Obama, Joe Lieberman, and Bill Richardson. Even Clinton is growing on me. Not Hillary.
I’m not so much against the philosophy of liberalism as I am against pseudo-liberals. People that claim compassion, but live with hatred in their hearts. The worst are the Air America crowd, Michael Moore, and people like Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter. Close behind are your Nancy Palosi’s and your Howard Dean’s. Oh, yeah, and let’s not forget the Hollywood bunch, with Alec Baldwin and Martin Sheen and their ilk. To me, these people are not true liberals, and not progressives either. Neither is Noam Chomsky.
Listen to Bill Richardson if you want to hear a true liberal. This man I respect. He will vote 95% on the left side of issues, but he doesn’t spend any time at all attacking people’s characters. He doesn’t blame conservatives for all that is wrong in the world. He actually offers positive solutions. I’m telling you, this man is presidential. Yet, he is definitely a liberal. Barack seems reasonable to me also.
So, if you act like a true liberal, I will respect you, and I may even love you. If you present yourself, however, as a mere Bush-basher, or as just anti-Republican, a bitter hater of all things conservative, then I don’t see how you can expect our country to elect you or your leaders to office. You might win the upcoming off-year elections, but if you continue to hate, the people will tire of that real soon—just in time for ’08.
Return to your liberal roots. You can be proud to be liberal. Focus on the good of the country and stop getting yourselves all riled up over conspiracy theories and voter fraud. You have the power to win this election, and the next, but only if you really become liberals. As I say, I love liberals, and I could even vote for a real one, if he or she came along.
There is a time. There is a season. Now, in my mind, is the time for conservatism. Your time, though, will come again. That time will be when we are in an unjust war (not this just war we are in now), when workers’ rights are being abused, when racism rears its ugly head again, or when there is a need for any myriad kinds of social justice.
Some issues on which I agree with you even now are: the right to choose, reasonable environmentalism, being against the concentration of the media in the hands of a few, the worry about the distribution of wealth in America, the harmful effects of globalism, and other issues.
Some issues on which I disagree with you now are: your solutions to the above problems; the economy; your tendency to love socialism; your position on taxes; free trade; the war in Iraq; war in general; George W. Bush; and other issues.
Overall, though, I love liberals. They are good, decent people. They have a basic noble instinct to help their fellow man. They keep us conservatives in check. They balance our view of the world. They save the downtrodden. They keep us out of war unless it is truly necessary. They are a legitimate part of our democracy.
Understood? I hope so. Tomorrow I’m probably back to my anti-leftist stuff.
Don’t be confused. I’m not pro-conservative or anti-left. I’m pro-truth. Part of truth is that conservatives and conservatism are wrong sometimes. Part of truth is that leftists and liberalism are right sometimes. Part of truth is that we need them both. Part of truth is that there are good, intelligent people on both sides of this political spectrum.
Now, get ready to rumble.
My IQ
I’m sure you’ll be thrilled to hear that I took another IQ test. I do this from time to time to see if I’ve managed to raise my IQ since the last time I took a test. Yes, you can raise your IQ, as has been proven in the Venezuelan studies. I got a 135 this time. 140 is genius or near genius, so there. My boss, who is a liberal, probably has an even higher IQ than this. My other boss, another liberal (both are true liberals—well-informed, intelligent, and caring) is well-read and has probably raised her IQ like I have mine.When I was in high school, my IQ was about 117. I've raised it 18 points! Just a few more points and I’m there. I’m already at Mensa level, the 98th percentile of all human beings. Maybe it’s time now for me to take their tests.
Anyway, don’t worry, I score lower on other tests. My EQ, for example, was quite low for much of my life. I’ve raised that too, although I don’t know if it’s above average yet or not. I’m still working on it. EQ is more important, I’m convinced, than IQ. Don’t count me out, though. As I’ve said, I’ve raised mine, through hard work, and it might even be above average now.
IQ is important. What you do with it is even more important. EQ is even more important. A good heart is the most important. Plus, voting conservative. Just kidding. See, I’m back already.
Rock
(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)
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