1 Boring Old Man

lib·er·al   (lbr-l, lbrl)
adj.

1. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.
2. Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.

con·ser·va·tive   (kn-sûrv-tv)
adj.

1. Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change.
2. Traditional or restrained in style: a conservative dark suit.

As I came into political awareness in the early 1960’s, I read lots of things and meandered through the various groupings available at the time. But it was then and in my world, the South, there was only one defining issue at the time – Segregation. It didn’t take much looking to see that it was wrong, a flaw in our Constitution of mammoth proportions. all men are created equal wasn’t true in my world.

I guess the other defining issue for those of us growing up in that time frame was War. It was a much more confusing topic for me. Being born in the same week as Pearl Harbor made it that way. One of my first emotionally colored memories was of all the people on our street standing on their lawns shooting guns and hitting pans. I was four years old and scared. My mother noticed and explained, "The War is over!" That didn’t help. I didn’t know that "over" went with "war." I guess I thought "war" just "was." And in some ways, that was true, because somehow then we were at war with in Korea and the Communists were taking over the world. From a child’s perspective, those things ran together in time.

As a teenager and young adult, both those ideas, Segregation and War as "always," were concepts that changed in my mind in a profound way and defined me politically as a Liberal. But it had to do with a change inside of my mind, not in the world. Somehow, they went together for me. Both of them seemed to me to be false definitions, defining some other group as wrong and supressing or attacking them. I learned the word, Xenophobia, and that’s what they seemed to be. Looking back, I honestly believe that the song from vacation Bible School:

Jesus loved the little children
All the children of the world
Red and Yellow, Black and White
They are precious in his sight
Jesus loved the little children of the world

persisted unconsciously in my mind long after the religion that put it there was gone. I guess it was a pretty good traditional value.

As a young adult, the equation liberal = communist certainly always offended me. Any fool could see that Communism on a national scale was simply tyrany or dictatorship. It never occurred to me that the equation would outlive Communism itself. Now, I listen to all the pundits demonize Liberals by listing a bunch of beliefs that Liberals have, and I feel an old confusion. I know that, for me, liberal doesn’t mean anything like a set of beliefs. When Karl Rove or Ann Coulter begins with their "Liberals believe…" or Liberals would have us believe…," it’s usually followed by something ludicrous that no one in their right mind would think.

My favorite:

But perhaps the most important difference between conservatives and liberals can be found in the area of national security. Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers. In the wake of 9/11, conservatives believed it was time to unleash the might and power of the United States military against the Taliban; in the wake of 9/11, liberals believed it was time to… submit a petition. I am not joking. Submitting a petition is precisely what Moveon.org did. It was a petition imploring the powers that be” to “use moderation and restraint in responding to the… terrorist attacks against the United States.”

I don’t know about you, but moderation and restraint is not what I felt as I watched the Twin Towers crumble to the earth; a side of the Pentagon destroyed; and almost 3,000 of our fellow citizens perish in flames and rubble.

Moderation and restraint is not what I felt – and moderation and restraint is not what was called for. It was a moment to summon our national will – and to brandish steel.

Karl Rove’s speech to the
New York Conservative Party
June 22, 2005

Any fool knows what Moveon.org was saying. Lord, don’t we wished someone had listened [So we brandished steel just to hear it go klink, and look where it got us]. But my point is that liberalism isn’t a set of beliefs. It’s a broadmindedness; it’s being open to change; it’s even "flip-flopping" based on new information.

I doubt that defending the liberal attitude will ever change Karl Rove’s speeches, or make Ann Coulter see that Liberals didn’t pick the 911 widows, Cindy Sheehan, or Max Cleland [It was the other way around]. But being clear about it might help us not fall for the trick and becoming what they say we are.

I could go on and on why I think that the current Administration is not Conservative. Fascism often slides in under the cover of Conservative values – it happened that way in Italy, in Germany, in South America. But that’s just a counterattack, so I’ll stop with my recurrent attempt to define liberalism correctly in response to the straw man definition of the current Right…