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JUNE 19, 2005 –
The reason America is so far off in the wrong
direction is because the national debate is middle vs. right.
Liberals and our ideas have been entirely excluded, our words
labeled too radical. Well guess what? It is not just that
conservatives are lying, not just that they have been taken over by
some bad “neocons.” The simple fact is that conservative ideas are
just wrong. Liberalism won the Cold War and built America,
conservatism tears it down. Liberalism made the American economy
what it is, conservatism tears it down.
Nowhere in the media is there a truly liberal voice. Now you have
these creatures calling themselves progressives acting as if they
speak for us.
Heck, if you don’t even have the balls to call yourself a liberal if
you are one, then you aren’t a liberal but a cowardly panderer.
Liberals are not cowards – we define strength, moral fortitude, and
rebellious courage.
And in reality all these “progressives” are doing is whining and
criticizing what is occurring. Yes, they do also offer some policy
ideas. But no one – no one – in this nation is explaining liberal
philosophy, why it is the true American philosophy. Lots of people
are talking about how the Limbaughs and Hannitys are lying, lots of
people saying how the neocons don’t act like true conservatives, but
no one is pointing out that even the honest, non-neocon
conservatives are simply wrong in their beliefs and policies and
only damage America, while liberalism – yes, the “L” word – is best
for the nation; best for the nation economically, in foreign policy,
in every regard.
Not only have liberals been running scared, evading the label
“liberal” like it’s the Vietnam draft, but they have been off their
game. Conservatism gets its “strength” from hatred, from anger –
the Dark Side, in Star Wars terms. Liberalism realizes the power of
love, of humanism, of positivity blow away the ugly Darth Cheney
brand of conservative hate-strength any day.
The secret to President Bill Clinton’s success was not that he
stepped to the center. That was what helped him get elected, for
certain. But the reason Bill Clinton turned out to be one of the
most successful presidents in our nation’s history was because he
was truly a liberal at heart. His policies were guided by liberal
humanism, his economics were based on his understanding of people
and how they work, his foreign policy based on attraction rather
than attempted intimidation.
Liberals and conservatives come from different angles. The
conservatives think you can – indeed, must – scare, beat, or
otherwise force people to follow your will. Liberals understand
that such a silly idea ignores all of history and in fact goes
against the very basic ideas that America was founded on, against
our very Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration of Independence stated plainly some simple
realities, that governments like the monarchy we were under – yet
another George, mad King George III back then – go against some
basic laws of reality. To think you can oppress people denies not
just fundamental rights that people deserve, but “inalienable
rights” with which we have been “endowed by our Creator.”
Look at it again, misguided conservatives: “inalienable.” You
can’t choose to change this. God, “our Creator,” has endowed each
and every one of us with rights that no man or government can ever
choose to take away. To do so would be to attempt to thwart to law
of God, which would doom any such foolish people or government to
failure.
What are these rights that are inescapably given to us by God?
Life – God gave us this, and no person, business, or government has
the right to take this away, whether with polluted air or a gun to
our heads.
Liberty – pay attention; this means freedom. Yes, God has given us
the “inalienable right” to liberty. That’s what our founders said,
that is the central idea America was founded upon.
One more: pursuit of happiness. Yes, not just pursuit of
improving the GDP, not just the pursuit of power in the world, not
just the pursuit of a boring life in which fun things are deemed
illegal or immoral, not just a life for the sake of working, not
just a life for the sake of getting by or doing the right thing to
serve our nation or anyone or anything else. Happiness. We have
been given by God the inalienable right to pursue happiness as we
see fit.
Now, you can argue with this premise, about whether or not God has
granted us truly “inalienable rights” to life, real liberty, and
actual freedom to pursue happiness; and indeed, conservatives
constantly do argue against these ideas.
BUT, you can not argue against the reality that these very liberal
notions were the basis of our nation, and that anyone who argues
against such things is saying that they don’t believe in America,
they don’t believe in the democracy we have built which has shown
the world that freedom is not just the only natural form of
government, the only government that actually conforms to God’s
laws, but that our liberal democracy is the most powerful form of
government, the positive, attractive power of it able to conquer and
convert the most powerful of enemies without having to fire a single
shot.
That’s pretty friggin’ powerful, huh?
Atomic bombs weren’t enough to bring down the Soviet Union, but the
right to wear tight blue jeans, practice religion as we wish, and
shake our asses to Madonna were.
Even more, pay attention to this: the mighty Soviet Union couldn’t
control a handful of Baltic and Eastern European states with all its
guns and oppressive strength; they spent years and countless rubles
trying to force their will and ways upon these nations, yet still
lost hold of all of them after just some decades, running their own
nation into the ground in the process.
We, on the other hand, conquered basically all of the states they
couldn’t hold without firing a single shot or rolling in a single
tank. In fact, they came begging to us to ask if they could join
our team, sign onto NATO, become part of the West, be democracies.
In the hilltops of Poland the Russian national anthem doesn’t play,
Britney Spears does – and they pay us for the right to do so.
Economically, unbridled capitalism is as dumb as unbridled
communism, and in fact the only combination that prevents people
from being worked like slaves in miserable conditions for endless
hours since the Industrial Revolution began is a well-regulated
socialism/capitalism hybrid. Keep telling us that socializing
health care will destroy our nation and then keep watching as GM
moves more and more factories up to Canada because they don’t have
to worry about skyrocketing health care costs for their employees.
Freedom of religion – that crazy liberal notion – is what makes
America powerful. Extremist “Pilgrims” and “Puritans” are welcome
to live here right alongside atheists and more moderately religious
people, and none are allowed to force the other to their will or
interfere with their pursuit of happiness or infringe upon their God
given liberty at all.
There is not a single nation in the world that is governed by
conservative principles that is a good place to live. Saudi Arabia
is a conservative, religious nation. Feel free, go live there. Or
better yet, ask any of our servicemen or women who ever have been
stationed there or in other conservative places like Bahrain. Not
being allowed to just go out for a beer and do some dancing on their
time off makes for misery.
America has gone stupidly conservative from time to time, and we
always pay the price. Remember Prohibition? Yes, a wonderful idea
pushed by conservatives. Take away people’s right to enjoy some
drinks and crazy nights of drunkenness and dancing and you improve
the nation by… creating such a massive wave of crime that the law
had to be repealed, and still the Mafia that was built up during
that time remains as a powerful punishment for trying to once again
deny God’s laws of inalienable liberty and pursuit of happiness.
It is not just on some specific policies that conservatives have it
wrong, it is their entire philosophy that is off. It is such a
small-minded line of thinking that it is really just one big call to
look at this tree or that and never, ever notice that we are
standing in a forest.
It is common nonsense spewed out in our media that conservatives
show stronger leadership than liberals.
What a laugh. Conservatives don’t understand even the most basic
premise of leadership, that in order to be a leader, people have to
follow you. Just look at George Bush standing with his pud in his
hand alone in Iraq – a leader is someone more and more people
follow, not who can only round up a few people and lose them one by
one by one.
The conservative model of leadership is to oppress or overwhelm
people into a superficial brand of “following.” They are the ugly,
old guy who is in the convertible Mercedes sports car thinking this
will get him women and friends. This is not a caricature or
exaggeration – this is truly why conservatives want all those tax
cuts. Picture Dick Cheney trying to get laid without money or
power? Bill Clinton, on the other hand, can have a potbelly and an
old Chevy and he’d still have 19-year olds throwing themselves at
him. George Bush, either the father or the son, can have all the
billions in oil money they want but they can’t hold a candle to JFK
in attracting people, even if Kennedy were left with nothing but a
t-shirt and jeans working at a gas station.
And when you really stop and think about it, there is nothing
physically grotesque about Cheney, nothing so inescapably
unattractive about the physical persons of the Bushes. It is their
conservative, angry, hateful natures, their lack of grace, lack of
appreciation of beauty, and, most importantly, lack of loving energy
that makes them so unattractive.
Liberals know that love is not some pansy word that represents
weakness and should be run away from lest you be associated with
flower-toting hippies. Liberals know that love is the most
massively powerful, most intelligent, and most Godly power in the
world, able to topple dictators and move nations of people to seek
your direction. That is leadership.
Leadership is based on attraction. The central premise of America
is that the only government that truly can succeed long term is one
which understands that the power is with the people, that in order
to be their leaders, they have to want to follow you, and there is
no gun big enough or Mercedes shiny enough to achieve that end.
Like with the hateful old man in his sports car, sure he might pick
up a superficial money hound or two, but that’s a false relationship
that is weakly built on lies and not conducive to happiness, and not
one made to last.
And so the Cheney’s end up unhappy in their lives and not able to
turn to their homes for the love and happiness they need. And so
they angrily stomp about the world inflicting others with their
dissatisfaction since, as we all know, misery loves company.
Conservatives can never live under peace because they don’t believe
in love. Their choice of hate and anger will eternally leave them
with the need to lash out and create as much misery about them as
possible.
So let people try and shut out us “liberals” from the national
conversation. Let them give you “progressives” and tell you Bill
Clinton was successful because he embraced some conservative ideas.
But the reality is Bill Clinton said it all when he spoke in effect
his last sentence as President. For political reasons, he was still
clinging to the mantle of moderation. But his strength, his
charisma that gave him the ability to lead the nation and the world,
the basis from which his success stemmed came pouring out in an
unscripted moment following his speech at the 2000 Democratic
Convention, his last words before turning the reigns over to Al Gore
and his bid for the presidency.
Bill looked out at America, at the audience before him that was
cheering wildly and at all the great people who had twice elected
him their president, and said, “I love you all.”
Never was truer or more revealing sentence spoken. Clinton’s
strength came from his liberal nature and philosophy. He loved
America, he loved “all” people, he loved freedom, he loved pursuing
happiness; indeed, he loved everyone and every nation in the world.
And the world loved America in return. That is what sells American
products, that is what makes America a leader in foreign policy.
And that is something conservatives don’t believe in. Indeed, the
idea of love makes them cringe, the word leads them to mock, the
reality of the strength and power of that four letter word – love –
makes them shutter and run, because they know inside that all their
hatred and anger can’t hold a candle to the power that built
America.
The reason Saudi Arabia is so strong isn’t because it doesn’t have
nude beaches. Saudi Arabia isn’t strong because it doesn’t allow
its people to drink and be merry. Saudi Arabia isn’t strong because
its women can’t wear tight jeans and belly shirts and shake their
asses to J Lo.
In fact, despite having more oil wealth than any nation on the face
of the earth, Saudi Arabia isn’t strong at all.
Conservative nations never are.
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