Letter From A Liberal, Asking For Some Conservative Affection
This post is meant for the Republicans of America, the good people of the right wing. Look, my friends, I want to tell you something up front – I’m a Liberal. It’s true, and it feels good to say it. Now, I’m going to ask you for one simple thing:
Your love.
See, every election year, I hear people like me getting bashed. While folks on the right proudly identify themselves as “Conservative,” being labeled a “Liberal” seems to be the equivalent of being called the Taliban. People run from it. President Obama has been dodging the Liberal label for years now, as if that word by itself is enough to make your typical American scream like he’s in the middle of Saw Part 2012.
Perhaps I’m being too sensitive, but it seems like everybody hates me. Ann Coulter hates me. Sean Hannity definitely hates me. Newt Gingrich hates me. Mitt Romney might not have hated me when he was the governor of Massachusetts, but he does now. There are even websites like Boycotliberalism.com where “liberal” artists and venues are listed in an attempt to form a boycott against them. It seems unnecessary – I mean, do I really need to know Good Charlotte’s political beliefs to convince me not to buy their records?
So this is my attempt to tell you, my Conservative brothers, a little bit about myself. Maybe you’ll read it and I won’t seem so scary. Because we have some things in common; seriously, we could be friends if we tried. Believe it or not, talking with an actual liberal might not be as bad as you think it will be.
First, let’s tackle a few basics. I don’t want to blow up the country and turn it into Communist Russia. Do I want to increase taxes on the rich? Yes, but not all that much. Do I want to de-criminalize marijuana? Yes, but if you can think of another way to decrease the amount of people arrested and incarcerated, then I’d be open to other suggestions. Do I want to overturn abortion? No, but I also believe in programs and discussions that greatly discourage it. Do I support gay marriage? Yes, but I also support gay divorce, so with some luck, they’ll all break up and you can be happy.
Was that last line mean? You have to be tolerant of my character flaw – as a Liberal, I am inherently sarcastic and tend to sound like I’m talking down to people. It’s like a speech impediment, and I can’t help it. Please, my new Conservative friend, understand that I still respect you, and don’t take my snide comments too seriously.
Now, about war. As a Liberal, I don’t really like it very much. Don’t get me wrong, though. I’m not all doves and flowers. No, I can theoretically support a war with the best of ‘em. I just need more of a rationale for war than you might, and I tend to be more hung up on the whole imperialism thing. Remember Iraq? I didn’t support going in there, but I’ll give you this: years from now, the war in Iraq will likely end up having a positive long term effect on the world. Before things in Iran get too messy, can we agree to learn from the mistakes of Iraq and move on?
So, I’ll stop complaining about WMDs, and you stop saying I don’t support our troops. Deal?
Okay, maybe war isn’t something we can fully see eye to eye on, but we can get there. How about government spending? Because we want the same thing, I swear. We all want less spending and less taxes. You tend to focus on welfare (which accounts for .09 of every tax dollar you spend). I’m more focused on the military budget (.20 of every tax dollar) and the $16 trillion the Federal Reserve loaned out to banks and corporations between 2007 and 2010 (.06 towards interest on our debt, which that money could’ve paid off). How’s this for a compromise: We can have those banks and corporations pay back the loan money by putting a large portion of it towards welfare and the military. Or maybe we can join the two together and put people on welfare in the military. That sounds smart, huh? We can have a whole ‘trade in your food stamps for an M16’ program!
Wait, you’re right. That’s a bad plan. Maybe I went too far trying to get you to like me.
Then there’s religion. Look, I like religion. A war on Christmas? Who wants that? I love Christmas. Who doesn’t like to exchange presents and sing religious songs like “Last Christmas I Gave You My Heart” by George Michael? And I believe, really, that religion is a good thing. I plan to raise my child one day with the church being a part of his/her life. But I also believe in teaching science, and in global warming, and in all the good planned parenthood does. Can’t all these things co-exist? Just because I believe in evolution, does that mean you and I are at ‘war’?
Oh, I don’t know how much progress I’m making. It’s tough. I’m trying at least. And why? Because I’ll say it right now – I love you, Conservative. I love your desire for a better world and your longing for the past. I love how you believe that we shouldn’t tax the rich because you yourself might be rich some day, even though right now you’re working at Kinko’s. I love your optimism. I love the faith you keep in your country. I love the way you dance. Even when your scarier parts come out, like the people who still believe after 4 years that President Obama is a Muslim from Kenya, I can look past it. Liberals have a kooky side too.
Damn. I hope that didn’t sound degrading. The whole point is this: I am not a leper. I am not evil. I am a Liberal. You don’t have to fear me and you don’t have to hate me. Can I get a hug? A handshake at least? Tell me where to start. Because what we have right now, friend, isn’t working out all that great.
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* Applause *
Exactly my thoughts, Topicless ! I wrote a post about myself being not 100 % Liberal. Though I’m Pro-Choice, I really don’t like women to just abort babies born out of lust. The couple should be responsible for their action. A human being is not an inconvenience that the woman can just abort , just like that. I’m conservative this way. But if they have done everything and the woman still get pregnant, then I agree, the woman should be given a choice.
I’m all for welfare, there’s no doubt about my belief, but, I’ve seen the system being abused. I can cite so many instances, real life examples that I think are quite unfair. Like this ” religious ” family who don;t believe in using contraceptive pills. Believe it or not, they have 13 children ( Ukrainian family ). The mother doesn’t work, the father is a car mechanic. they cannot afford to raise so many children so where do they get the money? From welfare. I think the state should limit the number of children it can support. By the way, they are more racist than KKK.
Enough for now.
Hi Ren! Yeah, just because someone identifies himself or herself as being ‘liberal,’ it doesn’t mean we’re sheep that only follow whatever is in the generic platform. I really hope some independent thinkers will give liberals their good name back.
Now onto your stances, one of which I’m going to disagree with. Haha! So I’ll start with that – the thing about number of children and welfare. Two facts for you: 1) If you look at the birth rate of babies being born into ‘welfare homes,’ it’s higher in states that have lower benefits. In other words, if people were really abusing the system by having babies, one would think that states where the welfare benefits are higher would have the higher birth rate. It’s the opposite. 2) Again going by birthrate, historically there has been no correlation between the birthrate of babies being born into low income homes and welfare programs. In other words, when welfare was high in the 80s, the birthrate went down; when welfare was drastically cut in the 90s under Clinton, the birthrate went up. This is also counter-intuitive to the idea that people have babies to get more welfare.
Whew! Sorry Ren! You somehow encouraged me to go on a rant! hahaha
But this is fun. Political discussion and disagreements are awesome. Go vote tomorrow and good luck! : D
Oh, no, no, you are right. I wrote that in the context of ” religious ” beliefs. I’m not saying Catholics, either, coz believe it or not , more than 90% of catholic women use contraceptive in one form or another. I think it’;s just a certain group of people affiliated with a certain religion who don’t care if they have so many children …they just screw to their heart’s content, what hypocrites. Our taxes, my tax, support their beliefs.
Haha – excellent! I’ve never heard that argument before, and I love it. If your religious beliefs don’t allow you to use contraception, you are ineligible economic assistance! Ren – based on that, I am voting for you as governor of California. Never mind that I can’t vote in California and that you have no past experience and may possibly have been born in the Philippines. Your future is set, Gov!
Yo. Topicless. ^-^ Completely with you on your general point: It would be nice to see more cooperation and understanding in an environment that has degraded into “Us vs People Destroying America.” But you speak as though Liberals are the only ones being demonized, when in fact both Liberals and Conservatives constantly face that treatment from the opposition. If Liberals are pot-smoking, welfare-abusing, troop-hating Stalinists, Conservatives are autocratic, poor people-hating, corporatist Hitlerites, which is just as unfair, right?
Yo, sup Junbi? First off, high five. I don’t know what for, but it seemed like the right thing to do. Secondly, I truly think that the ‘liberal’ brand is considered much, much worse in today’s political climate than the ‘conservative’ one. Look at George W. Bush in 2000, for instance, when he called himself a “compassionate conservative” and ended up winning the election. I can’t think of any candidate, let alone one running for the presidency, who has openly used the word ‘liberal’ as a descriptor. Likewise, being ‘liberal’ is often used as a criticism against a Democrat – look at the Republican attack strategy against Obama. Every presidential candidate, it seems, is too liberal for the Republicans (Gore was too liberal, Kerry and Edwards, Obama) even when, like Obama, that person has a platform that is pretty moderate. But that seems to be the Republican strategy – just announce that the candidate is ‘liberal,’ and it has generally worked. Lastly, as I’m already going on and on, haha, I think it’s far more acceptable to endorse conservative issues and liberal ones. Look at how many war hawks we have in congress. I can’t think of any doves. And take a look at gay marriage, for instance. The conservatives were against gay marriage from the get go, reaching its apex with Bush in 2004. No hesitation. The Democrats? Obama didn’t even publicly state he favored gay marriage until this year (in fact, he said in past interviews that he believed marriage should be between a man and a woman). In 2004, nobody strongly stood for gay marriage (they tried to compromise with civil unions). Why? Because that stance, to favor gay marriage, was considered too ‘liberal’ and being too ‘liberal’ is a death sentence. So liberals have to wait and hope that the times change and our positions become mainstream, like the gay marriage one, or else they have no voice in the political arena. A Republican politician can be conservative, but a Democratic one must always veer towards the center.
Yikes! Another rant! Anyways, I appreciate the comment, Junbi. Peace!
Interesting points, my good man! I didn’t mean to suggest that the stigma of conservatism was quite on par with that of liberalism, but I think you have convinced me that the gap is wider than I had believed. I particularly like your point that “liberal” can be used as a kind of pejorative, where conservative is not – never thought of that before.
Are you all mad? I’m a conservative and all I ever hear is that I must therefore be: racist, homophobic, rich, indifferent to the poor, stuck up, out of touch with reality, racist, racist, extremely racist, a religious nutcase, and stupid. At my school, all the liberals proudly proclaim their liberalness and cheerfully pluck up the signs posted by the few college Republicans inviting students to their next meeting. A lady in the drugstore called me crazy, ignorant, and anti-feminist for voting Romney. And speaking of boycotts, liberals are trying to boycott Papa John’s, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and more because these companies have announced that the new costs of Obamacare are hurting their businesses and they may have to reduce hours and raise prices.
All of that said, I’ve enjoyed your blog. Just thought you might want to know that we ordinary conservatives don’t hate you and are pretty sick of being labeled hateful.
At the risk of necroposting, this is kind of the point I was trying to make above – conservatives get more than their share of flack too. Also interesting that you mention college being a sea of liberals, because, as they say, everyone’s a socialist until they have to start paying taxes.
Yeah, K Thorpe, I hear you. Very valid points, and well said. Thanks to you and Junbi for pointing out that conservatives feel denigrated by liberals the same way liberals feel they’re denigrated by conservatives. I think college can definitely bring out the gang mentality in a liberal, haha. So sorry about that, K Thorpe. They’ll get nicer after they graduate.
What prompted me to write this has been “discussions” (really, really frustrating ones) I’ve had with conservatives leading up to the election. I felt that the only move to the hoop they had was to call me a liberal…and that’s it. I got in one particular discussion about Obama, where I said I don’t think he’s a very good president, but he’s definitely not a radical liberal like the right seems to think. I listed all the things he’s done that support my argument. Now I’m not saying I was right, but at least I gave some evidence. In response all I got was “well you’re a liberal so of course you think that.” And it happens over and over again. I don’t even care if anyone agrees with me – in fact, I don’t want anyone to agree with me. I just want some decent arguments! Is that so much to ask? Instead, I just get called a liberal and that’s the end of it. It’s friggin’ frustrating!
So that’s what motivated this, but you two are right and I’m sure that happens to conservatives too. I will concede.
Anyways, thanks for voicing your opinions, and hopefully both sides can start listening to each other. We’re not that different! (you’re not a racist, and I don’t hate the rich, etc)
Topicless, hi
Thanks for your response. It’s funny how we’re “opposite sides” going through the very same experiences! Anyway, if you want to read some real Republican/conservative ideas on things, try Thomas Sowell and Victor Davis Hanson. Charles Krauthammer, too. They write columns often on current events and historical ones and are some of my favorite conservative thinkers. 