It wasn't so long ago that AS posted a link to some vaguely celebrated National Security strategy guy who has divided the world into ... you guessed it, two parts. When I went farther along, hyperlinking to an interview this guy had done with Hugh Hewitt, I found Hugh's sidekick, Dean, posting about how he makes a sport of making fun of liberals.
This animus, this attitude that some Americans are there just for the sport of others, is something that promises to coarsen the culture more than all of the sensationalized reporting of every crime and ne're-do-well that FOX's editors can drum up for National coverage on a daily basis in order to drive the emotional appeal of their social-wedge, pro-money politics, I think.
Now, no one with faculties would expect much of Dean in general, but when AS slips into writing "another" touchy liberal, it's not hard to be a little disappointed and to really see why, against an increasingly polarized backdrop, ordinarily go-about-their-own-way liberals are going to speak up.
Here is one such:
I'm a liberal because, unlike conservatives, I believe that I have a positive obligation to actively promote the happiness of my fellow citizens and my fellow human beings, and this responsibility is by virtue of my citizenship, not just my particular preferences.
I'm a liberal because, unlike conservatives, I believe that as much as I admire what's good about my country, we have no sort of obligation whatsoever to promote our values at gunpoint; indeed we have an obligation to the contrary.
I'm a liberal because, unlike conservatives, I do not become paranoid and delusional and see existential threats in a few criminal acts, however horrific, perpetrated by cave-dwelling religious fanatics.
I'm a liberal because, unlike conservatives, I figured out that "compassionate conservatism" is an absurd oxymoron; and I figured it out in 1999.
I'm a liberal because, unlike conservatives, I recognize and reject the conservative dog-whistle of "personal responsibility" as "I've got mine, Jack." I'm a liberal because, unlike conservatives, I do not ask for whom the bell tolls: It tolls for me. Every time.
sullylink
