I'm the first to admit that my views are tainted by my heritage. My parents were dyed-in-the-wool socialists. My father was National Secretary of the CCF., the forerunner of the New Democratic Party (NDP), Canada's social democratic political party.
Yes, that would be socialists, not communists however, so lets not confuse the issue, because there's a huge difference. In fact, my father and his contemporaries made it their policy in the late '50s to ensure there were no communists in their party. This was just after the public revelations of the excess of Stalinism, and communism was nose-diving in popularity amongst intellectual socialists. Their witch-hunts probably made McCarthy's look tame by comparison.
Like they say, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. So for me, the idea of government intervention was never the anathema that it is for some others. It's not just because I'm a socialist pinko Canadian that I hold these views, because I believe things that most Canadians don't, like nationalizing insurance companies to regulate an industry that's out of control. For people who don't like the idea of government-run health insurance, I'm sure that will go over like a ton of bricks.
I don't mind when people call me a socialist, that's what I am. What gets under my skin though is when people call me a liberal. No, I don't mean as in the political party, which is with a capital L anyway, I mean as in the wishy-washy, let's not offend anyone, form of political thinking.
Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal. — Phil Ochs, "Love Me, Love Me, I'm A Liberal"
How can you spot a liberal, what are their distinguishing features? Well they all "have best friends" who are a minority, but you never see them at their house for dinner. They also support neighbourhood intergration and bussing but not for their kids or their neighbourhood. They think Bill Cosby is the height of radical humour but Chris Rock is dangerous and subversive.
A liberal will see nothing wrong with being a member in an "exclusive"club (meaning one that excludes people based on colour, religion etc) because wouldn't they be more comfortable among their own kind? A liberal's idea of being an environmentalist is once a year having a company barbecue to clean up a park, but can't understand what all the fuss is about driving themselves to work downtown in their pickup truck.
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Article comments
1 - Dave Nalle
The people you describe as 'liberals' aren't liberals any more than you are, but not to worry, there's plenty of room for you in the Democratic Socialist tent.
Dave
2 - Bill B
>I know that I'm probably old fasioned and conservative in my views on matters like these, but the whole idea of lumping all of us lefties under the heading of liberals just doesn't sit right with me. Please, in the future, when picking derogatory terms to call me, if you have any respect for my feelings, avoid the use of the "L" word. I'd appreciate it. >
But you don't seem to have a problem painting liberals with a broad brush.
Not to mention that a good number of your examples might fit cozily into some conservative viewpoints, like say the marijuana/martini bit to name one.
The more detailed you get in your examples, the faster the credibility ship sinks. Glub, glub, glub...
3 - Dave Nalle
Like I suggested before, his description doesn't sound like any liberals I know. It sounds like run of the mill country club democrats. Of course all the liberals I know are now in the Republican party.
Dave
4 - Maurice
It's almost as if we need a new word to describe people that have too much money and time and have not studied history enough to be able to assess our current political situation. We could call them 'Streisands'.
5 - Steve S
As a liberal, and a Liberal, I'm amazed at how completely off base and stereotypical is your description of me.
6 - Mark Schannon
Yowza, Gypsyman, talk about getting up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Or did you fall out and hit your head?
The terms "liberal" and "conversative" have lost all meaning anyway, but, as others have noted, your sweeping generalizations and vituperative tone lose you the argument right off the bat.
As for me, I'm with Maurice: let's call 'em "Streisands."
7 - gonzo marx
that's fine and all..but does that mean we can call all the phoney "conservatives" Limbaughs?
just curious
Excelsior!
8 - Bob A. Booey
I don't have a lot of sympathy for milquetoast liberals either and there's something to be said for the intellectual tradition of socialists.
But if you're an American, there is no intellectual Left anymore. We have shown we are consistently one of the most socially conservative, religious, anti-worker societies in the world. So I think at a certain point, ideological purity and principles meet up with political reality.
I love that song lyric you quote. It proves my point I've made for years about all the Bob Dylan fans who drive to concerts in their big, gas-guzzling SUVs wearing $150 Birkenstocks and buying $35 concert T-shirts with money made from practicing corporate law or trading bonds during the week. The 60s white yuppie/yippie counterculture was phony and was only a better, more culturally sophisticated celebration of capitalism than the "Establishment" it claimed to be fighting.
But anyone who thinks that they're going to find open-mindedness and social progressivism in today's GOP is sadly deluded. Talk to me in 2008 when you see, once again, that candidates are FORCED to cater to the base of religious nutjobs, backwoods bigots, corporate criminals, reactionary rhetoric and socially backwards values.
What makes it more depressing is that I don't even think someone like our President particularly agrees with those people, yet he had to run campaigns that way to win the South and rural West in the primaries and general election. Anyone who tells me that social values aren't the primary engine of the GOP base today is out of touch with political reality. Economics decide all elections, it's true, but the distinction in tax policy and economics between GOP and Democrat candidates has gotten narrower and narrower and thus made Presidential elections more about the STATE of the economy and jobs rather than tax and fiscal policy. Bush, for example, is anything BUT a fiscal conservative in his approach to deficit spending.
That is all.
9 - Vox Populi
alk to me in 2008 when you see, once again, that candidates are FORCED to cater to the base of religious nutjobs, backwoods bigots, corporate criminals, reactionary rhetoric and socially backwards values.
We don't need to wait, it's quite clear that you can offer us all the bigotry we need right here and now.
Vox
10 - Bushwacker
Oh, I get it. Instead of Freaky Friday, today must be Twisted Tuesday because your facts are very twisted.
11 - Brian Sorrell
How is this supposed to be helpful? Perhaps you thought to yourself, "Today I'll write up the stereotypes that I prefer to attach to 'liberal', but offer no constructive counterpoint."
Or is dropping the term "socialist" supposed to be constructive?
12 - Douglas Anthony Cooper
Phil Ochs, whom I once admired, is not actually someone whose politics you really want to endorse. Remember, this is a guy who quotes one of Mao's poems on the back of an album, and asks, "Is this the enemy?"
To which you can only respond: why yes, Phil. It is. Mao may have written some quaint lyrics, but he was also -- numerically speaking -- the greatest mass murderer in history.
I stopped listening to Ochs when I began to find his hectoring intolerable. Dylan, on the other hand, endures (and will for a thousand years).
13 - Pete Blackwell
DAC, You write as if Phil Ochs didn't hang himself in 1976. Is he recording new material from the grave?
Plus, Ochs did nothing if not become more complex with age. His late 60s-early 70s work is fascinating in its full-on challenge to the hippies and the resigned disgust he felt for flower power.
If anyone is interested in an album that's all about political disillusionment and what it feels like to see the sun set on your ideals, get The War Is Over, a collection of later-era Ochs.
14 - Douglas Anthony Cooper
Funny, as I was writing that post, I kept switching it back and forth between past and present tense. Present does seem wrong, I admit -- but it's the "journalistic present", and we use it a fair bit: "Jane Austen approves of a certain kind of marriage."
But yeah, it sounds funny. Interestingly enough, I first heard Ochs *the day after he committed suicide*. A radio station was playing "Crucifixion" in tribute. And I decided he was pretty good.
I lost a fair bit of respect for Ochs when it was revealed that the "live" album, with all of its banter and applause, was in fact cooked.
15 - Al Barger
Why Gypsyman, I would never besmirch your good name with an epitaph like "liberal." You're fair and balanced, like Fox News. You're the very epitome of a flexible moderate.
16 - imelda
Everyone's political & philosophical "self-descriptions" are flexible and situational - depending on where they are and whether they are trying to get laid.
& I use the term "philosophical" incorrectly, because most people are too stupid to have a philosophy - unless they got it off a license plate.
17 - gypsyman
Al, Please, I'am as unfair and unbalanced as anyone,or at least I try to be. That's what having a point of view is all about.... :)
18 - Al Barger
It's ok, buddy. Just thought I'd yank your chain a bit. It's fun that I can TAUNT someone with the accusation of being "moderate."
Nah, nah. Boo, boo. Gypsyman's fair minded and moderate.
19 - Shark
What Booey said. Mostly.
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Shark's variation on this theme