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pecuniumThanks to akirlu for pointing me at John Kerry Superhero.
This is not for the faint of heart, the writer terms himself the Rude Pundit and minces no words.
But if you want to tear someone up, who is asking what John Kerry stands for, what he's done, and how you could possibly vote for him... this will tell you why that person ought ought to vote for Kerry, instead of whomever they are considering.
I point this out because I've been watching television, here in central Texas, and I'm pissed off. They use the word liberal as an insult. Bush has been using the word Liberal as if to be non-conservative (or what passes for it, at his hands) is to be somehow not American.
It's a trope they've been trotting out, and it pisses me off. I'm an American damnit. Proud of it, even when I'm ashamed of it. Defensive about it when I have to listen to people who don't understand it telling me how bad it is. Unhappy when friends come back from China and tell me they had more freedom to discuss things there, than they feel they have to do so here. Unhappy that the use of words that way has poinoned the well of public debate and (I, of all people) have been unwilling to engage in political talk, and sometimes with people I know and like.
Why do we (and I mean any of us, no matter what side of the aisle you want to walk on) let them use one's political and social values as a term of scorn, derision and even hatred. What's with the use of things like, "and his Massachussetts' liberal friends" as though he was a baby killer?
And the tar is pretty funny. Want to watch someone blow a fuse? Call someone from Bakersfield a liberal. Then go and read the book, "Mean Justice" to see why that happened (and to be scared to death of being suspected of a crime in Kern County. I'd rather get caught with a kilo of coke in Texas, than be falsely accused of anything in Kern County).
And what, I want to know is wrong with being a liberal? In thinking the purpose of government is to improve society?
We live in a world shaped by that philosophy? Why, because when we tried it the other way, it stank; on ice. We had kids working 12 hour days, in coal mines. Some of whom had simple jobs, opening a door every few hours. In the mean time, they sat a couple of hundred fee underground, in the dark.
Or they shifted bobbins, or they sold papers.
Or their fathers worked in the packing houses, or the sweatshops, or the lumber mills. They were trapped in the company store.
Their bosses colluded to make sure they stayed stuck. When they tried to work together to get a fair shake, the bosses split heads. Those same bosses cheated the public... as one ditty wen (after Upton Sinclair published The Jungle
Mary had a little lamb
One say she saw it sicken
She sent it off to Packing Town
And now it's labelled Chicken.
I am against Nike being allowed to lie to me, and claiming they have the right, because as a "legal person" they shouldn't be forced to tell the truth about the things they sell me (they filed a brief which claimed just that).
I think, "the worker should be worth his hire" and that overtime is a needful thing. I think fairness demands the law be fair. It means that there ought to be hurdles to discrimination. It means I think hate crimes are (I didn't used to. I used to buy the Republcan line that crime was crime. But you know what, we take intent into account with fraud, [which can make the difference between mere restitution, and prison time] and grades of murder... so this doesn't create a new kind of "thought crime" it deals with a secondary intent, that of terrorising others of the group).
I think we are a great country, but I don't think we are in some way more special, just by virtue of being. If we want to be a shining city on a hill, we better polish the buildings, see to it that everyone who votes is counted, that the gap between rich and poor isns't vast; that disagreement remains, as someone great (who's name escapes me)once said, the greatest expression of patriotism.
My country, to be defended, supported and encouraged, when she is right... to be arrested and corrected when she is wrong.
That's a liberal for you.
Because that's me, and I'm a liberal.
akirlu for pointing me at John Kerry Superhero.This is not for the faint of heart, the writer terms himself the Rude Pundit and minces no words.
But if you want to tear someone up, who is asking what John Kerry stands for, what he's done, and how you could possibly vote for him... this will tell you why that person ought ought to vote for Kerry, instead of whomever they are considering.
I point this out because I've been watching television, here in central Texas, and I'm pissed off. They use the word liberal as an insult. Bush has been using the word Liberal as if to be non-conservative (or what passes for it, at his hands) is to be somehow not American.
It's a trope they've been trotting out, and it pisses me off. I'm an American damnit. Proud of it, even when I'm ashamed of it. Defensive about it when I have to listen to people who don't understand it telling me how bad it is. Unhappy when friends come back from China and tell me they had more freedom to discuss things there, than they feel they have to do so here. Unhappy that the use of words that way has poinoned the well of public debate and (I, of all people) have been unwilling to engage in political talk, and sometimes with people I know and like.
Why do we (and I mean any of us, no matter what side of the aisle you want to walk on) let them use one's political and social values as a term of scorn, derision and even hatred. What's with the use of things like, "and his Massachussetts' liberal friends" as though he was a baby killer?
And the tar is pretty funny. Want to watch someone blow a fuse? Call someone from Bakersfield a liberal. Then go and read the book, "Mean Justice" to see why that happened (and to be scared to death of being suspected of a crime in Kern County. I'd rather get caught with a kilo of coke in Texas, than be falsely accused of anything in Kern County).
And what, I want to know is wrong with being a liberal? In thinking the purpose of government is to improve society?
We live in a world shaped by that philosophy? Why, because when we tried it the other way, it stank; on ice. We had kids working 12 hour days, in coal mines. Some of whom had simple jobs, opening a door every few hours. In the mean time, they sat a couple of hundred fee underground, in the dark.
Or they shifted bobbins, or they sold papers.
Or their fathers worked in the packing houses, or the sweatshops, or the lumber mills. They were trapped in the company store.
Their bosses colluded to make sure they stayed stuck. When they tried to work together to get a fair shake, the bosses split heads. Those same bosses cheated the public... as one ditty wen (after Upton Sinclair published The Jungle
Mary had a little lamb
One say she saw it sicken
She sent it off to Packing Town
And now it's labelled Chicken.
I am against Nike being allowed to lie to me, and claiming they have the right, because as a "legal person" they shouldn't be forced to tell the truth about the things they sell me (they filed a brief which claimed just that).
I think, "the worker should be worth his hire" and that overtime is a needful thing. I think fairness demands the law be fair. It means that there ought to be hurdles to discrimination. It means I think hate crimes are (I didn't used to. I used to buy the Republcan line that crime was crime. But you know what, we take intent into account with fraud, [which can make the difference between mere restitution, and prison time] and grades of murder... so this doesn't create a new kind of "thought crime" it deals with a secondary intent, that of terrorising others of the group).
I think we are a great country, but I don't think we are in some way more special, just by virtue of being. If we want to be a shining city on a hill, we better polish the buildings, see to it that everyone who votes is counted, that the gap between rich and poor isns't vast; that disagreement remains, as someone great (who's name escapes me)once said, the greatest expression of patriotism.
My country, to be defended, supported and encouraged, when she is right... to be arrested and corrected when she is wrong.
That's a liberal for you.
Because that's me, and I'm a liberal.
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-28 01:49 am (UTC)I want to know why W. has been getting away with the "I'm just a Texas boy" routine, claiming "the family" is from Texas, etc. -- when they're from the East Coast! From that funny little state just south of Massachusetts, in fact.
Why is no one calling him on the floor for it, and for his carefully-created =fake= home-boy accent? Until he ran for governor in TX, he talked like he was from that oh-so-liberal Northeast.
The trick of demonizing the word "liberal" is an old trick from Nixon's day (and before). Rove has made it famous over the years. They've managed to make it synonymous with naked-dope-smoking-long-haired-hippie-freaks-who-dodged-the-draft. Or, in the case of this latest admin.: anyone who is Not Us. And therefore cannot be trusted and must be turned in to Homeland Security.