The reclaiming of Liberal Democracy
Columnist Mike Royko of the Chicago Tribune once put it best: “It’s much harder to be a liberal than a conservative because it’s easier to give someone the finger than a helping hand.”
It certainly seems that way, especially since for the last 50 years or so, one major political party has pretty much given up on truth-based, positive messaging and plans for America, preferring instead to rely on negative appeals to fear and resentment. They decided that governing was for suckers, secondary to maintaining power, and enriching themselves and their already wealthy patrons. “Going negative” metastasized into demonizing their opponents, regardless of the content of their character. And one of the greatest unfortunate successes of this conservative political war on America has been the rebranding of the great American Liberal.
From Nixon to Reagan, both Bushes and now Trump, “liberal” has been corrupted for generations of Americans as something wimpy and weak. Except liberalism in this country actually represents the best of America, and its time for good people to fight back and reclaim our proud Liberal Democracy.
In 1963, economist John Kenneth Galbraith stung the modern conservative movement as “... the search for a truly superior moral justification for selfishness.” To selfishness, conservatives piled on inflammatory accelerants such as race-baiting, class warfare and evangelical pandering, morphing the movement from its small government, fiscal responsibility roots into the golem of greed and faux social self-righteousness that exists today. Yet Liberal Democracy, with its foundational approach of wanting to make America better for everyone, was originally politically agnostic. For example, both Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson saw social justice and a pro-active government as necessary to keep greed in check and provide equal opportunity for all.
In World War II, it was liberals of all political persuasions in this country who fought fascists in Spain and joined the Royal Air Force in 1940, while conservatives were finding ways to work with Hitler. Liberals wanted to fight the growing fascist threat to America and it wasn’t until Germany started striking at our economic interests by sinking ships that we finally rallied to the cause.
Liberal programs such as the New Deal, Great Society, and the Marshall Plan, supported on both sides of the political aisle, aspired to lift millions out of poverty and despair. Conservatives? They rallied around Joe McCarthy, and have forever tried to tear down anything resembling a “social safety net.”
Liberals were the driving force toward ending legal sexism and legal segregation. Conservative dogma requires that liberals be painted as weak, but does anybody consider Martin Luther King Jr. weak? Or Bobby Kennedy, Gloria Steinem or John Lewis? No they don’t, because liberals represent the best and most noble aspects of what this country should stand for. Liberals believe that all men and women are created equal and should be entitled to equitable government services. That everyone should have access to quality health care, education, and a retirement with dignity. That the rule of law should be applied fairly and if necessary, punishments should be humane and fit the crime. That the national defense should be strong, and that our soldiers are treated well and not used for preemptive, unnecessary entanglements.
Meanwhile, today’s “conservatives” are willing to fight to crush the majority of Americans on behalf of a select few. They don’t care about your civil rights or your personal freedoms. They deny science because it affects profits, and to hell with your right to clean water and air. They move your job offshore and blame someone else. They offer nothing but thoughts and prayers if you get shot or sick. They’ll embrace a Christian theocracy that has nothing to do with love, forgiveness or tolerance. They have some nerve calling themselves the “real Americans.”
Modern conservatives have contributed nothing to what made America the shining city on a hill the rest of the world until recently respected and wanted to emulate. Liberals built that America, and now are going to have to fight to do it all over again. A fight that begins Election Day with national and local conservatives being kicked to the curb, starting America back on a road to salvation. One helping hand at a time.