Yes, by all means, stand up for what you believe in, libs. That will win you a national election. Yeah, that's the ticket...
Posted on 09/19/2004 2:12:15 PM PDT by Mark
Liberals must stand up for their own ideals to win By Michael Lerner
It's easy to denounce Sen. John Kerry's inconsistencies and waffling about the war. Certainly his statement that he would still have voted in favor of an intervention, even knowing what he knows now, has made it impossible for him to consistently represent the perspective of the American majority who think the war was a mistake. Yet the problem goes deeper -- to the heart of the opportunism which continues to befuddle America's liberal forces.
The central problem with liberals is that they are "liberal" about their liberalism -- they refuse to stand up and fight for what they believe in. Instead, they are apologetic, back away from their own ideology, try to show that they really are something else. Michael Dukakis famously did this in 1988 when he was accused of being a liberal and couldn't' simply say, "Yes, and here's why I'm proud of it." Bill Clinton, in 1994, tried to argue that his health care program was the "true conservative program," and Kerry has used similar language in 2004.
None of these politicians seems to get the simple point that if liberals feel that they need to justify their approach in terms of conservative values, ordinary Americans can figure out that the best way to get conservative values is to vote for conservatives. Or to put it in the language of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, you risk being seen as a "girlie man" if you don't have the courage of your own convictions.
Americans are not fascistic to want a strong leader -- someone whom they feel they can trust and know that will stand up for what he or she claims to believe. Democrats have made that very hard this year, because they chose a candidate whose views most Democrats don't believe in, particularly with regard to the war in Iraq, support for Ariel Sharon's Middle East policies and timid vision of health care for the U.S.
Ask most Democrats about these issues, and they tell you that deep down they believe or hope that Kerry doesn't really believe what he is saying, that he'll do something different once elected. Well, if the best that his own supporters can say is that they hope that their candidate is a lying opportunist on these critical issues, they have trouble answering the Republican charge that he can't be trusted because of opportunistic flip-flopping.
True, Kerry has made things worse by failing to focus attention on the points where he could have appeared consistent and strong: The Bush administration's flagrant irresponsibility in regard to the environment, civil liberties, women's right to control their own bodies, and unrestrained corporate power and what that actually means for the lives of ordinary Americans. But the real culprit here is that most liberals lack trust in the goodness, decency and intelligence of ordinary Americans. They continue to believe that most Americans are too dumb or too reactionary to really want a world based on peace, justice, kindness and generosity.
It is that lack of trust that accounts for why liberals backed Howard Dean rather than Dennis Kucinich in the year leading up to the Democratic primaries, even though Kucinich articulated a peace, social justice and visionary agenda far closer to what they believed in. Their argument: "Kucinich can't win; Dean can. Sure, I like what Kucinich says far better than the other candidates, but most Americans will never back him because his ideas are too far in advance of theirs." The slippery slope of "anyone but Bush" soon led many of these same people to switch from Dean to Kerry, using the same logic: "I don't agree with him, but those other people, the mysterious swing voters, will never vote for anyone who agrees with the lofty peace and justice principles I hold, so I have to be realistic."
If the electorate at the moment is swinging toward the more conservative candidate, it's not because they've heard a coherent liberal worldview and rejected it.
If only Democrats were suggesting that homeland security could be enhanced by a global Marshall Plan to eliminate hunger, poverty, inadequate education, inadequate health care and a new approach to economic globalization so that it no longer appeared to be an attempt by the West to impose its materialism and "looking out for number one" values on the rest of the world. If only they were arguing that the society they sought to build in the U.S. would counter corporate selfishness with a new idealism and ethos of generosity and caring for others and caring for the environment -- then Americans might actually rally to that vision.
But the liberal belief that Americans are incapable of responding to any such worldview is self-fulfilling: If people never hear it argued for, of course they aren't going to support it. And if the reason they never hear it is because liberals deep-down believe that Americans are incapable of responding to anything more visionary than a laundry list of goodies, many people end up feeling so disrespected by these liberals that they turn to the Republicans, not because they agree with their platform as much as because they feel that the right is willing to stand for what it stands for.
Turns out that standing for one's own ideals is far more realistic than trying to cater one's views to what the media tell us everyone else is for. Until the liberals learn that, their chances of regaining national power are slight.
Michael Lerner is rabbi of Beyt Tikkun synagogue in San Francisco and editor of Tikkun Magazine. Contact him through the Tikkun Web Site, www.tikkun.org .
So liberals are liars. DUH!
Mr. Tikkun's chances for regaining power are slight and getting smaller.
LOL..."don't be afraid of being a liberal." That's like saying "don't be afraid of being a moron."
Go for it. Tell the world you are a liberal. See how many votes that gets you. Actually two candidates, a true conservative against a true liberal would make for a great election. Too bad Howard Dean isn't the nominee.
They have moral relativism and an utter hatred for those who have religious faith.
Not exactly a winning ticket.
Isn't he the notorious Hitlery sycophant?
I used to be a liberal, but I'm alright now! ;-)
They have one of those?
I guess the media glossed over it or something.
The title says it all. This is what makes liberals what they are --- they CANNOT talk about what they stand for -- which is growing out moded rapidly nowadays -- but to do so, cuts their own throats.
Why do you think Kerry SAYS NOTHING when it comes to most important issues??? His extreme liberal position is poison -- nice to see though, since it represents the beginning of the end for these socialists.
I've never read such dribble...What planet are they living on?
Yes, by all means, stand up for what you believe in, libs. That will win you a national election. Yeah, that's the ticket...
1. Tax the earners and give their money to the bums.
2. Sex education in third grade or it's too late!
3. No borders; borders are racist!
4. Outlaw self-defense. Violent criminals are just 'crying for help.'
5. Everyone must be free to say what they want as long as we agree with it.
6. We need to learn why terrorists hate us and change so they won't hate us any more.
Sounds like a tough sell...
Excuse me? I love these libs -- the idea of taking that which produced by those who work and giving it to those who do not is "advanced thinking."
That sort of self-delusional hubris is probably the only way they can sleep at night.
Just a side note, but "Tikkun" has been cited on more than a few occasions by Hillary Rodham Clinton as being among her favorite periodicals.
But give Mr. Lerner credit....at least he's not afraid of proclaiming which side of the fence he's on.
Right, they "run away from it" that is why Dukakis held up his ACLU card and bragged about being a "Card Carrying Memeber". You can see the spin line all ready being laid,
Our ideas didn't lose we just didn't run hard enough to the Political Left.
Ah well Denial springs eternal to the Heart of the Liberal Democrat. Note to Democrats it is NOT your presentation, it is YOUR IDEAS, that cause you to be defeated time after time. See, the Average American has NO desire to enslave himself to the corrupt emptional whimsys of a bunch of self important Hitler wanna be "Liberals". WE can manage our own lives. Thank you for your fine feelings but we neither want, nor need, your help. Get out of our way.
Bu hey, If "Liberals" want to marginalize themselves even MORE by running even harder left, I say "Let's get out of their way".
And we are glad you are with us...
Well, it appears they've taken a left turn (their actual words in their new advert), and now are going to replay broadcasts of Air America and a show called Unfiltered. It's HORRIBLE, really, really HORRIBLE. It was painful to listen to, and I did try.
I'm so bummed that Ingraham and Hannity are no more. I couldn't care less about BOR's show, that blew big time, but Ingraham and Hannity will be sorely missed.
Hannity has the best guests on his show, bar none, and Ingraham's no slacker in that dept either. Doggone pity!
Ha! Even the rabbis in SF are turncoats.
If we take his argument a step further, why is he even a rabbi?
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