Liberal/Conservative.

Open letter to both my liberal and conservative friends.

Chill.

That’s it. That’s the crux of the entire message.

Oh, you think there should be more? Okay, if you insist. Here goes.
To my Conservative friends, I say that your function is one of restraint, of keeping the status quo, of caution. You are what Joseph Campbell calls “the holdfasts.” That said, you must understand that you have chosen to be on the wrong side of history most of the time. You will not win. I know this because you never have. It is not your destiny. There are few progressive social leaps that we as a species have made that were not initially opposed by conservatives, but embraced and defended by them within one or two generations. The arc of history leans toward change, toward progress, toward tolerance, and understanding, decidedly away from the status quo.

It was the influential clergyman and educator Endicott Peabody who said “Things in life will not always run smoothly. Sometimes we will be rising toward the heights – then all will seem to reverse itself and start downward. The great fact to remember is that the trend of civilization itself is forever upward, that a line drawn through the middle of the peaks and the valleys of the centuries always has an upward trend.”

The most obvious examples of your being left behind by history are the abolition of slavery, votes for women, and the dissolution of Jim Crow and the passage of the Civil Rights act of 1964.

What was acceptable, and even embraced a little more than a hundred years ago, colonialism and wars of conquest, are now no longer acceptable. Oh, and there was this little thing called the War for American Independence from England. Yep. Conservatives opposed that one, too. They were called Tories then. Yet now conservatives celebrate Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Franklin as if they were kindred spirits, when in actuality, they would have had them hanged. (Note: All of these gentlemen considered themselves Liberals. Maddening, ain’t it?)

Now, I’m not being critical, those are just the facts, a pattern that is readily discernible to anyone who can step back far enough from the immediate issues and events to see it.

Oh, you may gain ascendancy for short periods, and by that I mean 20 or thirty years, particularly if the people are persuaded that there is much to be afraid of, but it is never lasting. Fear is so fleeting that it cannot sustain your power. Do not allow those ephemeral victories to lull you into a sense of entitlement. You saw what that got you in the last election, right?

So, let’s just accept the fact that you have chosen a role in politics that will never be ultimately victorious. Look around at the social issues that are most prominent now. I mean universal health care, full civil rights for all gays, equality of pay and the like. You won’t win those either. The world moves forward; it does not stay still nor does it move backward. Frustrating? You betcha. But there it is.

So, should you just fold your tent and go hide in the woods somewhere? Absolutely not! Remember, your position is the “hold-back” one. What are you holding back? Why, the liberals, of course.

Okay, my liberal friends, now it’s your turn.

Do not gloat. Were it not for the conservatives, you would run hell-bent-for-leather toward the edge of any number of cliffs, secure in the belief that you could fly! We have seen time and again the good-hearted but wrong-headed policies that have had unintended consequences.

Step back and consider what the term liberal means. Webster says it means “tolerant, open-minded and generous.” That’s as good a definition as I can find. That means you must be tolerant of opposing opinions. You have not often been so. I speak, of course of the late “Political Correctness” which was the very opposite of what a liberal stands for.

In the Seventies, many radical groups began calling themselves liberals.
They were not, but true liberals did not call them on it and so the terms “radical” and “liberal” got confused, by everybody, not just the right.

The most egregious example is the matter of the state’s attitude toward religion. We do not and never have wanted the state to mandate any one religion and so we erect an “impenetrable wall” between the state and religion. However, that was never meant to imply intolerance toward all religion, which in it’s finest moments enlightens and ennobles us, transporting us from the mundane and profane world into the realms of the sublime. (I said in it’s finest moments!)

The first part of the First Amendment reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” What does that mean? It means I have the right to pray and display religious items wherever I want. Anywhere. Any time. The Government can’t say squat. Get real. Nowhere does it say that religious expression can be or should be banned. It states exactly the opposite. A Supreme Court ruling that prohibited schools from mandating the prayer of one religion over all others was intended to foster tolerance but has had the exact opposite effect.

If you are indeed liberal, you should not object to nativity scenes on public land; public land belongs to all of the public, even the religious.
However, Conservatives, don’t start preening! Those who wish to express their freedom of religion on public land should note that Wiccans have an equal right to put up display celebrating the Winter Solstice! Are you ready for that?

Okay, that’s an extreme example of unintended consequences. There are others. In any case, you liberals should be grateful for the conservatives. If it is true that they have pretty consistently grown to embrace programs they initially opposed, it is also true that without their opposition, you would accomplish very little of any import. Creativity requires obstacles to get over, under around and through. Without those obstacles, your ideas would never be shaped, sharpened and honed. Conservatives force you to prove your points and in so doing help you make your points.

Lets face it. Both liberals and conservatives have been in the past rather intolerant and disrespectful of each others positions. That cannot last. It is an untenable position and the republic suffers from it. Both Liberals and Conservatives need to embrace their root principles and expel those who use those terms to practice intolerance, bullheadedness, and downright hatred. Hatefulness, intolerance and disrespect have never accomplished anything except reinforcing those negative qualities to no purpose. A destructive circle. Don’t allow extremists to assume the names of conservative or liberal.

To my conservative and liberal friends:
Get rid of your nut-jobs.

The accompanying cartoons are 1.)Thomas Nast’s interpretation of a Republican victory that severely wounded the GOP, and might be applicable to the two Bush victories that the Republicans may have a hard time recovering from, and 2.) a depiction of the Chicago World’s Fair celebrating the contributions of all nations to human progress.