Through These Eyes #3: Liberal Strategy

     No, no, no, no, you liberals, you're doing it all wrong! No wonder the L word has become an obscenity and the Democrats have lost the last few presidential elections. Your basic plan of attack when you approach an issue is to tell us what is wrong with our current society and state of being and why we should change it. Bad, bad, bad!

     I understand that the very meaning of a liberal is one who wants to change the world for the better by redirecting the flow of our society to more humane heights, and I have nothing wrong with that, but in order to get us to change, you have to tell us we are wrong with what we're doing now.

     That is a pretty tall order. I mean, we're so content and all with the way things are now. Sure, people are starving and going to war for all sorts of silly things, but hey, it's better than, say, the Middle Ages. Now there you're talking massive starvation and wars for the reasons of some outdated notion of honor. Now we just aid the wars to defend marginally friendly dictators from Marxist rebels. Never mind that both the frying pan and the fire can burn you.

     I mean, conservatism isn't bad. Aren't we a part of the most advanced civilization to adorn the Earth? Members of the most powerful nation on the Earth? How could we get better? We have a republican form of government and we each get a vote -- if we can find the time to go to the polls. And freedom -- we have oodles and oodles of that. You want to give us more? I don't really think we need too much more.

     I mean, life is good. We are at the pinnacle of liberty. I know that's what we thought of ourselves in the fifties, but we're smarter and more informed now. We watch the news, read the papers, and all that. We're better off now than then. Back in the fifties, everyone was sort of blithe, you know? Happy without too much thought going into it. Not now.

     Oh, and rational. Reasoning creatures, that is what we are. We can listen to your arguments detailing the flaws present in our lifestyles. "That really is a keen insight you have, but I don't think it's that important." Sure, I watch too much TV, eat too much junk food, and throw too much away, but it's not that important. Everybody does. If I were to change, it wouldn't make that much of a difference.

     Besides, if everyone started recycling paper at once, think of what social upheaval it would cause. There would be lots of lumberjacks thrown out of work, and there'd be a depression in the northwest, and then the flannel shirt industry would go to pot and there'd be problems in New England. I'd hate to have that on my conscience.

     What I'm trying to say in essence is something like this. All you liberals keep throwing little things in our faces. Yes, we gas our criminals, but is that so inhumane? It's fair, they killed somebody, right? You say that's not justice. Homeless people on the street? Well, that's not MY fault. Nothing I can do about it. Why do you keep insisting that it is my fault? I'm not a bad guy.

     Maybe if you'd start telling us that we're good people and just and decent and almost perfect we'd listen a bit more. I don't need to have another conscience in a political candidate; mine works. My conservative friends and I can sit around and discuss why America is great. We have a lot more to talk about than some little idealist who wants to change what's been working so far. Yeah, there are some that say conservatism breeds stagnation, but hey, a quiet lake is safer to swim in than a moving river, you know?