November 20, 2004
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Really good 'mad pride'-ish article in this week's Seattle Weekly. It's called 'Psyched Out,' and tells two stories of schizophrenia diagnosis and treatment, and with an emphasis on the social pressures which surround trying to stabilize and re-enter society.
In the same issue, Geov Parrish argues thusly:
The phrase "moral values" in its current political guise might be nothing more than a polite way of categorizing people opposed to gay marriage. But its use is an opportunity, for progressives and liberals, to make the case that ours is a sensibility deeply grounded in a moral vision shared by a majority of Americans. Using the platform of moral values in coming years will allow progressives to be something more than a loyal, if relatively powerless, opposition.
We can become America's conscience.
The problem with this is that liberals have always been America's conscience, but America doesn't want to have a conscience, as evidenced by the fact that 'moral values' is a code phrase for 'opposed to gay marriage.' Conservatives have, for the past few decades at least, dismissed liberals' moral arguments as hand-wringing and whining and bed-wetting. America truly doesn't care about the moral arguments made by liberals, when they come from liberals. If Pat Buchanan made the exact same moral argument as Noam Chomsky, a conservative would praise Buchanan's insight while calling Chomsky a traitor.
What's needed is a vision of forward motion. It needs to be rooted in a solid moral argument, with bonus Judo points if it leverages conservative moral rhetoric against itself.
Update:
Femme: I'm not saying that conservatives lack a conscience. What I'm saying is that, historically, liberals have acted as the conscience of the nation. Kerry's Winter Soldier testimony is an example of this. Since Nixon, especially, the left has been in the role of truth-telling against the right's power grabs and monumental excesses. And what happens is what happens all over the place when a bully gets confronted: The confronter is marginalized as a goody-two-shoes or a bed-wetter, or whatever.
In the past (especially, as I say, since Nixon), lefty liberal progressives have stopped there, because it should be obvious to everyone what's going on, and there's no easy way to respond to name-calling without being an ass. The liberal idea that everyone should be included in the solution applies also to political enemies, who exploit that fact.
That's the real task here, and it has been for a really long time, and I'm glad Democrats are finally wising up. The task is to quit being naive, but to do it in a way that doesn't betray the notions of fair play and consensus.
Comments (4)
It's true what you say about the conservatives praising their own before they'd lift an eyebrow in our direction. However, I would NOT classify liberalism as a whole, as America's conscience. There are plenty of conservatives with a conscience, albeit NOT ones currently in high-level positions. You cannot generalize and categorize people like there. There are many who are middle-of-the-road but fall slightly into one party or another.
For example, many Greens (ie. supposedly conscience-bearing liberals) who have no qualms with murdering or terrorizing farmers who butcher animals for food.
A liberal does not a good-conscience make.
Wow, FemmeDeLaCreme has a problem. But you aree right, the essence of liberalism is indeed to be guided by a conscience. The essence of conservatism is to be guided by self-protection, and thus self-interest. Without liberals we'd still be a slave owning country with the aged poor dropping dead in cold houses.
"A liberal MAY not a good-conscience make" but a good-conscience always makes a liberal.
"but a good-conscience always makes a liberal." thenarrator always hits the nail on the head.
this post is on what has been percolating in my mind for about two weeks. I am a born again Christian with liberal political views....I came to my spiritual convictions on my own, reading and studying the Bible on my own, not in a church, so I tend to agree with the article that there is more "liberal" in the Bible than conservative.
The idea of conservativism being "moral" has made me question deeply what I think and believe. I turned a ultra-conservative Christian friend on her ear when I stated that litmus test views on abortion and gay marriage do not make morality. Morality includes actual concern and compassion for human beings...I have not seen that evidenced in conservative circles. The problems presented by unwanted pregnancy and legal protection for gay couples will not be wished away by making abortion and gay marriage illegal.
Anyway, I subbed a while back and never commented. This is my long way of saying I enjoyed your blog and thank you for solidifying what has otherwise been rather amorphous in my mind.
and...well said thenarrator!
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