In Defense of Liberalism

IN DEFENSE OF LIBERALISM
by Mac MacArthur
A Yearly Christmas Essay from American Politics

Dec. 26, 1997 -- New York (APJP) -- Last year, around Christmas time, I wrote my original version of this essay. Now a year has gone by, and I'd thought I'd update it for 1997 making it a tradition.

First things first.

I'm proud to be a liberal. Very proud.

On this, the day after Christmas, ask yourself: "Would Christ have registered Republican?"

Of course not. Especially in 1997.

This collection of editorials, news, updates and research we call "American Politics Journal" are presented to the reader as an unabashed defense of democracy and liberalism as its highest pursuit.

I have stood by, for nearly 15 years and watched the moral fiber of this nation begin to collapse - not from lack of "family values" but
from the oversold tales of a small minority of fundamentalist right-wing conservatives and pseudo-Christians claiming, simply, that Americans lack ethics.

Today, The Christian Coalition, largely responsible for blaming societal problems on the lack of "family values" -- a buzz-phrase for religious zealotry --is under indictment through litigation aimed at it's illegal support of Republican candidates. The Justice Department continues its criminal investigation of this group on money laundering and other illegal campaign activities during last year's election as well.

Things are looking up.

But, even as the King is revealed as having no clothes, I also believe that the disappearing American dream - if it ever truly existed - is waning due to the frantic pursuit of unprecedented wealth by the few with so little compassion for the many.

What caused this is fodder for volumes of material. Suffice it to say, that the Reagan Revolution -- unrecognizable by Ronald
Reagan himself -- got out of control.

Instead of a battle cry for increased popular productivity, the message was somehow twisted into -
"You better make more money now and faster or you may be out on the street."

Thus, when one overhears a conversation among college seniors today, it's unlikely to be about traditional collegiate liberal viewpoints
and a matriculation made to "change the world for the better" but, more likely, a discussion of how to make the most money in the
shortest possible time.

In fact, The Newt Gingrichs and Pat Buchanans of our world, spurred by the Christian Coalition's former Director, Ralph Reed, have perverted the truth about American's compassion, and twisted the minds of good 'God-fearing' citizens by blaming the women's rights movement, minorities, gays, undocumented workers, "illegitimate children," the television and film industry, and victimless crime, for our national ills. Now they blame unproved "fact" about Bill and Hillary Clinton and all Democrats for the evils of Americankind.

In truth, it is unbridled greed, born of a seriously flawed corporate and Republican political ethic that have caused the most intense
polarization of rich against poor since the end drew near for Czarist Russia.

The good news is that Americans evidence at least some uneasiness about this "me against you" philosophy so deftly sold them by the "new right" and fundamentalist religious groups.

Almost all political and attitudinal polls suggest that support for right-wing philosophies is soft, but voters - willing to try anything - have, last year, rewarded the most "conservative" wing of the Republican party with a modicum of control over the Congress. I write
"modicum" of control, because it is obvious that the younger, right-wing members of the congressional classes of 1992, 1994 and 1996 have not been able to complete their agenda for their kind of balanced budget or their brand of new tax cuts.

And they never will.

The pinchbeck GOP "Contract With America" which was never signed or seen by even a small percentage of Americans, has, in most part, been breached. Not only because of Democrat legislative interference and defense, but from GOP party infighting with wiser and more moderate Republicans who, themselves, are uncomfortable with this new craven ideology.

A Contract "On" Americans is more like it.

Big business is also rethinking its support of whippersnapper Republicans. The smartest of corporate leaders I talk with see that polarizing rich against poor; have against have-not; White against Black; American against Mexican -- is certainly not in their best interest.

Instability in the marketplace is the worst possible atmosphere for continued profitability.

However, this is not to say that right wing conservatism is dead. Hence years ago, I began, in earnest, to criticize, albeit sometimes too passionately, the direction toward which many Americans are being dragged through deception and worse, manipulation of truth. It has cost me. But not enough to stop.

Few journalists, editorialists and essayists are openly writing from the liberal viewpoint. They quite simply are afraid to lose their jobs in corporate media hallways controlled by the right wing. Thus, I offer this daily, wholehearted, if not linguistically flawed view of America and her politics from the back benches and the dark alleys of reportage.

I am not a great writer or thinker. I'm often a hypocrite. I too love the things and beauty that money can buy.

I, like the Christian Coalition, wish that American families could all stay together; that women did not have to, or want to, work while their children were young; that crime did not exist except in the insane, and; that we all saw each other every week in churches, synagogues, mosques and temples.

I wish that some people, bereft from simply living, did not turn to drugs for solace.

But wishing is not real.

Truth is.

As we become more erudite and the world shrinks ever-quicker, the pressure on the average man and woman increases a
thousand fold. A world where we can watch a war 12,000 miles away, in real time, is one fraught with complexity and so much
misinformation as to addle the mind of even the most astute.

A world overwhelmed by poverty of money and soul, where the majority of people go comparatively hungry is suffocating for most of us - including me. We become inured to the tragedy around us. And the Republican Party, eager to permanently fix our blinders, helps us to do just that.

I was reminded of this today as I read a snotty little note in the New York Times from Ms. Abigail Thernstrom -- the Harvard-employed woman who thinks Blacks are getting too much attention.

She was congratulating herself for saying that General Colin Powell owed nothing to affirmative action. What an outrageous statement from this ghoul chastised in front of millions by the President only a week ago. Let me ask Ms. Thernstrom: "Did the decades of struggle by Martin Luther King, and ordinary citizens like my mother or myself result in nothing? Do you think General Powell would have been made officer in 1918? How bout 1928 or 1938?" It was the atmosphere, so bloodily crafted by Dr. King and others which stood Mr. Powell in such good stead. If he had been born a decade earlier or four decades later, he would not have been The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

That is for certain.

You are a perverter of history Ms. Thernstrom and a sorry bigot who sells evil in place of compassion. You, a privileged White woman, fighting so hard to sell your insipid tome. How dare you instruct the destroyed on their great "opportunities" by using a sell-out, Colin Powell, as an example - a false idol - a specious icon of a Black man who can get ahead without quotas or affirmative action or whatever label you choose? Colin Powell - - A Black Republican -- a living oxymoron like his comrade-in-disgrace, Ward Connerly, who openly fights against his own people in order to secure a place at the all-white-country club called the GOP. Are you a madwoman, or simply and overeducated naive whore for conservative ideas long dead and dying?

Our human tendency is to hide, to seek comfort in our own, and protection in what it ours. It is this weakness - shared by all mankind - upon which religious fundamentalism and right-wing fanatic evangelism seek to capitalize - most often without planning or even
realizing they are doing so.

But certain leaders, like Mr. Gingrich, Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Reed and televangelist Pat Robertson know exactly and quintessentially what they are doing, and how to do it. They know how to bait and use people like Thernstrom, Connerly and Powell. Certainly their formula was stumbled upon - much like a baby discovering ice cream but if was perfected as well, just as Hitler honed his line in 1935.

Once Newt and the boys found Nirvana in pitting us, one against the other, in the face of a designedly ever-shrinking pie, the masses, unthinking, hung onto the message like a gutter dog on a old soup-bone.

I have spent most of my life, from age sixteen on, involved in politics - first as a volunteer, then as a professional and finally as a
financier of Democrat candidates and ideals. I have also worked with and for Republicans and count many as friends. I recognize that many Democrats are also part of, and fuel the fire of discontent. Republicans do not have a corner on sowing greed and
non-compassionate conduct.

However it is Republicans who speak in the name of "family values," yet practice the opposite by offering succor to the already rich -
if only to gain more power. It is Newt Gingrich who preaches the family while reportedly serving his putative spouse with divorce documents on her thought-to-be death bed.

Part of me feels that Republicans, so tired of being a shrinking minority, fabricated the notion that the United States is some terrible
place to live - especially for the white middle class. What else could they do but lie to gain power?

The truth is that this country is only a horrible place to live for those without means - minorities, women and gays -- ever set upon by ignorant whites. And our women, who have endured countless rebuffs and insults to their intelligence and abilities, what are they doing in the Republican party?

Have they given up or given in?

The truth is that America is a Garden of Eden compared to the rest of the world. We have the lowest taxes, the greatest opportunity, the fairest of cultures, the warmest of hearts, the bravest of people - all while maintaining the highest relative standard of living on earth.

This has been the case for a long time, but less so since Republicans took the congressional helm. For they have twisted our fortune and made it their own in absolute disregard for truth.

For those of you who have not had the privilege or inclination to travel outside our borders, I urge you to do so. Look about the world,
search out its wealthiest cities and most dreadful slums. Linger in these places. Do not go abroad merely to sight-see, but
go to learn about other countries and their tribulation and victory.

It is a humbling experience, and one that might shame those of you who complain so loudly about "our" lack of values. Compared to most of the world, our values, family and otherwise, are most high.

When you come home, be sure to visit American slums, the barrios of the Texas/Mexican border. Talk to émigrés - legal and not - and ask them how and why they came to our shores. Make acquaintance with Black and Hispanic families. Meet and talk with a gay man or woman.

Ask a thief why he steals. Ask a drug addict why he uses.

In short, open yourself to information and contact with others unlike yourselves. If you're a Republican now you'll be ashamed.

Then red-faced, ask yourself - what would I do under their circumstances?

You will be surprised at your indignation.

I assure you. The more you heed my suggestions, the more hollow the words of the pseudo-Christian right and the frantic Republican stalking horse will sound.

Don't believe me. Don't believe Newt Gingrich or Ralph Reed. Don't even believe your parents or your best friends when they preach
that which divides rather than unites.

Go out yourself and seek the truth. It is then that you may discover the true meaning of Christ, the bible, the Torah, Buddha, the Koran and other great and small religions, leaders, teachers and Gods.

It is then that you will discover the beauty of our constitution. For all share a common ideology or theology - and it is not, as right-wing fanatics would have you think, "caring about, but not caring for your fellow man."

One need only look at his or her own relationship to his family to see the fallaciousness of that statement. Imagine caring about, but not caring for your children, your parents and siblings.

Just as a newborn cannot fend for himself, many, through no fault of their own, cannot care for themselves. This might be because of
lack of opportunity due to racism or religious persecution. It might be from lack of intelligence, illness or even insanity. It might be from hopelessness or helplessness.

However and wherever, one cannot assuage need for care by simply stating that one cares.

This is what Republicans ask you to do. That is what they do. It is their only choice, because in order to give all Americans an equal playing field we would have to spend enormous amounts money, money Republican incumbents are "hired and bribed " to protect.

You'll hear the Republican leadership constantly quote the "Founding Fathers" as if they were God's. You will hear them invoke the words of Thomas Jefferson, and avid slavemaster in their zeal to convert you to an 80 hour- a-week workaholic laboring for the "man" the man that feeds the GOP its campaign cash and stops by Democrat treasuries as well.

And now that Americans are beginning to sense the false prophet's words, The Republican National Committee leaderless but yet led by Newt Gingrich seeks to cloud your minds again -- this time with $100 million worth of lawsuits, investigations, false indictments, lives destroyed and wives shattered, children humiliated, and nations dissolved. And for what? To be the top cops for a gang of multinational thieves more bent on luring the global economy than hugging their sons and daughters.

It seems sometimes impossible to win this battle. To convince Americans that there is more than money, more than military might, more than "getting what you deserve" to define a good life.

This atmosphere of greed began in California under Republican sponsorship of tax cuts that ruined public education and
social services for the poor and middle class. It was called "Proposition 13" and it made 50% cuts in Californian's property taxes in 1976 and was nothing more than a pay-off - a bribe to us in exchange for turning our backs on the weak and unfortunate; proof that even Americans can be cajoled into doing something that is not right nor judicious - and certainly most devoid of any "family values"

A Black man among White leaders said it best. Vernon Jordan, a true symbol of tolerance and opportunity, called Prop 13 "America's Dirty Little Secret - Racism." He was razor right. But now America's dirty secret is forked. It aims not only at minorities, but also at the poor - White or not. It is unacceptable to be poor in America. "There is no reason for it," says our friend Mr. Gingrich.

While his pals like Senator Orrin Hatch are hawking Bible-based music CD's for personal profit, Gingrich promises us another year of character assassination, despicable behavior and the racist polemics. He vows to spend another $50 million to "get the president" and the Democrats, while Hatch goes after Bill Lee, a young Chinese American whose only work is for those less fortunate than he.

You see, I believe in cliché, hackneyed thoughts when they're appropriate -- That our nation, our world, is one big extended family, where everyone's victories and defeats are visited on the other.

Nothing less could be true.

Americans know this, and that is why we send more money and people abroad to help the helpless than any people on earth.

We seem to know the misery of others, yet often forget the misery of our own.

Isn't that just like us?