I am a Behaviorally Conservative, Deeply Principled Liberal
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Related subjects: Confessions, Eva Scherson, In the Loop, Media, Opinion, Transparency Yield, U.S. news, U.S. Politics Comments Off
We are watching the national media backslide into the irresponsible primordial ooze of the “culture wars”, where the false caricatures of “family values conservatives” and ”promiscuous progressives” (read ‘progressive’ into sexuality, social policy and spending) are pitted against each other in a nostalgic bid to recapture the oversimplified false stereotypes of the 1960s hotbed moment.
Much of this obsession with false exaggerations, which paints all Americans as one or another monolithic stereotype, persists because it is convenient for the less imaginative elements of the conservative movement, which wants to paint all opposition to its ideas as inherently irresponsible. But we have to start to be honest about what it means to be conservative, and rightly recognize when that term is used as a euphemism for narrow-mindedness.
I am a behaviorally conservative, deeply principled liberal. I don’t sleep around, not because I couldn’t, but because I like to feel close to people I’m intimate with, and that takes time. I don’t do drugs, not because I think it’s an anti-Christian sin, but because I feel it’s just a little too reckless and maybe selfish as well, and I don’t want to be that. It’s my choice.
But I am avowedly liberal: I want government to protect the defenseless and keep big business at bay; I think war is a last resort. And a bad option at that. I think we have to be as serious about finding ways to make peace even when we recognize that the use of force is necessary to put a stop to a radically unjust situation.
I don’t believe in “socialism”, in that I don’t think every problem is best solved by uniform national government intervention or transfer-of-wealth spending. I like to think I can take care of myself. But I am too well-informed and too serious about social justice to think that such solutions have no place in making a democratic society more democratic.
If you want to know what it sounds like to hear a level-headed person who thinks in 21st-century terms of social justice and responsibility, you can call me, or any number of my friends. I happen to know and trust a wonderful circle of people who are committed to knowing what happens in the world, to thinking seriously about how to fix intractable problems, and make sure their nation is “on the right side of history”, the side that fosters wellbeing and serves humanity.
What seems to be desperately lacking in the pseudo-debate about “culture wars” is any serious discussion of what effect any specific policy positions —what sometimes amount to naked and even baseless opinions— will have on the lived experience of human beings already suffering and in need. The media need to move away from such distracted reporting and focus on those issues that actually determine whether human needs and the expectations of basic freedoms are met.
The conservative movement has long sought to paint the “liberal” as “anti-American”, disparaging of our system of government and of our influence abroad, but I vehemently contest this critique as baseless. Liberals want more democracy, not less; we want American ideals to be not only respected but realized; we want American influence abroad to help improve the human condition globally.
The history of American advancement of social justice, equal rights, democratic process and the rule of law, is a history of principled liberal progress, putting aside the tired arguments of “traditional” inadequacy in terms of human interest and social justice, and forging a path toward a better future in which human beings generally live better lives and enjoy more freedom.
So what is driving the “conservative” movement’s obsession with painting all rivals as anti-American, socialist, sexually promiscuous and friends to dangerous criminals? I think it’s partly genuine ignorance about the real nature of the liberal American’s social conscience, and partly a desperate attempt to cover up what are really entrenched and outdated “preferences” that run against the grain of social progress and democratic fairness.
Conservatism is not an ideology; it does not have specific policy goals; it is not pro-American or anti-American. Conservatism is just an attitude: one is conservative when one prefers to work within the system, to build coalitions and to achieve consensus, to not take great leaps without significant support from the governed, or when one prefers to lead a life that is not defined by naked ambition or by a lust for the spotlight.
That doesn’t mean liberals want something reckless or outlandish or imposed from the top down. Not at all. It just means that liberals and traditionalists can be conservative in character, without agreeing on specific policy goals. It also means that hippies can be “conservative” people and Republicans can be liberal Republicans.
And the current leadership of the Republican party seems to not understand this in the least. They have freed themselves of the binding virtues of a conservative demeanor —not nakedly ambitious, preferring incremental change with widespread support, working within the system— and adopting a posture of astonishingly persistent hubris: defaming the elected leadership of government, openly lying about Democratic policies, seeking massive radical changes to the structure of government, with or without the consent of the governed.
The result is we spend more time arguing about who said what or whether it’s fair or unfair than we do assessing the genuine facts of policy proposals or what the evidence —real, existing, scientifically acquired evidence— suggests the effects of such policies would be for the lived condition of real human beings across our society or beyond.
I am a behaviorally conservative, deeply principled liberal, who wants significant change in order to foster social justice in our society, and the lies conservatives tell about me and people like me are unconscionable and unfair. Those lies, and the “culture war” agenda, are distorting our media environment and robbing us of the right to have a genuine democratic process of debate, reform and humane, rational problem solving.
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