Phony Liberalism Masks Bias and Hatred...

This is probably the last post I ever thought I’d have to write.

Since 1999, I’ve posted at least one or more original essays and editorials a day.
Of all of them, this may be the hardest one I’ve had to write. Why? because it’s forced me to look inside a movement that I have been connected to all my life: the liberal movement.

But a lot of stuff being bandied about the liberal websites have nothing at all to do with liberalism; in fact, they are their polar antithesis. People are telling me they are liberals in one breath and then proceed to spread out hatred and ignorance in the next. Because of this, it may be necessary for me to think seriously about whether this label still applies to me and my views.

I always thought that progressives were fundamentally liberals who changed their appellation because it was too freighted with baggage. After all, weren’t we liberals the cause of everything bad that happened to America? We were responsible for wanting peace even though we served our countries. We were labeled cowards, “pinkos” and other pejorative terms by those who were accustomed to blaming others for everything; never admitting their own culpability.

Weren’t we the reason so much money was spent on domestic programs to improve health care, education and training in America? And aren’t we responsible for the National Debt? Certainly you would think so if you listened to those tight lipped Republicans who were eager to find appropriate scape goats; never mind that the millionaires among them never refused one social security payment.

But to me, liberalism meant that you were willing to embrace change and possibilities. You were willing to forgive. And you were willing to bring more people into your tent. I stayed with the Rainbow Coalition because I believed it hewed to those values til it fragmented into a disorderly group of special interests who seemed to have less and less in common with what I considered to be liberal values. I had a lot of company, too, and as soon as Jackson started to consort with the radicalized elements of his party, the real liberals just kind of evanesced. And with good reason.

I was brought up to believe that liberals and progressives were made up of people of every description and ethnic group and that they could all find common ground; that we all fundamentally believed in the same things; that all people had value; that all people should have equal opportunity under the law; that all people should have equal education and medical care and opportunity.

What a shock then to read carefully many of the posts on some of the best known posts these days that lay claim that liberal and progressive roots. Well, folks, after reading and being a member for years, I am disheartened; the kind of stuff that I have been reading is biased, slanted, accusatory; it is a view that sees the world as us and them and, quite frankly, they are more hateful than some of the conservative sites that I have received mail from and that is a blow to me to me personally. The truth is that many of these people who inhabit these sites know nothing of liberal values and are pretenders at best.

What I have seen is not an attempt to embrace or include but a philosophy that is exclusive and polarized; a perspective that suggests that Republicans and Greens are not worthy of redemption at any cost. I have heard so much hatred spewed by ethnic people that I can’t believe I am listening to so-called progressives claiming entitlement to the progressive banner. It is literally sickening and demoralizing to be lumped among them.

I am so overwhelmed with this hatred and the arrogant, self-righteous spewing of negativity and shibboleths that don’t really apply that I realize the only path back is to start jettisoning lists that don’t monitor their people and give them free reign to saying anything irresponsible under the mantle of “free speech.’ Yes, free speech but not free speech to slander or spread lies and then get all sanctimonious when somebody catches up with you for being biased or expressing wild-eyed hatred for no good reason.

Hopefully, this is only a temporary interlude and that true liberals and those who call themselves progressives will reappear to assert their values of decency and fair play. We can only hope so. In the meantime, I will exercise the power to “delete” until we can all speak freely without rancor in an atmosphere of hope and reconciliation.

Les Aaron