My Heart is on the Left

I am a liberal.

Yes, I’m one of those Godless, heathen liberals of whom everyone is so afraid. Only I’m not.

Oh, I’m a liberal all right, just not Godless, and since the definition of a heathen is, “one who does not believe in God or the Bible, unenlightened, or one who is neither Christian, Jew, nor Mohammedan”, I’m not a heathen either.

For far too many years, it’s been great sport by non-liberals to blame everything wrong in the U.S.A., no, the world, on us. And, now, the cacophony of sound is rising to a screeching crescendo.

About the only thing not blamed on liberals are natural disasters. Oh wait, I do remember hearing a couple “deep thinkers” blame heathen liberal policies for God smiting the Gulf Coast with hurricane Katrina, and since then, a few others. Sounded a lot like Muslim clerics saying that indecently dressed ladies caused earthquakes.

This carbon dates me, but I loved Arte Johnson’s “Wolfgang” character on the old “Laugh In” show. The smoking Nazi officer that used to pop out from behind various hiding places and comment on the show’s preceding sketch with his catch phrase, “Verrry interesting,….but schtoopid”.

That’s how I feel when politicians fling the “liberal” word at each other, as if they’re administering the “Coup de Grace” in a bullfight.

“You’re a liberal”

“No you’re one, and so’s your mother.”

“You’re a closet liberal.”

And so it goes.

Am I missing the whole point? Why is that an insult? Without liberals, there’d be no Social Security, or Medicare. The Peace Corps wouldn’t exist, and women would still not have the right to vote, which was a pretty radical position for those times.

Roget’s Thesaurus lists the synonyms for liberal as, “generous, abundant, lavish, broadminded, tolerant, enlightened, and charitable”, among others. Tree hugger, bleeding heart; OK, I’ll happily wear those labels.

I don’t flash secret hand signals to others of my ilk, or sneaky winks as I slink into my liberal clubhouse. I wear the label proudly, as did John F. Kennedy, as he defined the term in a 1960 speech.

“But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."

So am I. I wear my heart proudly on the left.