A thread for the politically curious of all ideological stripes, from a bona fide liberal...
Q: Josh, what are the four most important things I can do to better the country without inconveniencing myself?1. Join a union, or support the unionization of your workplace if none is available. There is not a single more significant act you can take to better the economic wellbeing of the lower and middle classes than joining a labor union. When you read history, you will understand, but until then you can still do the right thing without necessarily knowing why. To learn more, focus on the historical period between 1880 and 1940, and take a look at what working conditions used to be like and what industry and government used to do to defiant workers.
2. Read history. Yeah, you saw that coming. My great recommendation of the moment is
The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life and Legacy of Frances Perkins, which finally
came out in paperback last month. I know I can count on Thought's support for the reading of history, and he's not even a liberal.
Up From Slavery, the autobiography of Booker T. Washington, is also worth a read. You can find it at your local library. Simply put, your ability to understand the nation as it exists today (and thereby change it for the better) is directly tied to your understanding of the nation's history, and to a lesser extent of world history. When George Washington turned over his sword and walked away from the chance to become King of America, that was a turning point in history--and he repeated the same show of humbleness by walking away from the presidency after only two terms. But why did he give up power like that? Read his farewell address (you may remember it from school), and go from there.
3. Vote, and vote Democratic. Okay, so this is "ask a
liberal," yes? To make a long story short, the Republican Party is evil and the Democratic Party is incompetent. If you crunch all the numbers, you will probably find, as I have, that voting Democratic is the best way to change the country--better than not voting at all, better than voting for the Republicans to purify the Democratic ranks, and better than voting for a third party. But! There's a caveat: You
must vote in primary elections as well as general ones. The key to everything is the primary election, when sucky Democrats can be replaced by better one.
You must not vote for the incumbent unless he or she has explicitly
earned your vote.
4. Read the news. It's hard for me to tell you in a short space what exactly you should be looking for when you read the news. Just read it with a critical eye, and you will eventually figure it out for yourself. Do not waste your time reading cable news websites (like cnn.com); read news websites that originate from print newspapers, the BBC, or international news agencies. These are where you will find "real" news. Note: News is not necessarily supposed to be entertaining. It is supposed to be informative. If you're reading a story about the world's largest cupcake, or the latest 5,000-person nude photo, you're not really reading the news. Also be sure to read your local newspaper, if you have one.
Q: Josh, have liberals ever met a tax they didn't like?Yes. Liberals tend to oppose
regressive taxes that disproportionately affect the lower classes. A sales tax, one of the major forms of taxation, is an example of a regressive tax, because material quality of life purchases (like groceries) consume a much larger percentage of a poor person's income than a rich person's, and thus the sales tax's
relative rate becomes higher the poorer you are. A sales tax is also heavily dependent on the health of the economy, and is one of the weakest broad-base taxes during a recession, which is the worst time for tax revenues to become depressed. As such, liberals tend to disfavor the sales tax--although most will support it over nothing, as is the case here in Washington State, where in the absence of an income tax it is the most important revenue stream in the state. There has been some sentiment for Washington to replace its sales tax with an income tax, but the conservatives are against it and most everyone else doesn't understand the issue well enough to favor such a radical change to the system.
Q: Josh, do liberals hate America?Some liberals do, yes. There is a great deal of guilt and contempt in the American ethos. Our history is a brutal one and even today there are serious injustices throughout the land. At the same time, our material quality of living is extraordinarily high by historical standards, which seems insensitive to generations past, to all those peoples who we displaced, and to the people worldwide who are still gripped by poverty or tyranny. Thirdly, ours is a very powerful nation--still the most powerful on Earth and in history--and has exercised that power over the will of other nations. Thus, to simplify it all down, we're powerful, we're brutal, and we live the good life...and we did it all at the expense of the weak. That, in a nutshell, is the nature of liberal hatred for America.
Of course, not all liberals hate America. Many if not most liberals don't hate it at all. All of these criticisms of America are valid, but one needn't conclude that hating the country is the correct response. Americans who go so far as to hate their own country tend to be conflicted people, filled with self-doubt, aggression problems, and fundamentalist-style thinking. They draw their hatred not so much from a reaction to America's injustices, but from a larger contempt for all existence. Of course, if you ask them, they'll usually say that they have a desire to fundamentally change the prevailing economic system.
There is room to legitimately hate America, however. There's an old saying, which goes something like "The real scandal isn't in what's illegal, but rather what's legal." If you a true lowercase-D democrat, or a true humanitarian, or a true populist, then the injustices committed with impunity by the wealthy and powerful are an abomination sufficient that I wouldn't stand in somebody's way if they decide that America warrants hatred. But I wouldn't be comfortable around that kind of person, because in America you can change the system without inciting a revolution, and that's impressive. In America you have opportunity: you get a K-12 education and the right to vote at 18. That's impressive. You can start a businesses and plausibly make money from the enterprise. That's impressive. Those three things--access to the law of the land, civil liberty, and economic opportunity--make it impossible for someone like me to hate the country so long as they remain operational, because they are the keys to progress, and if you give up on them entirely, on principle, then you are pretty much giving up on humanity.
It's worth noting that "America-hate" is not a liberal phenomenon. It transcends the political spectrum. One of the reasons patriotism was so highly regarded in times past is that it was an antagonist to the treasonous sentiments which naturally arise in a public body. Today patriotism is regarded as antiquated and childish, but it served an important purpose. Beyond the presently benign grousings of the left is the much more dangerous behavior coming out of the Tea Party right, among whom America-hate is rampant, and the rest of us no longer have the sword of patriotism to wield against them.
