House of Eratosthenes

Leonard Pitts, writing a column that appeared in my local Sacramento Bee newspaper, supplies a question which defines a true social conundrum for the times in which we live (link requires registration). He appears to want an answer, although he has the beginnings of a hint he would like to offer. Describing “an otherwise anonymous fellow who used to rant on our voice mails,” he expounds further:*

I was awed by the guy’s ability to cast absolutely any topic in terms of liberal inferiority. “Naturally, you liberals support the infield fly rule,” he would rasp. Or, “Only you liberals would choose paper over plastic.” I exaggerate less than you think I do…”liberal” is the catchall explanation for Everything Wrong, one-size-fits-all terminology for Those Who Disagree…we use the L-word the way we use all words of opprobrium and scorn. As if, having said this, you need say nothing else.

Which must be convenient, but convenient is not a synonym for right. So I wish some of us would stop pretending that shouting “liberal” is a way to explain reasoning.

Okay, Mr. Pitts writes very clearly, so it should be easy for me to figure out the message here. He seeks to know why the “L-Word” is perceived by many among those who use it, as an adequate substitute for a persuasive argument as to why something is wrong. Plainly, the lecture behind his musings is that we should stop doing it. In effect, he’s arguing that at a time when Americans identify themselves as conservatives much more often than as liberals, we should indemnify the word “Liberal” from any sense of shame that permeates it within the community it describes. Put more concisely, he has tasked us to elevate the esteem of the “L-word” above what it earns from those who associate with it. And if it’s not too much more to ask, kindly explain how you came to regard this as such a dirty word.

My response to Mr. Pitts, is, don’t ask me. Ask the L-Words. They are the ones who are afraid to carry the label, even as they enthusiastically seek to proselytize the ideas behind it.

There is even some justification for gratuitously and derogatorily attaching the label to disfavored ideas, without waiting for endorsement from the opposing side. I will not go so far as to delineate the plastic-versus-paper argument alongside a liberal/conservative fracture; I’m unsure how your caller came to glean that from our national discourse, and confess myself ill-equipped for trying to figure it out.

But I can advise you that “liberal” has earned itself a certain disrespect by becoming a brand-name of sorts, rather than any set of guiding principles.

For example, if you were to tell me someone I’ve not yet met believes in a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy, I think you will agree I can predict with virtual certainty, this person does not believe we should have a military presence in Iraq. I can make book on this, offering three-to-one odds, or even higher. If you tell me this stranger is opposed to spousal- and parental-notification laws, and is in favor of partial-birth procedures, we can probably agree it’s a virtual certainty this person thinks “Saddam Hussein was not dangerous.”

The funny thing is this: To believe, against the evidence, against what our leaders on both sides of the political spectrum have been telling us about Hussein since the early 1990’s, that the Butcher of Baghdad “was not dangerous” — this doesn’t have a whole lot to do with killing babies, or whatever you choose to call that procedure. The two issues are not connected by a concern for the sanctity of life, or making peace & not war, or a sense in the potential of humanity or complete nihilism. They are completely disparate issues.

But what you and your caller apparently agree are “liberals,” have demonstrated a strong tendency to buy up these two disparate positions as a package deal. And there are more positions like this. To draw another example, if you show me ten people who think vicious, child-raping serial killers should be spared from the death penalty, I’ll show you at least nine people who think that perhaps bedridden old people in persistent vegetative states, should not be. Show me a hundred people who want to “raise the minimum wage” so “working families” can have an edge, and I’ll show you ninety people who want to repeal tax cuts so that other working families can’t have too much of an edge.

The same goes for so many other positions that are entirely disconnected from each other in terms of philosophical values — except where they directly contradict each other — but solidly riveted together, watertight, in terms of the equilateral support they draw from those who call themselves “liberals.”

Why is that?

I can’t tell you. I don’t know. You will have to ask them. But I have a gut feeling if you can crack that nut, you’ll have the answer to why most of America holds this label in such deep contempt.

——————
*It’s not me.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent

Items of Interest

Monthly Archives

What They Say

Links

Ask The L-WordsFriday, November 4th, 2005

Ask The L-Words
Friday, November 4th, 2005