What’s wrong with liberals?
They cannot make up their mind.
Liberals support free speech, except when they do not. They support free trade, except when they do not. They support the rule of law, except when they do not. They support the military, except when they do not. They support public transportation, except when they do not. They support education until they … well actually they do usually support public education. They support universal medical care, except when they do not.
Free speech, unless they disagree with the speaker, free trade, unless it impacts their job, rule of law, unless they are the one arrested, military, except when the military does what the military is for, break things and kill people, and public transportation, as long as someone else has to use it. Universal medical care, except that it has to be paid for.
Liberals are about as organized as lemmings, marching together one minute and suddenly off in a multitude of contradictory sometimes self-destructive directions the next.
The mainstream (lamestream) media is not a monolith. Five major networks and Fox compete; a dozen or so major magazines and papers plus countless smaller sites compete for advertising dollars. To get the advertising dollars they have to attract eyeballs and ears so if it bleeds it leads. Scandal is popular too. “Give us dirty laundry,” Don Henley 1982. How can they hope to be a majority when they do not all sing out of the same book? Print media is extremely fragmented with local and single issue newspapers, one page newsletters and Russian bots. Some are locally owned, but others are owned by distant, but not silent investors. They get their news from many different sources, including the coconut wireless.
Many liberals do not vote, often because they are admittedly uninformed. Being uninformed does not seem to deter some conservatives from voting. They were taught just vote for their party, which before the Civil Rights Act was Democrats in the South and Republican in the North. Some liberals claim they vote for the candidate, not the party and swear they have voted for other than Democrats but can’t name one. Some liberals register as independents, thus are unable to vote in some state’s primary elections. Not committed to winning at all cost.
Liberals enjoy a good joke on the government and politicians. Some are not upset when their favorite politician is the butt of a joke, as long as it’s funny. Liberals do laugh at right wing politicians a lot, because the right provides so much comedy material. Ted Cruz is a lot easier to poke fun at than Walter Mondale
They are not organized, but then the original apolitical definitions of liberal: from the Oxford dictionary; Willing to respect or accept behavior or opinions different from one’s own; open to new ideas; favorable to or respectful of individual rights freedoms and individual liberty, free trade, and moderate political and social reform; broad interpretation of a law construed or understood; not strictly literal and finally generous.
That leaves a lot of room for interpretation. No wonder they hardly agree on anything.
When they do agree in principal they cannot agree on the details or funding. Some say stupid things like “Tax the rich feed the poor till there are no rich no more” Alvin Lee 1971. Then who will they tax? Duh! We need the rich. Some of them like Andrew Carnegie, Henry J Kaiser and Steve Jobs are the wealth creators who make other people rich or at least better off.
So liberalism looks like hypocrisy not because individuals are hypocrites, but because liberals are so diverse and there is very little they all agree on. It is not a religion, with dogma that everyone agrees to, willing or not, but then modern religion is not so much like that either, except for maybe Trumpianity.
Ken Obenski is a forensic engineer, now safety and freedom advocate in South Kona. He writes a biweekly column for West Hawaii Today. Email obenskik@gmail.com.
