The Way Things Ought to Be…And Are

Mockery is often two-directional. You can thank the Founding Fathers for that.

I remember being fifteen, watching this cartoon, in 1993. It seemed so natural that people like Rush should be mocked. It seemed self-evident that hypocritical blowhards should be figures of fun.

And it wasn’t because I was raised in a totally liberal household. Copies of The Way Things Ought to Be and See, I Told You So sat on the family bookshelves, and dinnertime often involved some rather heated political disputes. It was never a coddling atmosphere in which to be a budding liberal.

But you see, conservatives haven’t got a lock on strength. Liberals have it too. In fact, counter to the blood ‘n’ guns vision of power we’ve all been inoculated with, liberals may in fact have more genuine stamina than Republicans. We have an endurance based on creativity; forgiveness; and faith in, and alignment with, inexorable human progress.

We endured the Clinton witch-hunts, we lived through eight years of Bush’s stumbling destructiveness, and we’ll deal with the anti-Obama howling provoked now, by those who have no other options. We’ll even face any criticisms we share with each other about Obama, because that’s what we do. We learn. We get better. We keep winning.

I know void-mouthpieces like Rush, and Ann C—-er, and Hannity, and that weepy Beck douche everybody’s tuned into now, their whole philosophy is a lie—the lie that liberals are enraged, sobbingly out of ideas, contemptibly demanding. All the things Republicans, unfortunately, are. “Liberal rage, liberal hate, liberals are screaming”, etc. etc. Do you know what’s really dangerous? What they’re really trying to distract people from?

Liberal humor.

The lighthearted hope, the sense of positive purpose, the respect for equality, the hand we already have in the future.

This isn’t just about two parties against each other. It isn’t even about being “for” or “against” America. It’s about the welfare of humanity, which now depends on us trying something different.

It’s a free country, and you can choose to be against these things. But what kind of person would?

photo uploaded to Flickr by the catalyst…

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