It's time to Come Out of the Closet

There's no better time than now to take back the word, "Liberal," and wear it proudly. Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and all the other right-wing talk-radio wackos have stolen the word and demonized it over the years. But, they just got slapped in the face with it . . . hard.

I just returned from a three-day motorcycle trip to Big Bend with eight of my riding buddies. They're all Republicans. I'm their token Liberal. They tolerate me. I tolerate them. We try not to talk about it much because it creates too much conflict. They're good friends, and I value their friendship. But, this time, they were in a dither, convinced that the world is coming to an end, and we're going to be a third-world country in three years. So, we all got drunk around a great outdoor fireplace in Marathon, Texas and discussed our respective points of view.

Since I'm on the winning side now, I can be magnanimous and listen with the intent to understand rather than to be understood. It's taken me a long time to realize that it's futile to try to be understood when it comes to politics. The best one can hope for is to understand the other's point of view.

It was a good conversation. I learned some things and got a better understanding of them. As I suspected, most of their concern is around money and taxes. They're convinced that Obama is going to take everything away from them. Only one of the group makes more than $250,000 per year, so this is confusing. But, I kept my mouth shut and listened most of the time. They all agreed that we have a moral obligation to help those who have real needs, but there is great resentment and anger toward those who, in their opinion, fit the mold of Reagan's Welfare Cadillac story. Incidentally, Reagan made that up about the woman who drove up to the welfare office in her Cadillac to get her food stamps, but it has become the symbol for those on the right. All of them seemed to have a personal story about someone who worked the system or was too lazy to work that shaped their world view.

They also view government as a separate evil entity that is forcing them to do things against their will. I tried to discuss my view, that government is us, with no success.

It was a successful evening. The conversation ended peacefully, and we were still speaking to each other the next morning. I learned that it is much better to seek to understand than it is to seek to be understood.

It's time to come out of the closet and say, "You're damn right I'm a Liberal and proud of it." Listen to John F. Kennedy, accepting the endorsement of his presidential candidacy by New York's Liberal Party on Sept. 14, 1960:

What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." 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."