Reply #44: Sounds like you're advocating the "I'm not a liberal" idea. [View All]

I am, undoubtedly, a "left liberal" in your equasion. A socialist/anarchist. But, I grew up poor. Hungry poor. I lived in trailer parks. Was even homeless for a time. My mother was an immigrant. There is nothing at all romantic or noble about poverty.

You say: "But they are conservative culturally, or they are deeply ambivalent about cultural issues. They support things like gun rights, regulation of abortion, a strong military, and protecting the flag, and are skeptical of gay rights and affirmative action. When the country goes to war, it might not even cross their minds to oppose it. To do such a thing strikes them as unpatriotic."

And, you're right. Most of them do. The most important thing to realize, however, is that they are WRONG in those beliefs.

I hate to use this analogy but, dammit, it's true. Most Germans supported Hitler on those same issues, and they were also wrong.

The people of this country has just elected a right wing capitalist, fundamentalist "Christian", that supports an elitist vision of America and the world. He didn't deny it, soft pedal it, distance himself from it, or play to the mythical "middle". He trumpeted it, and the "Center Left Populists", as you describe them, voted him in. He won because he appealed to their most base instincts.

They were wrong. Not "mistaken". Wrong. Just as the German people were wrong when they voted in Hitler.

This isn't a question of political strategy. This is a question of morality. That's right, Morality. And, the single question that we need to ask ourselves regarding that morality is, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

All else flows from that. If allowing murderers to obtain guns to kill people with; If allowing corporations to exploit the poor of the world and plunder the environment; If allowing religious fanatics to determine who shall be allowed to marry; If allowing religious fanatics the right to control the lives of women; all in the name of "populism", then I want no part of it.

If that's condescending to the "Center Left Populists", so be it. Call me a "Left Liberal" elitist.