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To My “Blue” Friends - What Is A Liberal?

This holiday — Independence Day — has inspired some very good blog. I was both entertained and disturbed by ICDP Dispatch “4th of July Thoughts On Patriotism, Part II”, and I was genuinely moved by Kathleen’s “On this Independence Day”. I read, for the first time, Frederick Douglass’ Independence Day speech in Rochester, 1841. I spent a lot of time reading great posts, primarily because I just couldn’t write one of my own.

Not that I didn’t have plenty of material. One of my favorite songs is Martina McBride’s Independence Day, which tells a tale of domestic abuse. For the last few days the chorus has been stuck in my head …

Let freedom ring, Let the white dove sing
Let the whole world know that today is a day of reckoning
Let the weak be strong, let the right be wrong
Roll the stone away, let the guilty pay
It’s Independence Day

I was planning to expound on that theme … yes, it’s Independence Day, but for whom?

This is not their day of reckoning. They are still weak and the guilty do not pay. (And by the way, I can’t think of a better post to make this point than this one) Thinking about it didn’t inspire any great words. It just made me mad.

So I kept stepping through my blogroll, looking for something that would inspire eloquence and restore my hope. Instead, I found something that nearly turned my stomach: The Declaration of Independence.

Let me explain; I find the actual Declaration to be an awesome, beautiful document, and I cherish its meaning. But what disgusted me is the fact that it is posted on a blog that is “dedicated to getting the blue out of Michigan.” It’s posted on a GOPer blog.

While the Declaration of Independence does indeed belong to all of us, I find it absurd that a GOPer would celebrate it. I just don’t see how they can appreciate the spirit of that document while advocating policies that destroy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But I’m not going to concern myself with detailing the contrast between their policies and the spirit of America. Instead, in a celebration of liberalism, I am going to dedicate the words of John F Kennedy to all of my “blue” friends:

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.”

And on behalf of all of the people who have not yet had their day of reckoning, I dedicate the words of Frederick Douglass to the red majority, whose disastrous policies have made them true again:

“Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms- of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.”

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