Why I’m A Liberal
Feel free to talk about the Sunday talking heads, as we usually do on Sunday morning:
• "Meet the Press" Ch. 3 or 11, 8 a.m. Guests: Sens. Joe Biden, D-Del., and Lindsey "Graham, R-S.C. VCR PLUS: 57677
• "This Week" Ch. 7, 8 a.m. Guests: Reps. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., David Obey, D-Wis., and Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles.; former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft; former Rep. Harold Ford Jr., D-Tenn. VCR PLUS: 35431
• "Face the Nation" Ch. 5, 8:30 a.m. Guests: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco. VCR PLUS: 41219x
• "CNN Late Edition" Cable, 8 a.m. Guests: Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak Rubaie; Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.; Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss.; House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, presidential candidate. VCR PLUS: 983344
• "Fox News Sunday" Cable, 3 p.m. Guests: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. VCR PLUS: 2875851
Waxman, Pelosi, Rangel: they have actual Democrats on the shows today, plus Silver Gums Biden, DINO Ford and K-Street Hoyer. But I have something else on my mind. I've never done a Sunday morning post, so I may as well take this opportunity to explore another subject while I'm filling in for Christy.
I thought I'd tell you why I'm a liberal.
I came from a devout Catholic family. I was an altar boy, but not just any altar boy: I was the one they called on for all the special (extra elaborate, three hour) services. I was the best altar boy in my parish for my time at that age. I was the "best little boy in the world," no doubt.
Though I'm no longer Catholic, or even Christian. . . as someone once said, if you're raised in a religious Catholic family, you'll always see the world "through stained glass windows," which is to say, you'll always see symbolic and moral meanings to events and actions. You can leave the Catholic Church (which, through the conquistadores, converted my ancestors at sword point), but the sensibility of the sacred will never leave you.
I'm a liberal because I take seriously – more seriously, I think, than a "church" which rails against third world contraception and womens' equality – the dignity and worth of human life. I take seriously the reported sayings of Jesus of Nazareth to serve the poor and maginalized over the powerful.
I know, that sounds corny and painfully serious, but that's the truth. I don't deify the carpenter of Nazareth, but that doesn't mean that I don't find the man's moral sensibility and basic teachings, as represented through the documents of the late first century that purport to convey his teachings, to be compelling. The man who taught of a God of love passed on to me a legacy that has allowed me to love fully and with integrity, even as a gay man, no matter what an old man who wears a gown in Rome has to say about it.
I've been far from perfect in my life, but whatever I've done wrong, I've learned from and taken full responsibility for it, as far as I and others can tell. Can the so-called Republican "party of values" say the same?
I do believe in justice, and mercy for the truly repentent, not only in word, but in sustainable action. I don't know if I believe in any deity or not, though I do believe in right and wrong. That's why I'm a progressive, a liberal. Count me among those who want to chuck over some money changers' tables in DC.
So, if you're a liberal, why do you think of yourself this way? Is there, or has there been, any religious or sacred sensibility animating your political beliefs? What is profane to you?
To be honest, though I'm glad to know Nancy Pelosi is on Face the Nation this morning (yay, Speaker Pelosi!), I don't care a lot about Monsignor Tim Russert or his colleagues on the gasbag circuit. They try, continually, to manufacture consent and tell us What It Means To Have Values, but I don't buy it. I know what it means to have values, and it has nothing to do with behaving in a civil fashion while the wealthy and well connected take advantage of the marginalized and disenfrachised.
Consider this an open Sunday morning thread.
Related posts:
Return to: Why I’m A Liberal
Social Web