Over the holidays I got to spend time with a family member who is so ardent in her progressive politics that she almost goes full circle.
This is a well-known phenomenon when you think about it. What’s more conservative than the old USSR or the People’s Republic of China?
I’ve heard that Ron Paul and Ralph Nader used to debate each other – and I bet they agreed with each other more than they disagreed.
In fact, if you think about it, who is more stiff, more judgmental than an ultra-liberal? After all, being a liberal is supposed to be about accepting people … if you’ve ever gotten the evil eye from a vegan as you are about to bite into a hamburger, you know that they don’t always hit the mark. Conservative commentators were tapping into something when they accused then-Senator Clinton of being a “FemiNazi” (even though I don’t agree at all with that characterization).
You know who does a great job of lampooning this? Fred Armisted and Carrie Brownstein of Portlandia. I’ve been trying to catch up with episodes from last season in anticipation of the premiere of this year’s shows, starting next week. The people who want to know the chicken’s biography before they will order him for dinner, the people who are so shocked about a dog being tied up outside a restaurant that they let him go … scene after scene of hipsters who are so loose that they are uptight – boy to I recognize their kind.
And what are these “progressives” if not conservative? The are trying to “conserve” a time when hipsterism was more … hip, be it the 60s or the 90s. As they point out in their very first skit on the first episode or Portlandia, these people want to pretend that Bush never happened.
So liberals: Let’s remember what it means to actually be liberal and except others and ourselves as we are.
How’s that for a belated New Years resolution?
