The Liberal Left is the Base of the Party

[frazzled]

63. Sure ...

I see no difference between your description and one I would ascribe to myself (excepting, perhaps "tone&quot . Since the 1960s I have participated in many actions, on the street and through writings, against unjust wars such as Vietnam and Iraq (I marched against both wars); I have supported all civil-rights movements (for African Americans and Latinos, for women, for LGBT) as a matter of conscience and principle for more than fifty years; I am for strong regulation of banking and industry, to protect consumer rights and worker's rights; I vigorously opposed almost every aspect of the Bush administration (as well as Nixonian events such as Watergate, the coup in Chile; almost everything Reagan ever did, most especially Iran Contra); I am committed to government oversight of the environment as well as personal responsibility in ensuring the integrity of the environment. I oppose the death penalty; I've worked on the ground, traveling to canvass in strange neighborhoods, to elect deserving Democrats. I've phone-banked on issues; I've stood in the snow and cold to demonstrate for sensible gun-control. Et cetera.

Where I perhaps differ--and where you may think me "un-leftist" is that over the years I have also become somewhat of a realist, accepting that incremental changes in the right direction accrue over time to achieve more than mere criticism or rejection; accepting that perfection is not possible in our form of government--but that we always strive for what is right; and always trying to check my impulse for hyperbole through research and thought.

While I have tempered my language and actions somewhat over the years (I don't, for example, wear a Mao button anymore, and have tempered an inclination to grand assertions, having learned that they are often come back to bite you), but I have never, ever, compromised my values.

Sometimes I think people equate the degree of liberalism or "leftism," if you will, with the amount of bombast and pugilism one emits. That is not me. I'm an ardent interlocutor and conversationalist on political issues. I verbally assaulted a famous actor once (name withheld) who bummed a cigarette from me and then started rambling on about how necessary the imminent attack on Iraq was going to be. I engaged on a number of occasions in verbal fisticuffs with a famous economist, who endearingly called me "the communist." I defend my beliefs. But I don't shout slogans, and I don't demand one-hundred-percent perfection from our elected officials in this one-hundred-percent imperfect world. I'll even say something nice about Bush: he sincerely cared about AIDS in Africa, and accomplished a fair amount in that area.