Let's Try It This Way...Under What Instances, Is It Okay To Praise The President On DU ???

[frazzled]

148. I'm old and white (though not male) and I totally agree with you

And I've put my money where my mouth is on these subjects here numerous times.

We have a preponderance of posters here who think that being liberal means something about "protecting individual freedoms"--that's conservative libertarianism talking. Liberalism is about our collective societal well-being; it's about the ways we attempt to make our government work for the greatest social good--not our personal ability to smoke a joint in public. If you want to talk about the drug laws that for decades and decades have imprisoned young black males disproportionately and ruined lives, I'm with you. But I don't really give a rat's ass (one way or another) about your "individual right" to smoke dope. There are collective rights—like fairness in housing and education—that are critical to a great number of people in this country. And if we want a civil and safe society, yes, we need gun control laws. Your "individual rights" do not trump the common good.

And then we have the group suddenly obsessed with jobs and the economy and income inequality, as if these problems started yesterday. They're suddenly obsessed because for the first time (since the Great Depression) white males have been feeling the pinch. They weren't complaining over the last decades about the income inequality that has existed for women and African Americans and Hispanics since ... forever. And they still don't get it. Because it's only all about them. That's not liberal.

And yes, there's the sexism and xenophobia in spades (women and people from elsewhere are threatening to the white male status; these groups get something, it must be taking away something from them). There are the tough guys, whose only interest is seeing politicians and bankers put in prison (they don't want to figure out the complex legal niceties, they just know somehow these buggers need to be put away, and then everything will right itself). And they always want someone who will "FIGHT." They like fighting and revenge a lot. They like tough. Ooga booga. And they're always disappointed, because our elected officials don't fight enough, and aren't tough enough. How about wishing they could "think" enough.

Sometimes I don't know why I'm here. I'm far from perfect, but I at least try to think ... and not just of protecting my own interests and turf.