We are coming up on the final weekend of what promises to be a pivotal election in the history of our country. It is ugly right now with a president* spinning out of control, spewing a constant and wide river of lies, fear mongering and racial slurs, both of the dog-whistle and overt variety. It is a campaign based only on fear, division, and threats, one that needs to create enemies to fear and despise. Instead of of offering a unifying vision, one party looks to aggressively suppress the vote. There is not a positive vision or an iota of hope involved. It is a tremendously dangerous onslaught and it is positively un-American and un-democratic.
It made me think about my own beliefs and how I was viewing this election. I found that while there is fear and anger driving my response to this election cycle, it is my liberal beliefs that still inform my actions. They are overwhelmingly positive positions that aim for greater equality and an even playing field for all people in this country. They are positions that are looking ahead to a better country and a better world for everyone, not just the wealthiest and the privileged.
Positions that say how we treat the least among us says the most about us.
It reminded me of a post from back around this time in 2012. It lists how liberal thought has created most of the benefits of modern life that many of us now take for granted. These are things that were accomplished through brutal, and sometimes lethal, battles fought by those with progressive ideals.
This country’s greatness is based on the idea of the idea of America and that is a product of progressive thought.
You must vote in this election. To not be involved is to cede your future to others who may have a darker future in mind. I can’t tell you how to vote. You vote for the future you want. I will tell you that I am voting for a more hopeful and inclusive future. Progressive and looking forward.
Here’s my post from 2012:
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Republicans have been accused of abandoning the poor. It’s the other way around. They never vote for us.
–Dan Quayle
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I don’t know why I used the quote above from Dan Quayle except that it made me laugh when I stumbled across it. This has been a particularly long and tough political season and Quayle’s clueless words made me step back from it a bit to give a chuckle. As though the poor owed the GOP something!
Though I consider myself an independent, I am definitely liberal in my political leanings and always have been. There have been points in my life, especially now in the time of the ideologues, when liberalism has been portrayed as some sort of anarchistic/atheistic/communistic movement with the word liberal being thrown about as an insult. That bothers me because I have always been proud of the accomplishments of those people who came before me who carried the banner of progressive thought with honor.
Early Suffrage Poster
They were extraordinarily brave people who spoke out against the outrages of the day that stood in direct contradiction to the liberal belief in equality and liberty for all. They were the abolitionists of the 1800’s fighting the heavily moneyed institution of slavery. They were the suffragettes who fought so that women might have voting equality and the union organizers of the early 1900’s who fought for safer working conditions and fair pay and against child labor. They were the people, the anti-Fascists, who stood against the authoritarian movements of Europe in the 1930’s and 1940’s. They were the civil rights activists who marched and died so that civil rights were for everyone. They were the environmentalists who brought back the clean water and air we now enjoy. There was a time not too long ago when clean water and air was not a sure thing.
They were the people who sought to clean the stains of these inequalities from our flag and in every case they came up against conservative opposition. There was always a group who tried to maintain the status quo, to protect against what they felt was an attack on their America, even though their America was one based on injustice and inequality. Can you imagine an America without these ideals that Liberalism has championed, a world where the conservative thought of the day had somehow persevered? Sure, it’s easy to say that slavery would have ended or that women would have received the vote anyhow on their own but there was no guarantee. Just the fact that it took until the 1960’s that a hard won Civil Rights Act was enacted is proof of that.
Think how your own life might be different without liberal thought and action. I can guarantee you that it would not be a better life or a better world.
Damn right, I’m a Liberal.
Vote for a positive future. Vote Progress.
Redtree Times 