[About a week ago, Jeff Alworth asked a number of liberal bloggers to discuss "our thoughts on a vision for liberalism in the 21st Century... Whether or not John Kerry wins the presidency, we still have a huge amount of work to do. Conservatives have been setting the intellectual table for a generation, and liberals have mostly been playing defense. Even the DLC and Clinton presidency took as their starting point the politically popular premises (this alliteration isn't intentional) of small government and fiscal and personal responsibility--variations on a conservative theme. It's the 21st Century. Should liberals be trying to re-establish FDR liberalism? What does liberal foreign policy look like in the age of globalism? Should government be picking up the tab for health care? If we want to dominate the next generation of politics, we need to do more than play defense. We need to have a large, coherent picture if we're going to accomplish that. I don't see why it shouldn't come from bloggers and blog readers."]
Ever since I first saw "Olive Oyl for President" (a cartoon made in 1948), I've occasionally fantasized about what I would do with the highest administrative office in the land. Now, not to discount any of Olive's ideas...
If I were president, if I were president,
There'd be at least ten months of June,
For folks to spend their honeymoon,
And night winds would all have the sweetest scent.
If I were president.
If I were president, if I were president,
Silk worms in every house would grow
And they would all be on the go
(In case there were a stocking accident).
If I were president.
There'd be lampposts like you've never seen.
And streets would all be spotless clean!
If I were president, if I were president,
I'd have a cure that would work right,
For those who couldn't sleep at night.
The time they spent awake would be well-spent.
If I were president. If I were president.
If I were president, if I were president,
The dogs whose habits all were strange
Would undergo a brand new change.
An all-day cone would cost a cent.
If I were president.
If I were president, if I were president,
Each bus would have a smoother run,
With lots of seats for everyone.
Apartments once again would be for rent.
If I were president.
There would be no wrangling anymore,
For drumsticks that fell short before.
If I were president, if I were president,
I'd pick up feminine morale,
And get a man for every gal.
More holidays would get my strong consent.
If I were president.
[Congress]
She's a jolly good female,
She's a jolly good female,
She's a jolly good female.
We love our president.
...'cause, you know, more holidays are cool, and I like the stuff about public transit and apartments (although I don't remember the visuals well enough to remember what's up with the dogs or the cure for sleeplessness). But my list of "why don't we"s usually featured more concrete (though admittedly simplified) visions of how to make things better in order to live up to the ideals upon which this country was founded.
And I think that's what a liberal vision needs to be about. Modern-day Republicans, particularly the radical right-wingers currently in power, have not only co-opted the language of hope and ideals (a language which by rights belongs to all of humanity), they've almost irretrievably twisted it so that just about everything they spout is the opposite of what they're actually doing (or have already done). This territory-staking has (temporarily) solidified the idea in so many people's minds that not only does "hope talk" belong to the right wing but that the ideals don't mean anything anyway that it becomes an uphill battle to convince/remind voters that yes, ideals do mean a lot to us all and, lo and behold, in recent history it's mostly been liberals who've actually taken steps toward reaching these ideals. Reaching toward the future is laudable and necessary, but it's better accomplished by acknowledging the gains of the past and how we all need to work together to sustain and improve upon those gains. You need a solid foundation in order to build upward, and liberal accomplishments more than provide that foundation.
The other aspect of a liberal vision that I'd dearly like to see implemented is a playing-up of liberals' inherent sense of fairness and positive thinking. Jeff also says, "Liberals, being devoted to inclusion and freedom of expression, are always somewhat reluctant to return mean-spirited, mendacious assaults in kind. In a perfect world public discourse would be improved if we didn't just holler at each other. But come on. The GOP not only have all the power, but there are no tactics beneath which they won't stoop (dig?) to keep it. At what point do you admit that it's time to fight back?" Well, as we know from reading superhero comics, the big difference between the good guys and the bad guys is that the heroes doesn't stoop to the villlains' tactics, no matter how much more difficult that makes it to bring them to justice. I think more citizens than we often credit (more about which below) have an instinctive feeling that they're being lied to and manipulated by politicians, particularly those who are so nakedly obvious and arrogant about their desire to hang onto power ("I don't plan on losing my job," indeed). And I think citizens want to believe - I think, in fact, it's a basic human desire to believe in the inherent goodness of people, and that public servants actually want to serve rather than rule. That desire has just been thwarted so many times that it's hard to sustain.
Hard, but far from impossible. (And few worthwhile struggles have been easy to begin with!) One thing I'd like to suggest is the downplaying, of not outright elimination, of negative words. This is a technique I learned awhile back in a former job as part of switchboard training. For instance, instead of saying "He's not in the office" you say "he's out" and you always add "may I take a message? I should be hearing from him shortly" or the like. This way you've eliminated the "no" word and reached out to the caller by inquiring as to how you can help them. The shift in language is often undetected on a conscious level, but the result is remarkable. And it takes a little practice but it's absolutely possible (and, I believe, utterly necessary) to do this. Any fear of sounding wimpy (which, let's face it, is just a lack of confidence in one's speaking abilities, and compared with the right-wingers' lies and distortions what's there to fear, really?) will be more than offset by the positive tone conveyed.
Lastly, there's always humor as well. Liberal humor just works better than conservative humor, for reasons I enumerated in my humor essay back in January but which essentially boils down to "an audience responds better and a humorist is more successful when the targets of humor are the 'haves' rather than the 'have-nots'." Puncturing pomposity is one of the main jobs of comedy, and taking the people in power down a peg or two through the use of observational witticisms and sly satire is infinitely more satisfying than the mean-spirited "frat-boy joke" tone which our current administration has made its hallmark.
I sincerely hope that the visions articulated by the other folks in this roundup contain these elements of sound foundation, positive verbiage and humor. The complete list of "New Liberal Vision" participants is:
Everyone except Lawrence has been on my blogroll (and has working RSS feeds for my Bloglines newsreader!) for awhile, so I look forward to reading their visions as well!
Update #1: Susie's contribution is up, beating mine by about half an hour. :)
Update #2: Lawrence and Jeff have both weighed in, and as Jeff is keeping track of other entries I don't have to any more.
0 comments:
Post a Comment