An American Lion

There is a bit of a dispute building in the “liberal” movement over a book written by the young man who set up the “Daily Kos” website. I go over there and have a great belly laugh when I want to come up with examples of things that only a hairy-legged fifty year-old woman with no sense of style or taste would have to say about politics. It’s a site too dismal to contemplate. There is absolutely no humor to be found there, only earnest self-aggradizing and personal absorption on a scale not to be believed.

This fellow “Kos” has a book that compares the nuttier elements of the Right in this country with the Taliban. Aside from cheapening the idea that the Taliban actually do maim and kill people, there is a grain of truth when we compare all fundamentalists to one another; fundamentalism is a sort of totalitarianism that still has a measure of cachet in this world. It’s what you ascribe to when you want people to think you are serious and committed to something.

Anyway, the real lesson here is that “high mindedness” is the real problem that liberals face in this country. They are counting on conservatives to be honest (no one ever made much money by being absolutely, totally, and completely honest) and they are counting on receiving points for being good and perfect. In other words, this is a form of complaining about the refs and hoping that being a “pussy” will help you come out on top. I hate to break it to you, and be so crude as to use the term “pussies”, but there it is:

Listen, I have no problem with throwing punches and fighting the good fight against the forces of wealth and regression. And I won’t hesitate to attack the conservative movement for its sexism, racial resentment and monomaniacal devotion to enriching the privileged. But there’s a vast difference between that, and stressing a moral equivalence between the right and the Taliban. The former is true and focuses our aim for the battles ahead, the latter, as Patrick Appel writes at the Daily Dish, doesn’t “accomplish anything besides juicing book sales and temporarily riling up like-minded folk.”

Hell, Kos admits as much when he describes the purpose of his book, “Because look, this book, ultimately, is a big ‘fuck you’ to every conservative who has ever accused us of wanting the terrorists to win.” Kos isn’t Paul Revere; he isn’t warning us about some incipient threat to our safety; he’s trying to get back at conservatives who accuse liberals of hating their country. Which, as I said in my review, is fair; Kos has never claimed to be an honest broker for the truth. But the fight for progress doesn’t require us to bend the truth or distort our opponents’ ideas; we can wage this war as we always have, by fighting for our values and giving the right the rope it needs to hang itself. Sure, “fuck you” feels good, but the moment you turn to smears is the moment you concede the weakness of your own position.

The conservative movement is a perfect example of what happens when you let dishonesty consume your argument. In its drive to demonize liberals, it has become an incoherent mass of rage and resentment, devoid of anything approximating a governing agenda. The right has become so doctrinaire that it has lost its capacity for self-correction. This year’s Republicans will win because of high unemployment and poor growth, not because the American people have suddenly become more receptive to conservatism (they haven’t).

The headline of the piece that I’m quoting above is “No, Really. We Shouldn’t Adopt Conservative Tactics.”

Really? And don’t you think that the people who oppose you are praying that enough liberals will come out and say such a thing? I guess you don’t want to win, do you? Winning might make you think less of yourself. I assure you—that’s not a problem that your opponent has right now.

Being high minded makes you feel good about yourself while you watch others make decisions about your life. Enjoy oblivion. The fellow who wants it more is going to take this country from you and you will be left to study the dishonest ways employed to beat you.

Actually, if you came out and said “we will beat them only when we play the game better and harder than they do” I would have been shocked. Surely, no one with a deep-seated sense of self-importance would tape nickels to their knuckles and go down to the town square and fight to hold on to their way of life, right? That’s for the little people who donate money to keep your web site up and running.