The Linear Canvas

I read a letter in a local newspaper the other day. The letter was very critical of the way liberals thought and acted.  I had the feeling that this person writing the letter, was an intelligent individual. His letter was well written and he has the sound of an educated person. My one problem was his generalized opinion of Democrats as being liberals. The Clinton haters of the 90’s were successful at linking the word liberal with any negative thought that came to mind. I always felt insulted, but knew that the vast majority of Republicans are kind and thoughtful of fellow Americans. The reactionary media has found that inflaming the situation made for higher advertising rates. That’s America and our free enterprise system at work, but it certainly has had a very negative effect on how Americans view themselves and others, in general.

The situation as I see it has gone from conservatives and reactionaries hating just Bill Clinton and family to not having any one “liberal” to hate in particular, so they have taken to hating the lot of them. Calls of patriotism have gone out that truly mean, “hate all Democrats or anyone that disagrees with our national oil policy”, which of course is the policy of the current White House. I challenge anyone to take a poll of the people that claim that they are more patriotic than me (i.e. Republicans in general) as to how many times they have voted recently. I think you’d get a lot of blank stares. The same goes for those “Super-Patriots” that drive around in their four-by-fours with the American flag flying from behind the cab. Are you a registered voter would probably be a good question that by and large would get a negative response. I vote in every election, no matter how minor, my vote does make a difference, in a more cumulative fashion. Those that feel that they have no voice in the electorate process only want their opinion heard, and no one else’s. That is not patriotic in the least. That is the mindset that we defeated in the Cold War, which was won by all Americans, not just Ronald Reagan.

I consider myself more of a moderate and cannot understand why reactionaries and conservatives feel the need to lump all Democrats into the same liberal barrel. Obviously a lot of people didn’t pay attention in their high school government class. My school called it “Principles of Democracy”. I think a certain president whose mantra is “You’re either with us or against us”, needs to retake that course. Obviously he slept through it, as did a lot of reactionary and conservative Republicans.