"It's time, in other words, for liberalism to be born again"...

[whistle]

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Published on Thursday, July 14, 2005 by the Baltimore Sun
Lack of Vision in Presenting Spiritual Side of Liberalism
by Andrew Bard Schmookler

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For many Americans, it’s not enough that the trains run on time, that the bureaucracies administer their programs, that America just be an address at which they live their private lives. They want to be part of a country that has a deeper meaning. They want to vote for leaders that give them a vision of national purpose that touches their moral and spiritual beliefs.

But it’s been a while since America’s liberal leaders have spoken from or to such soulful places. The spiritual shallowness of the liberal message is exemplified by Sen. John Kerry’s lame litany, “I have a plan.” A good plan, certainly, is a good thing. But having a plan is not the same thing as having a vision. Or a mission.

It’s not that liberalism stands for nothing capable of stirring our passions for high purpose. But if liberalism has failed to present this kind stirring vision, perhaps it’s because the world view of too much of American liberalism has lost touch with the sense of the sacred – with what’s sacred about the liberty in liberalism, about the love of humanity at the heart of humanitarianism, about the care for all life that drives environmentalism, about the devotion to the greater good that motivates progressive economics.

And so Americans, finding no spiritual vision on the left, have become vulnerable to a spiritual con job from the right.

If liberals offer no high purpose for America’s leadership in the world, many will opt for a phony righteousness about smiting evildoers across the globe. If liberals convey no sense of holy purpose about taking care of America’s children, many will buy into a phony “culture of life” that seems concerned with life only between conception and birth. If liberals have forgotten the spiritual significance of the liberty in which America was conceived, many Americans will salute a commander in chief who starts wars in the name of freedom even as he undermines the basis of freedom here at home.

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<link> http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0714-22.htm

[OneBlueSky]

1. "Born Again Liberals" . . . I like it! . . . n/t

.

[Maple]

2. Jeepers

in Canada we're thrilled if they just have a plan.

[Aplomado]

3. nice article

it's time for a rebirth.

[lildreamer316]

4. How about I Have a quest/visionquest.n/t