Kicking George Will's Ass Makes Me SOOOO Happy!!!!

NanceGreggs

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Thu Feb-23-06 11:51 PM
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Kicking George Will's Ass Makes Me SOOOO Happy!!!!

Edited on Fri Feb-24-06 12:15 AM by NanceGreggs

Thanks to fellow DUer Bigmack, who posted this link earlier to an article by the inimitable George Will. Prompted by the inane rhetoric contained therein, I couldn't stop myself from responding.

Mr. Will's Washington Post article can be found here:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060223/news_lz1e23will.html

And here, on behalf of my fellow Liberals, is my response:

Dear Mr. Will,

It is with great amusement that I read your recent article, “Conservatives Are A Happier Group” – actually, it made be quite happy. And imagine that, a liberal like myself being happy, a state which you seem to believe is unattainable for someone of my political leanings.

You state that the results of the Pew Research Center, showing that conservatives are happier than liberals, is “niftily self-reinforcing” in that it depresses liberals. On the contrary, sir. What it does reinforce is the long-held belief by liberals that conservatives simply don’t give a damn about anything beyond their own immediate self-gratification. And I, for one, totally enjoy being vindicated.

Traditionally, conservatives have been staunch supporters of fiscal responsibility in government. Living under the current Bush regime, one can only suppose that if true conservatives are still happy, they must be totally ignorant of what’s going on. The present administration has gone far beyond just spending the nation’s capital; they are running up the national credit card, if you will, with all of the responsibility of a drunken sailor who’s just been told he has twenty-four hours to live.

But as they say, ignorance is bliss, which would go a long way to explaining why our present-day conservatives are so incredibly blissful.

Of course, it’s a more complex issue than ignorance, or even simple-minded stupidity. Over the last five disastrous years, conservatives, as is their wont, have wrapped themselves in the flag and questioned the patriotism of anyone who criticizes their view of the country not as it could be, but as they think it should be. I suppose that if one considered that ‘patriotism’ should extend no further than any one individual’s own backyard, conservatives are patriotic in the extreme.

Liberals, however, tend to see America as a vast group of people, whose backyards are not defined by, nor restricted to, physical boundaries. Our neighbourhoods extend into communities, which in turn extend into counties, into states, and on into one nation, where the well-being of our countrymen becomes a part of our own satisfaction with the world.

You have said that Liberals take their bearings from President Franklin Roosevelt, and think “the attainment of happiness itself, understood in terms of security and material well-being, is an entitlement that government has created and can deliver.”

I guess the problem here is that liberals believe in the Constitution, and in the concept that the government is not – or should not be – something in and of itself. It is rather (or was meant to be) elected representatives, on behalf of those they represent, making informed decisions as to the expenditure of our collective funds, the stewardship of our natural resources, and the manner in which we interact with the world beyond our own borders.

Liberals do not see the government as something apart from the citizenry, as an entity that can promise nor deliver happiness. But as the guardian (not the owner) of our tax dollars, the government is obligated to disburse those monies in such a way as to better the lives of all Americans, and to better the country as a whole.

Most Americans, regardless of political party affiliation, want to see the hungry fed, the homeless sheltered, the victims of natural disaster given assistance in their time of need. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Simply ask the millions of Americans who have donated their hard-earned money to aid the residents of New Orleans, or those who contribute regularly to food banks and homeless shelters, while our government spends our money – yes, America’s money – on waging an unwinnable war.

Conservatives, on the other hand, adopt a more everyman-for-himself attitude. Rather than pool the financial resources of a community to equip and man a fire department, they think it the wiser course for each household to stock a fire-extinguisher and a garden hose – and if your house catches fire, well, you’re on your own.

I am truly astonished that conservatives, who constantly complain about what they perceive to be ‘government handouts’, have not been marching in the streets of late, protesting the handouts being given, in the form of tax cuts and subsidies, to corporations that are raking in record profits. I’ve yet to hear a conservative tell the oil companies, the banks, or the pharmaceutical industry to pull itself up by its boot-straps and stop relying on those ‘government handouts’ to increase their bottom line. Maybe they’re all too busy being ‘happy’.

I am particularly amused by your comment about the tattered Gore and Kerry bumper-stickers. Perhaps, in your self-proclaimed conservative euphoria, you have failed to notice the phenomenon of the disappearing “W” stickers that once adorned the bumpers of the newly-jobless, the newly-poor, the newly-debt ridden, whose disenchantment with this conservative administration is reflected daily in Bush’s plummeting poll numbers. As for those who cling to their worn liberal banners , perhaps they just think it better to display what you have called “relics of failed crusades” than now-forgotten slogans hailing a failed conservative presidency.

Ah, yes, the comment about liberals not being happy because they are too worried about global warming, urban sprawl, and the unchecked paving over of our once-beautiful landscape. Well, I don’t know if you have grandchildren, Mr. Will. But if you do, I hope you’ll explain to them that if they can attain your years and still venture into one of our cities without a self-contained oxygen tank, they’ll have we miserable liberals to thank for it. As they mature, be sure to tell them that Grandpa had nothing to do with saving the environment; tell them he was just too damned busy being ‘happy’ to concern himself with their future.

“Liberalism is a complicated and exacting, not to say grim and scolding, creed. And not one conducive to happiness.” Well, here is where I beg to differ most of all. There is nothing complicated about being a liberal; on the contrary. Caring about one’s fellow American couldn’t be a simpler way to go about one’s life – but perhaps it’s the ‘caring’ part that you find so complicated.

Grim? Scolding? I suppose that if you look at what the country has become under a conservative administration, the word ‘grim’ does immediately come to mind. As for scolding, how else does one deal with the childish self-centeredness of the Bush regime?

As for liberalism not being conducive to happiness, I imagine that’s dependent on what makes one happy. For some, it is simply a matter of looking after one’s own personal interests, one’s own pursuit of wealth, and the creature comforts that exist within one’s own isolated world.

For liberals like myself, happiness is the fortitude to fight for what is right, for what is just, for what is fair for one’s fellow citizens as well as one’s self, and our beloved nation. It is what I try do every day, and I absolutely revel in the unbounded joy that it brings.

Yours Truly,
Nancy Greggs, HAPPY LIBERAL