A liberal is also "respectful and accepting of behavior or opinions different from one's own; open to new ideas." And "(of education) concerned with broadening general knowledge and experience."
What's wrong with that?
I'm a liberal, and, when push comes to shove, so are most people since most people don't want to waste time policing other people's behavior. The same dictionary defines conservative as "(in a political context) favoring free enterprise, private ownership, and socially conservative ideas." Well, I do like "free enterprise" and "private ownership" as long as it doesn't pollute too much, interfere with the rights of working families, and monopolize the market place. Nothing much wrong with that either. However, I am most decisively not socially conservative.
Richard M. Nixon, despite his faults and hubris, was probably as much liberal as conservative. So was Lyndon B. Johnson. Coming from Texas as he did, Johnson may have even been more socially conservative than Nixon. With most past presidents, it was just a question of degree. They were moderate men and practical politicians.
The Hollywood Liberal Elite
Sonny Bono, Ronald Reagan, and Arnold Schwarzenegger were all elected to major office from Hollywood's ranks. All were Republicans. For every Sean Penn and Michael Moore on the "liberal" side, there is a Mel Gibson and Charlton Heston on the other side. Most of Hollywood's money men, like most high-powered money men, are Republicans. A good many famous actors are indeed "liberal." The rank and file are probably distributed about the same as the rest of us.
What is usually meant by the "Hollywood Liberal Elite," expressed with a nod and a wink among the elite on the other side, is that they tolerate gays more readily than folks in other parts of the country, especially in the central and southern states. This toleration includes many Hollywood Republicans. It certainly included Bono, Reagan and now, Schwarzenegger.
Elite, by the way, is defined by Oxford as "a group of people considered to be superior in a particular society or organization." If any group of people should be considered elite, it is the media pundits, mostly conservative, who use the term so glibly. They question the qualifications to comment on politics of anyone who disagrees with them. What qualifies them? Most have gone to college and, hopefully, have read a lot of books. They can put English sentences together pretty well. Most actors have gone to college, and most actors read a great deal. Like journalists, it is in the nature of their profession to handle English sentences well. They occasionally say stupid things. So do journalists. Both have an inflated view of their own importance.
Socially Conservative
In political terms, "socially conservative," means "values voters." They are people who vote their values almost exclusively. According to the highly-respected Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 22% of the electorate fall into that category. 80% voted for Mr. Bush. Catholics voted 52% to 47% for Mr. Bush despite the fact that Mr. Kerry is a practicing Catholic and that it is a reversal from the 2000 election..
Are Democrats less religious than Republicans? Of course not. The vast majority of Americans express a belief in God. It should also be noted that 20% of "values voters" voted for Mr. Kerry. The "value" issue of peace and war was no doubt a factor. The Pew survey also says that 51% of registered voters favor churches participating in politics. 45% do not. Interestingly, 64% thought clergymen should not discuss politics.
A curiosity is that 61% of Democratic registered voters think government should fund religious charities, but only 46% of Republicans do. And yet, it was Mr. Bush who first implemented "faith-based initiatives" by executive order.
The religious question is by no means a slam-dunk for Republicans. The more equitable society favored by the Democratic Party has deep roots in Western religious tradition. So has the tradition of toleration born of the fact that a lot of Europeans came here to escape religious oppression before and after the American Revolution. More recently, Jews came over escaping the Nazis and Soviets. Now many Chinese and folks from the Middle East are doing the same thing.
The Great Division
Looking at the election map, you would think that we're ready for another civil war. All the red states being together in the center and south of the country, with the blue states on the coasts and Northeast. But this is nonsense. Even in states were Mr. Kerry lost heavily, he got around 40% of the vote, and the same can be said for Mr. Bush. Pundits aside, the vote was 51-48%. The one percent that voted for Ralph Nader and others also didn't go to George Bush.
It's humbling for us Democrats but not insurmountable. There's nothing wrong with our values, and we don't have to buy Republican notions (they do it better anyway). We do have to explain that an equitable society is perfectly fine as a value. In fact it is much more in the Western tradition than the exclusive market-based ideology that is fostered by the corporate elite as an excuse not to pay their just taxes. That's just Social-Darwinism, which both Fascism and Leninism used to justify their methodologies.
It's no accident that proponents of an inflexible market-based economy jokingly refer to it as "Market-Leninism."
Yves Barbero is a former member of Local 8, International Union of Elevator Constructors, and present member of the National Writers Union, UAW, AFL-CIO. He proudly maintains the website of the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council at www.sfbctc.org. He is a computer consultant.
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