America Isn't Getting More Liberal; The News Is Better Than That

Always the provocateur, you can count on me to say so when I think my liberal friends are wrong. They keep saying that America is becoming more liberal in its views. I don't think so. I don't think Barack Obama's re-election and some of the other liberal victories around the nation are a sign of our nation's leftward movement at all.

I think it's even better than that.

I think the reason gay people can get marriage equality in a few states, and the reason gay candidates can get elected now and the reason liberals have enjoyed some other little victories at the polls recently is because Americans are becoming more fair-minded, not because their positions on issues are becoming more liberal I think a lot of people who voted for marriage equality or voted to elect gay candidates over straight candidates actually do still think homosexuality is an abomination and a sin and that gays are going to Hell where they belong and I think some of the people who voted for gay candidates or voted for marriage equality laws still gag when they think of two men or two women having sex. And I think some of the people who recently voted gay actually hate gay people.

And I think what's so great about America lately is that some of the people who think "liberal" policies are ungodly and unbiblical have recently realized that Jesus would not condone theft, that is, Jesus would not condone the taking or the withholding of another's rights by giving some citizens more for their tax money than is given to others. I think what makes America so great lately is that some of the people who hate gays have realized that Jesus wouldn't approve of a two-tiered system of citizenship in which some people get to enjoy the pursuit of happiness by marrying the person of their choosing while others are told they can't enjoy the pursuit of marital happiness because the only way they can be married is to marry someone they aren't attracted to at all. I think what is making America so great lately is that some of the people who used to think voting is a way to stick it to people you don't like have recently learned that voting doesn't exist so one American can stick it to another American; voting exists so we can perfect our Union and establish justice in accordance with the Preamble to the US Constitution.

But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the ability to vote for a candidate whose lifestyle makes you cringe or the ability to vote for equality for people you think are going to Hell is exactly what it means to be liberal.

I've always said that the difference between liberals and conservatives is that conservatives are willing to tolerate a much higher level of injustice than liberals are.

So if you are one of those Americans who recently voted for some "liberal" ballot initiative that turns your stomach and resisted the un-American urge to use your vote to limit the happiness and the freedom and the justice enjoyed by Americans you don't hang with, then good for you. You've grown. And if you're one of those Americans who recently voted for the "liberal" instead of the conservative because you realized that the Americans you don't like pay just as much for their piece of the American pie as you do and are entitled to as much justice and freedom and pursuit of happiness as you are, then congratulations: you may be becoming a liberal and don't know it yet.
---
Higginbotham At Large will not publish your pseudonymous or anonymous posts. I will READ them but I will not PUBLISH them. Send your cowardly anonymous and pseudonymous comments to me by email at JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.

St. Albans' Peoples' Party Abdicates Its Responsibility To St. Albans' Ward 2

The St. Albans Peoples' Party has , once again, demonstrated why my April 12 2011 post called St. Albans an "apathariat" - a people whose government's existence depends on the apathy of the citizenry. In yesterday's Charleston Gazette, Kristin Ledford reports why Ward 2 still doesn't have a city council rep 4 months after the resignation of J. D. Adkins. According to Ledford, a representative of the Peoples' Party called the city recorder and said the party did not want the responsibility of finding a new city council person to fill Adkins' unexpired term. 

Council selected Former Ward 2 councilman, J.D. Adkins, after Xrisanthi C. Hess abruptly resigned from Council and left the ward meaning that twice in a 4-year period Ward 2 is without a city council person to represent them.

It's worth mentioning here that, so great was Ward 2's apathy about their ward's last council race that Xrisanthi C. Hess ran unopposed and won her council seat with a whopping vote total of 4. 

Last night a city council member told me the open council seat will be advertised. I'm not sure what that means but I hope it means that Ward 2 will soon have a contested council race between candidates who will stay in the ward for a while.

And I hope Ward 2's next council person will be 20-something or 30-something. 

For more on St. Albans' shameful apathy, go to my blog archives and see posts from 10/2/12, 4/19/11 and 4/12/11.

--

I read all comments but I only PUBLISH comments from people who clearly identify themselves. That means I don't publish pseudonymous or anonymous comments. It doesn't matter if I know who you are. What matters is that other  readers know who you are. Use the name by which the community knows you or your comments will not be published.