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.
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