Now, those two terms may seem oddly paired when next to each other, but are they? In our history, there has always been a time and place for liberal and conservative thinking. A balancing system if you will, much like the checks and balance system of our country, but in a social context.
Too much conservatism and we find ourselves oppressed. Too much progressive and liberal thinking and we find ourselves negligent of our responsibilities as a culture. Both have already happened, and both will happen again as it is happening today. Both can result it horrific amounts of corruption, dishonesty, manipulation, tragedy and finally cultural failure.
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Traditional America
Traditionally, American's have reacted to threats and challenges by swinging our culture into a more conservative pattern of social interaction. For example: During the War of Indepedence, many, if not most of the people of our country began to reflect on their lives, and how it might change, all the while not knowing what tomorrow may bring. Highly liberal thinkers found themselves going to churches and public support gatherings to encourage each other and lend support in a ritualized way. Praying to God became quite popular once again, and asking God's good blessings in our time of need was a common sight, even from those who had never before participated in such behavior. Many references to God within our government began to pop up and were institutionalized into our system.
A nearly exact reaction also occurred during the War of 1812, and once again we found ourselves enveloping even more religiously oriented ritualized behavior, both in our popular culture and in our government.
The Mexican American War also created a repeat of such behavior, so did WWI and WWII. The Great Depression also created behavior that mirrored such reactions in our culture after the The Roaring 20's. In two short years we went from having public orgies in New York, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and so on, smoking heroine in small dens, drinking all night and dancing in the nude to, outlawing booze, cracking down on offensive public displays and several other attempts to get control of ourselves. This pattern always seemed to repeat itself after some form a great challenge or adversity.
The crux to our conservative thinking base, has traditionally, and always been, religion. When all else fails, we tend to resort to the only thing we know to reverse the "bad happenings" of the day. We have not known anything else in our history.
We may like to think of ourselves as the most progressive and liberal of American's to date, this is simply not true. The people of the late 1700's had us by a long shot, so did the people of the "Wild West" as well as the Roaring 20's. Homosexuality was far more accepted in the 1920's than it is today. Why is that? What is causing these swings?
Adversity: We always return to the only thing we know to reverse the pattern the we perceive is happening. Too much conservatism matched up with pure ignorance, got several people put to death in Salem. On the other hand, too much liberal thinking made us complacent and self indulgent, made us neglect our cultural responsibilities and resulted in several "selfish oriented" failures, i.e. the Stock Market crash of the late 1920's. Selfishness, and self gratification made us ignore what was happening right in front of our eyes and motivated us not to care, but get what we could when we could get it, screw the remainder. Too much of anything is a bad thing. Everything must be balanced.
This is where we as Democrats are missing the bus with so many American's out there. We have outright failed to see the repeating of history. Adversity, in the form of the twin towers is part of our current life, so is the war that followed, and many other things. In a time of great adversity, guess what American's are going to do? That's right, become more conservative. It is the natural order of things so to speak in our country, regardless of how troubling that may seem to some.
We are not as bad as we may seem.
A recent stroll through the cable channels recently opened my eyes up to the incredible rate of prejudice that lies hidden in Europe and other parts of the world. I have heard so many say that we should take our lead from some European countries in and as far as their liberal outlook toward life. I find however, Europe lacks in true liberal thinking except in isolated cases that benefit the individual, and not the whole. This recent coach potato venture of mine, beer in hand, remote on the ready, revealed a very troubling state of affairs when it comes to European liberal thinking. The World Cup soccer matches are ready to begin, with one great problem. The Black players it seems, are being called monkey's, are having banana's thrown at them during the games. Slogans and banners are being held up high stating their disenchantment with the blacks that are playing on "their" soccer fields. In Italy, in Germany, in Britain, Norway, Austria and nearly the entire continent is displaying their hatred for black's, it is a sad state of affairs. The head organizer of the event publically stated yesterday he will remove the games from any country who's fans display this behavior, literally they will walk off the field, and that will be it. That country will no longer host any World Cup games. Maybe we're doing a better job over here in America than we realized.
Taking liberal leads from European's doesn't seem that it would be all that beneficial for us after all. Liberal and Progressive thinking in America is very unique, and not repeated anywhere in the world, and should be forged from what is uniquely American.
Do American's really want prayer in our schools? No, not really. Do we really want a gay and lesbian lifestyles being taught as an alternative lifestyle in our schools? No we actually really don't. Do we want the pledge of allegiance to be mandatory in schools? No, we don't like to be told that we must to do something. A school should be for learning the curriculum, and not a venue to fight out political and cultural differences. This is our true conservative and liberal nature coming through at the same time.
What the middle grounder's always seem to want is balance. And balance is what keeps this system in order, always has, and hopefully always will. As Democrats. It is my sincere hope that we recognize the extreme importance of conservative thinking as well as our own progressive and liberal thinking in our balancing act, that is the American experiment of Democracy. In the past 30 years, we as Democrats have pedestalized (not a word) ourselves and our thinking. We have ignored the fact that our system has been designed to fluctuate in this exact manner to keep things from going too far, too quickly, always keeping an eye on balance.
At every turn the Republican's have taken advantage of this, and intend to take advantage of it again come the next election cycle. They have defined to their voting block that the "liberal" Democrats do not take into account their wants and needs. Democrats come off as arrogant and self righteous to these people. Sadly, they are correct in a social sense.
We have neglected the fact that American's are not Europeans, not Asia's and not Middle Easterner's, nor do we truly share ideals eye to eye with them. Cheating on your spouse is considered very normal in most European countries, it is not accepted that way here, not even by most liberal progressive thinkers. It almost always ends in the destruction of the relationship. And that result includes in Europe as well, it's just that they will stay with each other even if they have zero feelings for one another, that's not our way. We like to get on with things that are "REAL".
American's are liberal thinkers, even the very conservative ones, but we have a very unique social structure that allows us to adjust when necessary and become conservative when it is felt it is needed. Those adjustments almost always follow adversity. We are in a state of adversity, thinking will be conservative, whether some of us like it or not.
What's the trick?
As Democrats, as progressive and liberal thinkers, what exactly would be the trick to gathering some attention from Republican and conservative members of our society in such a way that would motivate them to support the party? It's quite easy, all we have to do is understand, respect and form and elect leader's that legislate what would be good for all, as best we can, Clinton was a master of this. This is why he attained the greatest popularity with conservatives and Republican's in recorded history, not to mention his own party. Only the very radical, hated him.
What conservatives fear most, is that the Democrats will turn this nation into another sodem and gomorrah. A society so hell bent on self gratification and what is only good for ourselves that we will lose what is so uniquely American, and become just another European nation in thought, practice and social structure. Sadly, I think they may have a very accurate point. On the other hand, so many conservatives don't give a rats ass about what is uniquely American, and will abandoned everything we actually stand for and turn our nation into another Naziville. Again, sadly, something I feel also may have a very accurate point.
I believe if we focus as a party much like Clinton has taught us to do, and try as hard as we can to represent all American's and their best interest according to them as best we can, we will find that this balance is what truly attracts not only American's, but all man-kind.
Just a thought.