No Shit

If traffic lights were invented today, the Republican Party would be against them.

No shit. And so begins Anthony Schlaff's wonderful opinion piece in a recent issue of the Christian Science Monitor.

It's a very honest discussion about how the word "freedom" has been hijacked by the conservative movement in this country. As with many things today, we need to unhijack it.

This thought experiment about traffic lights points to how simplistic and wrong-headed current Republican rhetoric about freedom is. Freedom is about rights, choices, and opportunities. Government action, whether through laws or taxes, does not necessarily restrict freedom. As with traffic lights, it can enhance freedom, and we need to be thoughtful, not reflexive, in how we view what we ask of government.

This is really all I have been saying. So have many other Democrats and even some (no longer pure) Republicans. Yet, we are now Hitler. Or Commies. Or whatever demonized bullshit word they come up with for the week.

As for the notion that the new health-care law robs us of freedom because it is a mandate, let us not forget that we as a society created our government to make our choices and we used this mechanism to do so. This was an exercise of our freedom!


Freedom starts with the opportunity to make choices, including the choice of whether to act individually or collectively. A choice once made sets us on a more limited path – but are we not freer for making choices rather than remaining forever frozen in a prechoice world of possibility but no fulfillment?

Therein lies the problem...acting collectively. Any sort of talk involving collective action is quickly demonized. This would involve following a law that some people (8 year old boys and/or adolescent power fantasists)  don't like. Right around now is where I imagine my 8 year old son, shouting, "I DON'T WANNNA!!!!!!"

Well...too bad....is what I usually say...followed by "Grow Up."

But here's the best part of the whole piece.

I know of no one on the left of the political spectrum who accepts the right's characterization that they are against personal responsibility. They believe in both personal and social responsibility, as these are complementary, not competing, notions. Trying to address major public problems with just a greater push for personal responsibility is like tying one of our hands behind our back. We must leverage social responsibility, too, enabling us to use both hands to tackle our toughest problems.

Complementary, not competing notions. This is what I have been saying all along. It has to be both.

Schlaff ends the article with a question.

If public schools or public drinking water and sewer systems were invented today, would Republicans oppose them, along with the traffic lights?

Sadly, he answers this in such a way that it demonstrates the enormous naivete on the part of the left. The answer is a simple YES because the conservative movement in this country worships (fake) people like Daniel Plainview. To them, Plainview is the perfect hero.

After I read this piece, I reached a conclusion. I am going to make it my life's mission to demolish Reagan's Nine Terrifying Words and all that lies behind them. They are a boy's fantasy meant strictly to undermine government efforts at regulation and to encourage private industry greed.

In short, they are a lie.