Clooney, that is…
I Am a Liberal. There, I Said It!
I've been fascinated/horrified/disgusted by the demonization of the term Liberal in this country and have struggled on and off for ways to express that feeling.
Looks like Mr. Clooney's done an admirable job of doing just that for me. Good job, George.
And yes, just for the record, I too am a Liberal. Like anybody needed me to point that out.
I Am a Liberal. There, I Said It!
I've been fascinated/horrified/disgusted by the demonization of the term Liberal in this country and have struggled on and off for ways to express that feeling.
Looks like Mr. Clooney's done an admirable job of doing just that for me. Good job, George.
And yes, just for the record, I too am a Liberal. Like anybody needed me to point that out.
Comments
Dare I?
Here's what bugs me about Georgie's comment: it only serves to divide, but is delivered with such martyr-like tones designed to make him sound noble. He's essentially saying, "I'm on THIS side, Bush is on THAT side, and I hate him."
Because, really, the term 'liberal' is no longer a simple term. Politics and philosophies have gotten way too complex. Just as "conservative" need not mean "Bush supporter", "liberal" doesn't have to mean "Bush hater". But, that's what Clooney is saying, nonetheless.
And, I'm sorry, but Clooney loves to act part martyr and part champion. And, he loves to conveniently gloss over facts.
Oh, feel sorry for us liberals...we're scared to speak up! Oh, I'm a proud dissenter! Come on...it's his patriotic duty to dissent (he told us so!) because Bush is in office. He didn't dissent about Kosovo (or any other potentially viewed screwups) when Clinton was in office. If Bush were a Democrat would he be dissenting? If Kerry had won and we were still in Iraq (and, believe me, we would be) would he still be dissenting?
Georgie is good at garbling the message. Dissent is not a liberal thing, and hating Bush does not make you a liberal. And, for the record, the AMPAS hardly blazed trails by giving Hattie McDaniel an Oscar for playing a stepinfetchit maid in the south. And, surely didn't follow it up well with only 3 more Oscars in 67 years (Denzel, Hallie, and Sidney).
And, while Murrow's comments can be reviewed today as we consider (and rightfully) question the power of our government (I blame all of us, liberals and conservatives alike for slowly giving the government too much power over the last 40 years), I think George should have also considered the fact that Laurence Duggan's suicide (the mentor and friend to Murrow, and the reason he went after McCarthy), while tragic, wasn't just because McCarthy hounded him. It was because he WAS a Russian spy.
Like I said...George is great at glossing over facts and garbling the message...
So, in no particular order…
I'm not particularly interested in debating what facts Clooney may or may not gloss over. I'm not Tom Cruise, I haven't done the research. Besides, it's not really the point I was trying to make here. (I will grant you that holding up the Academy as a beacon of forward-thinking, civil-rights awareness may be a bit disingenuous. But I digress.)
I'd like to believe that, if Kerry were in office and pulling the kind of stuff that Bush and co. are pulling, we'd all be dissenting just as loudly. Frankly, no matter how much Kosovo (or any other Clinton era conflict) may have been a screw-up, it's got to be hard to compare to Iraq. We went into Iraq with no plan for what to do after, beyond the glib "they'll be waving the flag and throwing flowers at us in thanks for liberating us from the big, bad dictator" that I heard from more than one Bush administration talking head. Now we're in a war we can't get out of, we've destabilized an already dangerous region of the world and the country is on the brink of civil war. If Kerry were in office and fucked up this bad, you bet I'd be dissenting.
As for the whole Liberal/Conservative thing… no, it shouldn't be a simple "us" vs. "them" proposition. But listen to the Coulters/Hannitys/O'Reilly's of Chris' "hate radio" and it most certainly IS that simple and simplistic. If you don't believe as they do, then you're one of those godless, hollywood/gay/commie loving liberals who don't understand what it is to BE an American.
It's that kind of moronic attitude that Clooney's addressing, and that I applaud him for. Because, sadly, the voices of reason that might be able to hold a rational discussion about left vs. right / liberal vs. conservative / patriot vs. traitor are all being drowned out by the shrill voices on the "we're so right it hurts" Right.
Oh, and glenda, you're damn right I'd love to hear more people admit this.
I know you weren't making that point. I purposefully took it in other directions for fun.
"I'm not Tom Cruise. I haven't done the research," is officially the funniest comment EVER on this blog!!
Regarding Kerry...if he were President, what do you think he would do differently? Ok...MAYBE he'd stop the wiretaps, or at least get the warrants after the fact. I'll grant you that one. But, the problem with Bush right now is that he's not really DOING anything!! And, I never heard anything from Kerry that convinced me he would be doing much different. While I would agree that our post-war plan was fucked up, I doubt they had NO plan. I know it's a popular thing to throw out there, but it is vastly implausible. I've been bagging on Rumsfeld and calling for his head for 3 years. Now, I'm really pissed. First, he says if we pull out that civil war could break out...now, he says if civil war breaks out (looks like it is), we won't interfere. WTF??? Asshat.
As for conservative radio...I'm not going to defend it. But, since when does anyone like you, me, or especially George Clooney give a rat's ass about Rush Limbaugh's opinion of our patriotism? I don't like people playing the victim - particularly when they clearly are the furthest thing from it.
The voices that are being drowned out are the sensible and cynical ones like OURS. Clooney is barely different from Air America (leftist hate radio) or Bill Maher (leftist hate TV). With those guys on the left and conervative radio on the right, the "war" continues while government gets more bloated and sucks US dry. Meanwhile, Clooney, Maher, Hannity, and O'Reilly get really rich.
All I'm saying is: don't buy into the propaganda on either side. Don't TAKE a side and be "proud" about it. The common man (yeah, that's us) needs to speak up and shut these demagogues down. There is more common ground than we realize...but, we need to tune out the irrational noise surrounding us. Quit taking a side and REVOLT!! Choose a NEW idea.
As for Kerry, stopping the wiretaps would be a good start. Hell, an excellent start. And I don't know what he'd do differently… I don't know what he could do differently. But to your point, there'd be no Rumsfeld f'ing up the whole Middle East and THAT would be another good start.
I'm not anti-war in the "we've gotta get our people out of there now!" camp. I was never in favor of this war, I don't think it's accomplished any of the things it was supposed to (not that I believed it ever could), and the last bastion of defense for our actions—Iraq is better off without Hussein—is crumbling. If the country does fall into civil war, it's going to make Hussein's regime seem like a bad day in the park. But I don't think we can leave now that we've made this mess (which yes, reluctantly leaves me siding with the President on this matter) and the fact that Rumsfeld is sitting there promising that, if there is civil war, US forces won't get involved, is just so much political BS.
I have to assume they had SOME kind of plan post-Hussein, but I think it's obvious that whatever plan they had was either inadequate to the challenge or somehow blissfully ignorant of the realities of the situation. I'd assume the former, becasuse the latter is just too scary a concept (could they be THAT clueless and still be "in charge"? God, I hope not.)
As to the idiocy of conservative radio, sure, it's best to take the high road there and ignore the braying, but you've gotta figures sometimes it's tough. I find it annoying when I find opinions I agree with being dismissed as "ignorant," "elitist," "typical liberal" whatever, and I'm not the target of these comments. In Clooney's shoes, where he often is the target, I think I'd find it hard to take that high road.
I think it's less a matter of declaiming "I am a Liberal" (said declamation in my post notwithstanding) as it is, if someone slaps you with that label as if it's an insult, the willingness to turn around and reply "Yes. And your point is...?" Though, hopefully, a little wittier retort perhaps.