Rust Belt Philosophy

Hi, all, and welcome to the last Carnival of the Liberals of 2008! Normally, I feel, people would take this opportunity to do a best-of retrospective, but normalcy has never really been my strong suit. Sure, 2008 was a good year, so far as years go - the Patriots got totally screwed two seasons in a row in two different but equally great ways, this year's new music was pretty good, there was that whole Obama thing - but if political liberalism is about anything, it's about progress. The featured posts for this carnival, then, will be forward-looking. So let's get to it, and to all a safe and healthy (and, if you're really lucky, gainfully-employed) new year!

Good, liberal and forward-looking posts, among the submissions I received

From Nancy Jane Moore, we have a call to "Abolish the electoral college. It's a relic of a time when even those who advocated democracy wanted to keep it in check." If this seems like a suspiciously anti-government thing to say, you can rest assured that Ms. Moore is indeed a liberal, because she is willing to admit that "we aren't a rural nation anymore."

In this cosmopolitan spirit, Vihar Sheth provides even more evidence (which we should really not need, at this point) "that if we continue to raise awareness and educate people, the need to defend the lunacy of religions will fade and the ability of all people to get along will be unavoidable." Let's please not forget this the next time a right-winger starts to howl about what we want to teach kids about evolution or human sexuality.

And, at the same time, let's not forget that this education and awareness must also extend to include the godless among us, who no doubt will mostly respond positively to Greta Christina's guide to being an atheist's ally. This whole atheism thing may not seem like a big deal now, but that's exactly what the Republicans thought about economic libertarians - do we really want an atheist version of Bob Barr or Ron Paul running in 2012 or beyond? (And if you think that's unrealistic, check out some of the miscellaneous links at the end of this post.)

"But I thought it was Sarah Palin that did them in," you say, "not libertarians." Perhaps, but that's not stopping the libertarian chorus that "brays eloquently about the damnable injustice of paying taxes" from having its say, as Dale reports. Even if this group was irrelevant to the results of the '08 elections, the Republicans now have to at least play at performing a balancing act between that constituency and the ones who care more about "impos[ing] the Christian Sparta that so enlivens their daydreams" and/or waging the "glorious and permanent debt-funded war on the oil-endowed nations of the earth." We liberals can avoid this kind of thing by listening to the same kinds of minority constituencies to whom conservatives turn a deaf ear, and by talking to them honestly about topics conservatives would rather scream about.

"Oh fine ," you say, "then can't we just leave out religion altogether and not mention it either as a positive or a negative?" I say no, and Andrew Bernardin agrees: "When religious organizations and sentiments guide government policy, science can help us determine when it is misguided." To paraphrase the saying, you may not care about religion, but religion cares about you, and "I don’t want our children getting screwed in or out of anything by a misguided government."

As if to drive this point home, Angry Max (who I myself would characterize more as Bitter Max - there is a subtle difference) reminds us of who we'll all be waking up to in late January: "Rick Warren, a guy whose purpose-driven life has led him to an awful lot of cheeseburgers by the looks of it." It'd be easy to dismiss Angry Max for giving himself over to "being disappointed over the next four years" just because of this one thing, but isn't that what well-informed liberalism is all about? After all, there's a word for people who are happy with the way things are: conservatives.

This is not to say, however, that we can't be happy with the way some things are. Take the recent shift in India's health care situation, ably described by omyma. By establishing the importance of openness of information, the primacy of prevention over treatment, and the notion that all people deserve equal access to quality care, India is moving towards "conquering superstitions and fears and ignorance" as well as medical ailments. Feel free to mention this offhandedly in a letter to your representatives in office whe, as they inevitably will, they struggle with the concept of universal health care.

Finally, as a sort of cautionary tale, Ames prognosticates that the GOP will "Remain a Whites-Only Opposition Party." Now where'd I put that "o rly" owl...

Other good and liberal, but not particularly forward-looking, posts, also among the submissions

A call to uninvite Rick Warren, from vjack
A recognition that the Blagojevich thing is really not that bad, from Robert McHenry...
...helpfully balanced by a recognition that it nonetheless could've gone better, from SocraticGadfly
A query, and a verse, about Caroline Kennedy, from Madeleine Begun Kane
A good piece of reporting concerning Mr. and Mrs. DeLay, from Vince Leibowitz
A partial recap of the transition (for, presumably, those who have been comatose since election day), from Joseph Nemec
An invective against the conservative understanding of Patriotism, from Montag (who, for the record, I would characterize as angry)
And last, but not by any means least, coverage of a story we all ought to be hearing about, again from Dale (cause I like him, that's why. If you want to decide who gets two links, you sign up to be a host!)

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Labels: politics