Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Has the Left Lost It's Sense of Humor

The New Yorker cover has certainly caused an uproar in liberal camps in the past few days, based largely on two related trends in liberal/left camps. The first is an intractable elitism based on the premise that the right is full of dolts and bufoons who are senseless cogs in the Republican machine. While there is obviously some truth in that, I think it is exactly this elitism that has spurned a change in who the "elites" are in this country -- namely liberals. Thomas Franks has outlined this trend quite nicely in What's the Matter With Kansas? but one of the reasons the strategy is so effective is because many liberals and leftists are, in fact, elitists. If the left wants to turn this around they need to start respecting "Average" Americans, and stop assuming their ethical choices are based on some innate moral superiority, rather than what they really are -- a choice (which I support). Ethics must be fought over and require more than guilt and calls for responsibility; they require a sound and compelling argument for why those ethics are preferable and how they will benefit America and the world (including the individuals you are trying to persuade).

The second issue is covered in a Salon article today: http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2008/07/15/new_yorker_cartoon/print.html. It talks about the collapsing humor on the left, brought on by a misappropriated self-righteousness and a penchant for humorlessness in all things. Where is the left that once gave us Abby Hoffman, the Chicago 7, Woody Allen, Millionaires for Bush and the like? Liberals take themselves too seriously and fall into the trap of political correctness run amok. Someone is offended by just about any political statement, but it's time for some unity on the left to ensure that we take advantage of a great opportunity to end the near junta on conservative presidents (I largely include Clinton in this camp). I'm not sure why Hillary Clinton supporters are continuing their absurd call for the unfairness of the process. They lost the delegate race and the popular vote race (unless we count a state where Obama wasn't even on the ballot and a state where Obama never campaigned). Liberals have to find a way to inject some joy and excitement back into their politics and find an affirmative message to offer the public -- sort of along the lines of what Obama is doing now. The Bernie Mac incident, while his comments were certainly offensive, just shows how self-censorship dominates the left and makes it impossible to talk about anything.

Anyway, that's my thought for the day.

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