In praise of liberals

What?

Yes, I know. I'm pretty hard on the poor puppies. But let me tell you a secret. I'm a binomial thinker. I am drawn to opposites. (Ask my ex!)

Truth is, a world without liberals, a world with only my side of the ledger totally in charge, would be a very bad thing. And, may I hasten to add, so would a liberal-run world, without resistant, foot-dragging conservatives.

No one, not even me, has a monopoly on the truth, especially political truth. It is a realm shot through with speculation, opinion, and ad-hockery. It's the nature of the beast. We dwell not here in the Empyrean realms, but on Earth...After The Fall. It may be beautiful, but it's never been pretty.

So, having a leftish and a rightish is the nature of things.

I live in San Francisco, a city which, like reality itself, is overdetermined. It is full of nutjobs and a lot of the time the things that come out of people's mouths make me want to cry "Aaargghhh!". But this is a place where I can live openly. Being gay in this town is a big yawn. And let's face it, that did not come about through the efforts of the Log Cabin Republicans (peace be upon them).

Yet, were it not for at least some resistance from the non-utopians here on the edge of the continent, SF would be turned into the Death Camp of Tolerance in about ten minutes.

I happen to think that the balance between left and right is off. But I, unlike way too many of the open-minded, tolerant, peace-loving, ecofeminst, "spiritual but not religious", compassionate, conscious and globally-aware freaks who drink coffee next to me at Starbucks or Peets or Spikes....I don't want them wiped off the face of the earth so that a New Era of Progress can unfold without impediment from Evil Righties like me.

I certainly don't say this often, but it's true.

So, here's to liberals!
Short may you reign...but long may you live.