Causes change, goals shift, and coalitions dissolve. As a result, your thoughts and actions need to adjust. However, some things never change.
The liberal politics of the 1960s were sometimes over the top, always charismatic, and not always practical, but they were principled. Today, much of what passes as liberalism seems studied, over-intellectualized, and lacking passion. It seems to have forgotten that a broad base of support and a commitment to equity is at the roots of its past success. It’s lost the interclass, inter-ethnic, and multi-racial integration that was a core strength.
By contrast, the conservative opposition is a mishmash of populism and commercial greed, with a hefty dose of Christian Fundamentalism thrown in for good measure. Unlike earlier conservative movements, it lacks an intellectual core or economic theory. It’s a weak confederation of groups likely to start feuding anytime. But liberals have gotten into trouble underestimating its strength.
But as I suggested, some things have not changed!
I’ve never felt at home among conservatives in the ’60s or now. I’m ethnically too mixed ever to trust a conservative to respect an alluded to an alliance with people with Spanish names, a tan, and cultural and historical backgrounds that distance them from a “mainstream”. I think that any person like me who does is a fool. Historically, people describing themselves as conservatives don’t want people like me around.
You have to take stuff like that seriously.
So, while things shift around, rhetoric changes, and alliances alter, the ground over which we fight has not altered too much. The bullhorn used at protest marches has become the internet. Political screeds and posters have given way to crimson prose on TikTok or YouTube videos. Instead of movements being funded by individuals working in common, the funding is provided by corporate entities that the Supreme Court has ruled are persons.
OK. I haven’t altered my political perspective all that much. Let’s pop the cork on the champagne and celebrate that as things change, they remain the same.
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Amen, “It seems to have forgotten that a broad base of support and a commitment to equity is at the roots of its past success. It’s lost the interclass, inter-ethnic, and multi-racial integration that was a core strength.” Stupid, stupid, stupid liberals. Seriously. That shouldn’t imply that my beliefs are with the other “side”. They are not. They are with neither side at this point. Michael Moore wrote a scathing and accurate description of today’s liberal and explained how they messed up the recent election — explaining as a symptom, not a one-off. It was good and for me a relief to read. As I told a Hispalnic friend out here where there is a racial demarcation that leaves me alienated and angry, “I’m not as white as I look.” Once that was out of my mouth, I wondered if I’d insulted him but, no. He got it and offered to help me look for a house on the “other” side of the valley.
I keep looking at people who support “conservative values” and want to ask, “So when will the price of eggs go down” because after hearing their specious excuses for voting “MAGA” I want to hear the truth.
I certainly think you’re right that we all have an instinct, and it’d be difficult to go beyond that. But that sounds totally fair enough – we shape our instincts based on the world we see around us.
And right now the world around us does not seem to stable.