Adopt a Liberal
Yesterday I received an email from Liberty Counsel, the Bizarro-ACLU. It says:
Liberty Counsel has launched a new program called Adopt a Liberal™. This program encourages people to pray for those in leadership to restore poor leaders to right thinking.
The first thing you should notice is that they’re claiming a trademark on the phrase. Oh, they’re so proud of themselves! My my, whose the clever one?
We are producing a bumper sticker that reads: “Have you prayed for a liberal today?”
As in the same way you might pray for good health or winning the lottery? “Please, God, give us more liberals in Washington!” I could support that! (Alas, getting real liberals in Washington is even less likely than winning the lottery.)
We will also be producing a deck of cards similar to baseball trading cards. On one side will be the picture of a liberal…
Like Abraham Lincoln or Jesus or…
…and, on the other side, some of their liberal positions or policies that negatively impact life, liberty and family.
Such as affordable health care for all Americans…
We are planning to issue 51 cards, which is one card short of a full deck!
Must … resist … easy … joke … !
Instead, let’s go over to adoptaliberal.net and have a look around. It says:
Since the landmark 2008 general election, there can be no doubt that a very large percentage of our Nation’s leaders have a liberal mindset.
Actually, that is very much in doubt. The Democrats have accomplished almost nothing this year, and Obama has reversed very little of Bush’s most vile policies.
The undeniable fact is that the 111th Pelosi-Reid Congress and the Obama Administration demonstrate a far left political philosophy.
That “fact” is very much deniable. The Democrats haven’t even demonstrated a vaguely liberal philosophy. The most liberal thing they can come up with for health care is a very bad “public option” that will accomplish very little, and they can’t even pass that. The “liberal agenda” was stillborn on January 20th.
The website then goes on to tell us to pick a liberal off of their list and pray for them:
Prayer is powerful! It allows God to change the minds of those for whom we are praying. In fact, we fully expect that many of our adoptees will “graduate” from this prayer program with vivid testimonies of God having changed their lives and worldviews!
And if they don’t, the fundies will have to admit that prayer doesn’t work. Fundies do that, don’t they? Learn from data?
Here are some of the “liberals” on their list:
- Michael Bloomberg (GOP presidential candidate)
- Arnold Schwarzenegger (Republican governor of California)
- Olympia Snowe (Republican senator from Maine)
In other words, they eat their own.
Also on the list:
- Faux liberal Barack Obama
- Occasional liberal Hillary Clinton
- Cowards of the 110th Congress, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid (who refused to impeach GW Bush for war crimes, because they were more interested in the political careers of their friends)
There are also people on the list who may or may not be liberals. They aren’t in Congress, so they don’t have voting records to go by. They seem to be on the list solely for holding a contrary opinion:
- Barry Lynn, Executive Director of AU, who has the gall to support religious freedom
- John Holdren, White House Director of Science and Technology, for being a “czar” and for advocating a sustainable global population level
A few real liberals did somehow manage to sneak onto the list. (Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, for example. Maddow is on there for being liberal and gay.)
Ironically, the last person on their list is “The Unknown Liberal”. They’re trying to say that there are more of these horrible people out there called liberals, and that’s just a placeholder for all of them. What makes it ironic is that, as evidenced by most of the people on this list, real liberals are almost completely unknown to Liberty Counsel.
They should get back to us once they’ve compiled a real list.
October 7th, 2009 at 6:16 am
Holy crap, Ron! You are in quite a grumpy mood today.
Did you really think Obama was a far left (or even center-left) liberal back in November? I never had that delusion. I knew he was right of Clinton. I voted for him because I felt he was a more “electable” Democrat and was far better of a choice than McCain.
I’m not going to make this a big Obama Apologist post, because I wish more had been done so far too. In fact, I’m constantly writing my reps and the president about issues I care about. This is no different than last year at this time. But on the other hand, I would hardly say nothing has been done to reverse the Bush years. There has been a major philosophical change in our entire approach to foreign affairs!
As for health care, anybody who thought single payer had a chance was absolutely insane. Anybody who thought the public option would be a cakewalk was nearly as insane. This whole healthcare debate is playing out only slightly worse than I expected. I’m actually pleasantly surprised that my worst fears have not come true.
This is a freaking gigantic machine we are fighting with billions of political dollars tied up in preventing any change. Yet, despite this, 70%+ of the public still supports a public option, even after the teabagger events and 24/7 of FNC telling everybody they want what the corporations want (and also in Canada everybody dies waiting for treatment). Three out of four bills have moderate to strong public options, and as much as the fourth sucks, it is being shimmed as Teh Bill for budget estimates. If we can crank through cloture by having a unified caucus (I give it a 50/50 chance right now), we can still get a half-way decent bill out of the Senate, merge it with a good bill from the House, and end up with something beneficial. It ain’t over until the fat cigar smoking child sex tour going conservative sings.
All that said, we need real liberals to begin displacing the conservadems. They were useful to get our numbers up, but now that we have the numbers, if they aren’t willing to play ball, then fuck ‘em.
October 7th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Oh, you noticed?
Of course not. I even wrote an article about it back in January of this year. I’m pretty sure I was calling him a center-right politician months before that.
I’m just getting really sick of moderate conservatism being branded as extreme socialism by noise-makers. It’s having an effect. The stupid are easily fooled. We are a country of stupid fools, and it will be our downfall.
October 7th, 2009 at 8:59 am
I think the word “liberal” is losing its punch. It is true that it is like the monster on Elm Street; nobody’s seen it but we all know it’s there. I lost two jobs for being liberal, and, although guilty as charged, neither boss had any idea what I really stood for. Time for re-definition!
October 7th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Ed Brayton had a post about this a few days ago. I asked then if not one liberal changes his ways, will they admit that prayer doesn’t work?
Meanwhile, we’re all going to hell because God respects our free will, but he’ll change our minds for us in an instant if a fundie asks him to?
Is a little consistency too much to ask for? Just a little? Just once in a while? God, I hate living on the same planet as these witless imbeciles.
Re: Obama – I’m trying to be understanding, but yeah, it’s turning out to be a bit of disappointment (“a bit” only because I didn’t hold out all that much hope in the first place). I think he’s trying not to push the envelope, because he wants to be the “uniter, not a divider” that his predecessor claimed to be, until someone explained to him what those words actually meant.
October 7th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
As one of the most vocal Obama supporters last year on this blog, I have to say, 8 months into his administration, I’m underwhelmed. Granted, he’s a vast improvement over his predecessor, and for that I’ll always be grateful, but I’m finding myself wanting more.
I knew there were going to be moments when his shit did stink, and I’m not the least bit surprised by the behavior of his opponents, but come on. He has the intelligence and the political skills, not to mention the public support, to enact reforms that most Americans really do want, but he’s tripping over his baffling desire to play nice with the GOP. Mr. President, borrow a set of testicles and start doing what I believe you know to be right.
October 7th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
I think we should have a Convert-A-Conservative deck of cards. Of course it will also need to be a few cards short but I think all of the cards should be Jokers!
October 8th, 2009 at 7:01 am
Well, yes and no.
I mean, on the one hand, yes, the media generally regard center as left and barely left as far left. It’s silliness.
But on the other hand, the words “liberal” and “socialist” and so on are increasibly becoming no longer dirty words. So when a real liberal comes along (eg, Barney Frank, Bernie Sanders) and the word liberal and socialist are thrown at him/her, it doesn’t have the negative impact as before.
Don’t listen to the 24/7 Fox News Cycle. Think about it. Despite ALL their efforts, the polls still indicate that the public thinks Republicans are assholes, and increasingly, the Blue Dogs are too. This is good news!
Brian – I agree, but I don’t feel he’s done less than I expect. I think the SNL viral video is actually tainting our perspective because no huge legislation has passed yet (as if health care was going to happen overnight). Oh the skit is funny, for sure, but reality is a bit different. You think the corporate media is actually going to cover the things Obama does do? Hell and no. Here’s a list I found a while back after Obama’s first 100 days.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/29/obamas-first-100-days-10_n_192603.html
So yea, I’m not overwhelmed, in any respect, and some of his continuing policies suck. But I knew that when I was getting into it. Still, despite that, I feel he is on a good pace. Sure, I wish the health care thing was accelerated a bit, but maybe his “win the war, not the battle” approach is actually a good idea. Afterall, we were trying to rush things during the teabagger explosion, but it seems waiting actually is now helping the health care cause more so. Opinion polls are going up. Some senators are even flipping sides (no repubs, but some conservative asshole dems are). Big Pharma (big supporters of efforts due to behind the scenes deals) are starting to get scared!
Plus did you hear that dem leaders are going to strip any senator of committee leadership if they support the fillibuster? Whoa! When did Harry Reid get balls?
As for Gitmo, Afgahnistan, and war crimes prosecutors, yea I’m underwhelmed as well. But I basically knew that shit wasn’t changing, so it doesn’t surprise me. It disappoints me, but doesn’t surprise me.
So where was I? Oh yea. Cheer up! Don’t buy into the ZOMG OBAMA NOT ELITE SAVIOR!!11!! Despite how the right perceives him as being some sort of superman to the left, he’s not. He’s just a savvy politician who is so far doing a B+ job of cleaning up after the worst president in history.
I’m hoping that by somewhere near the end of Obama Year 2, he’ll realize that reaching across the aisle is pointless when the other party is completely insane.
October 8th, 2009 at 7:22 am
Yeah, but what these people mean by “liberal” is anybody to the left of Fred Phelps or Torquemada.
Really? I reached that conclusion around the time he signed up Rick Warren for the inaugural.
October 9th, 2009 at 7:39 am
PL, I hope you’re right, but I hope it doesn’t take another year and a half.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
You have to admit, it’s hard to find 52 (or even 51) liberals. Maybe they should do a pair of dice – Bernie Sanders and Barney Frank. Those are the only elected liberals I can think of.
Oh, and NY Congressman Anthony Weiner. I have a massive liberal-crush on him. (He’s the one who put “socialist government run health-care” to a vote to challenge Republicans – by proposing a bill to end Medicare. He’s got brass ones, I tell ya.)
Okay, so 3 liberals. Hooray? Why does a huge mandate, congress, and white house still feel like a consolation prize?
October 12th, 2009 at 6:41 am
There are more liberals than that. The Senate only has the two you mentioned (and then a slew of watered down liberals that constantly have to be pressured to not wuss out). However, the House is brimming with liberals. The Progressive Caucus is the largest Democratic caucus in the House, full of unashamed strong liberals.
October 12th, 2009 at 6:42 am
Me too. I guess we should always remember that it could have been worse. Imagine if McCain and Miss Ahlahskah had won.
October 15th, 2009 at 4:01 am
This is (insert expletive here) NUTS! Nobody’s suggesting that we “adopt a conservative” and pray that they become liberals( I can’t imagine praying for Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’ Reilly, Pat Buchanan, the late William F. Buckley and other “wing-nuts”- except maybe to pray that they stay away from me- Patricia Heaton, Gary Sinise, James Woods, Angie Harmon and other sensible conservatives maybe- but not these loonies!
Terry