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June 03, 2009 Ask Robin: A Recovering Liberal Addresses Some of Your Burning QuestionsBy Robin of BerkeleyAmerican Thinker's resident recovering liberal answers readers. Dear Robin: How can we trust that you are really who you say you are? How do we know you are not a liberal impersonating a conservative? Marty Hi Marty: Busted! My articles are actually ghostwritten by Bill Ayers. Don't sweat it, Mart-T, my conscientious editor at American Thinker, a Bay Area guy, has met and vetted me. So I'm for real. Anyway, dude, do you think I could make this stuff up? * * Dear Robin: What draws otherwise smart people to being a progressive liberal? How do they accept the generalized hate? Julia Hey Julia: Let me speak for myself here. My liberal turn on's: (This is like Match.com) 1. It was exciting: I was a bored, lost suburban kid growing up in a secular Jewish home with no direction to speak of. I spent too much time alone watching TV. My parents were heavy drinkers and partiers, and my brother hated me from the day I was born and made my life a living hell. So, it wasn't a blast, and when I got into my teens, I numbed it all out with drugs. Doing political work in young adulthood, I suddenly had a purpose, a reason to get up in the morning. Working with others in groups, marching with thousands of people, was not only an emotional high but a physical thrill, almost like an aphrodisiac. A legal high. And feeling like you're saving the world is positively orgasmic. 2. The Left is seen as cool. The Right is viewed as stodgy, dull, and selfish. Franken is cool. Newt is not. And many of us drawn to the Left were unpopular, lonely children. By being far left, a bunch of misfits can fit in. 3. It was all I knew. Info in Liberalville is censored and you believe what you hear. It becomes a form of brainwashing. And everyone around me was Left. We're pack animals and tend to follow the herd, for better or for worse. 4. Being progressive (what a high falootin' word) makes you feel good about yourself: generous, altruistic, ever loving and accepting (even though they wish terminal diseases on conservatives). "We can save the world, rearrange the world, it's dying to get better." (Crosby, Still, etc.) Who can argue with that ego trip:? OK, now for turn off's: 1. Frankly, there have been a lot of things that have bugged the crap out of me for years (maybe this was why it was easier for me to wake up). The rampant street crime and aggressive panhandling are totally out of control. And liberals excusing antisocial behavior ("He didn't mean to beat the living daylights out of that little old lady, he is a victim of white privilege, blah blah blah,") makes me want to hurl. They need their own recovery program for mega codependency (LibCo?). 2. The Left portrays itself as mellow and chill, but bigger control freaks you have never seen in your life. The Berkeley laws are draconian. Try finding a parking lot since none are available; cars are the devil's handiwork. The city restricts business licenses (again, to keep out those bloody cars) so I had to open my office in a nearby town. And light up a cigarette and watch a menacing crowd encircle you; Berkeley has outlawed smoking in almost every outdoor locale. I can go on and on. . . But you get the point. Big Brother is alive and well in Berkeley, though he's traveling high on the hog via Air Force One these days. 3. The mean stuff. I just don't do mean. Love Ellen, Detest Janeane. Even when I was a liberal, I was nice one (by Berkeley, though not Alabama, standards). And my spiritual faith compels me to treat others with respect. But even though I'm nice, I'm not sweet. I don't put up with crap. But I'm generally nice about it. So, looking back, the seeds of conservatism were in me all along. And when I got older and wiser, the party got meaner and greener (don't get me started on the green fascism out here). I can't speak for every liberal but this is my tale. In the end, humans are rather simple creatures. We stay with the familiar until it becomes unbearable and we have another option. Liberalism didn't work for me anymore. Let's hope many others reach the same conclusion by 2010. * * Dear Robin: I don't forgive you. You indoctrinated our young people. Phil Yo Phil: No worries. I never worked at the university or any other schools. And, anyway, you don't have to indoctrinate people in Berkeley. Everyone drinks from the same Kool-Aid. * * Dear Robin: Ooh, get me a tissue box. You and your readers are weak. Sam Hey Sam: I have three responses to your letter. One: it's offensive and unseemly to mock my readers and me. Two: your being so hostile to strangers makes me sad. Clearly one or both of your parents disrespected you and trampled on your feelings. My upbringing was like that so I can relate. But I responded by never wanting to inflict the same type of pain on others. Take my word for it, Sam. It's much cooler to be kind. Third: Bro, it's my party and I'll cry if I want to. * * Dear Robin: You couldn't have been a liberal because you have a sense of humor. Liz Hello, Lizzy: Funny you should say this! My motto in life is an old Wavy Gravy quote (no I wasn't at Woodstock): If you don't have a sense of humor, it's not funny! The Left has become way too serious and sanctimonious for my tastes. But it wasn't always that way. I recently rented the first season of Maude, a show I enjoyed in my youth. I was astonished at how Maude, the white liberal, is affectionately teased throughout for her preachy white guilt. When she goes shopping for a "maid" (that's what they called them then), she insists on hiring a black one to "help" some needy person. When the confident Florida shows up, Maude is so condescending that Florida quits. Florida explains, "I'd rather work for a racist than a white liberal because at least racists won't try to change me." They reconcile, of course, and Florida is a major player on the show, reflecting back to Maude her patronizing ways. The lesson back then to whites: lighten up and laugh at yourself. And be very careful that your crusade for social justice isn't just another form of white arrogance. If this show ran today, it wouldn't have lasted one episode (the Left would have rioted). And yet it was a runaway hit in the 1970's. Watching it bummed me out. How far we've come, or we've sunk, courtesy of the Thought Police. And liberals say conservatives are uptight and boring! (By the way, there's a new summer replacement comedy called The Goode Family on ABC on Wednesday at 9 pm which pokes fun at the liberal, PC Police. Irreverent and refreshing. I give it a month at best before the network pulls it in fear of the wrath of Big O.) Later. . . Robin A frequent contributor to American Thinker, Robin is a recovering liberal marooned in Berkeley and a psychotherapist in private practice. . She'd like to thank American Thinker readers for their helpful, generous, and kind comments.
on "Ask Robin: A Recovering Liberal Addresses Some of Your Burning Questions"
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