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Just Call Me
by D. J. Herda
When I was a young writer with a fire in my belly
and a desire to change the world, I labeled myself a liberal. Why
not? I came from a family of firmly entrenched die-hard
conservatives; the war in Vietnam was raging despite its apparent
immorality; and the politics of deceit was rife in the conservative Nixon White House.
So I became a liberal. And I learned to lie.
Not because I wanted to, mind you.
Because I had to.
Think about it. Liberalism promotes social programs aimed at helping
the downtrodden, aiding the poor, empowering the weak, educating the
masses, and uplifting the proletariat. (Okay, okay. I thought
I'd slip that last one by just in case you weren't listening.) How
does it do all that? Through various social reforms. Which is
another way of saying through various social programs. Which is another way of
saying through a social welfare state.
Now, the only problem with a social welfare state is that it doesn't work.
It doesn't work on two levels: it doesn't untrod, aid, empower, educate,
or uplift, because human nature won't permit it. A body at rest and
all that other stuff. In other words, give a person a fish and he'll
throw away his pole.
The second level on which welfare doesn't work is economic.
Government, as countries all around the world have learned the hard
way since the days of the ancient Greek ascendency to world power, simply
can't print/earn/tax/steal/plunder enough money to pay everybody's
way through life.
So, if liberalism is awash in failure, how do liberals go about promoting
the advantages of the modern welfare state? They lie.
Liberal politicians lie (have you listened to
Obama, Reid, Boxer, Wrangle, Biden, or Pelosi lately?). Liberal
pundits lie (have you watched Alan Colmes, Bob Beckel, Keith Olbermann,
or James Carville recently?). Liberal journalists lie (have
you read Marueen Dowd, Bill Moyers, Chris Matthews, Arianna Huffington, or
Paul Krugman in the last six months?). Liberal celebrities
lie (have you swooned over Oprah, Jon Stewart, Jane Fonda--except, of
course, as Barbarella--or Barbara Streisand lately?).
It's true. Liberals lie because, if they were to tell the truth,
they'd never convince anyone to skip a day of work in order to demonstrate
against the evils of capitalism or rally in the senate rotunda in favor of universal health
care.
Their agenda, then, becomes one of deceit, which is why they're always
putting their feet in their mouths, shouting down their opponents, and
appealing to a brain-dead (or at least brain-washed) minority.
Conservatives, on the other hand, tell the truth because they have no
reason not to. Their goal is to enlighten the world as to just how
costly, impractical, and unsustainable welfare is. What's to lie
about?
Now, you might get the impression from this philosophical pontification
that somewhere along my harried life as a developing writer, I grew up,
threw off the shackles of ignorance we call liberalism, and took up a
lifestyle of enlightened conservatism. Uh-uh. Nothing could be
further from the truth.
Die-hard conservatives are nearly as blind to real
reform as
are hardened liberals (albeit more honest). They, like their liberal
counterparts, are often inflexible
and dogmatic. So what's a fella to do?
Luckily, there is an alternative to both
conservatism and liberalism, and it's called independent conservatism.
See, I'm not against welfare. I'm against a welfare state.
When someone is down on his luck, out of a job, injured, or otherwise in
need of help, I say let's provide for him. But let's quit kidding
ourselves into thinking that the best, if not the only, way to do so is
through government intervention. That dog won't hunt (and it never
could!). Big Government doling out funds merely creates a welfare
mentality and perpetuates the problem.
Instead, let's provide help through private aid, businesses, churches,
families, friends, and organizations that rely upon privately donated or
earned funds for their charitable work. Let's not provide it as
an entitlement to every American for the rest of his life. Let's
provide it only to the neediest people for only so long as they truly need
it. Let's mandate these charitable funds through tax deductions.
It's time we stopped thinking of America as a two-party system and
ourselves as either liberal or conservative. It's time to start
thinking of ourselves as independent conservatives. We need to take
the best from both philosophical diatribes, embrace the truth, and discard
the Big Government mentality of the modern-day welfare state.
Government will never solve America's problems--or anyone else's, for that
matter. By approaching every problem as open, honest, reflective,
non-aligned, non-political, non-judgmental arbiters of rationality, we can
change the world for the better for everyone.
In the meantime, you can call me a Republican or you can call me a
Democrat. You can call me a Christian or you can call me a heathen.
You can call me a problem creator or you can call me a problem solver.
In fact, you can call me anything you want, so long as you call me.
And I…am D. J. Herda.
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D. J. Herda is President of the American Society of
Authors and Writers (http://amsaw.org),
an organization made up of authors, writers, editors, publishers, agents,
directors, producers, and other media professionals who rely upon the printed
word in the creation of quality literature and entertainment. He is
a member of the Author's Guild, a former member of the American Society of
Journalists and Authors, and a former member of the National Press Club.
He has published more than 80 books and several hundred thousand articles,
short stories, columns, interviews, plays, and scripts.
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