Liberal or Conservative? Ya gotta choose!

It's nearing the 2004 Election and we are less than a week away from the start of the Democratic party's political convention, and I have to say the climate in the U.S. is less than welcoming for healthy, logical, calm debate.    It seems everywhere I turn the country is divided.    We are all either Liberal or Conservative, Black or White, Man or Woman, Gay or Straight, Pro-Life or Pro-Choice, Republican or Democrat, Rich or Poor, Elitist or Populist, Pro-Death Penalty or Against, Environmentalist or Big Business, Intellectual or Country Bumpkin. 

In all this desperation to take sides, I feel a certain longing to be moderate.

It started the other night, when I was at one of my favorite watering holes, discussing politics with a group of friends.   One of them says to me..."I'm more of a conservative..."   And for the first time in a while, I realized that the word itself had no meaning anymore...at least not a shared meaning.

"Conservative"?    I asked him,  "Do we even know what that means anymore?"   I just got blank stares in return.   We really don't, do we? 

And how about that other doozie.."Liberal", that one people like to use as an insult in the media and in every day life..."Oh, he's just a liberal!"    As if it were a bad thing.   As if we even knew what these terms meant anymore.

So I started to ponder the extreme divide our Nation seems to find itself in.    We are constantly forced to choose sides...WHY?   Why can't I be liberal on some issues, then conservative on others?

And then once more I ask, what does it mean to be liberal?   Or conservative?   Don't these definitions hinge on the point of view of the person who is making the comment?   Then I run across Garrison Keillor and his wonderfully put rhetoric:

The logical extension of this spirit is social welfare and the myriad government programs with long dry names all very uninteresting to you until you suddenly need one and then you turn into a Democrat. A liberal is a conservative who's been through treatment.  
 
This is definitely a start at analyzing what makes someone one or the other.    But it still leaves me slightly unsatisfied.    When I hear the word "conservative", unlike many other gay men I know, I don't necessarily cringe.   I don't assume the person being described by that adjective is prejudiced or close-minded or unworthy of my time because they are so behind their own.     No, instead I think of someone who is cautious, who is careful, who likes to measure their thoughts and actions wisely, someone who acts after much careful thought, instead of emotionally and carelessly from the heart.   But I think my view is not the one most people have.   I am way too generous to conservatives, most liberals would tell me.   

Then let's take the word "liberal", with all its heavy, negative media spin, you would think someone with that monikor attached would be a wild, partying, irresponsible freak who would swing from every chandelier and break every rule of civility and human order.   Bring on the orgies!  Let's abort the babies!    But instead, that word makes me think of someone who puts the needs of others before their own.   Someone who believes that everyone should have access to basic requirements for human existence, food, water, health care, education, a sense of worth.    A liberal to me is someone who wants equal opportunity for all, no matter what scoiety has to do to get it.

And then of course I have yet another, more complex thought (sometimes it does happen!), that perhaps all of us are "liberal" and "conservative" to some extent.   We have capacity and actions within us that illustrate both words.    We all have moments in our lives when we fluctuate more to one side or the other, and they aren't necessarily related to chronology.   

And why should these two words be so far apart in our lexicon anyway?   Why not bring them closer together?  How about creating a third word?   "Liberative?"   "Conserval?"   Hmmm....

Oh wait, we already have a word..."Moderate".    I like that word.    But like the definition of the word itself, I guess it doesn't cause that much excitement...only a bit of a thrill...but nothing too extreme now!

The next few months will not be easy ones for those of us who feel our country is lacking in "moderation".    We will see extremes on both sides, we will see name calling, cat fighting, mudslinging and character assassinations of the worst kind, left and right.   (And I mean that figuratively as well as literally...interesting we use the term "left and right" to indicate "all over the place", even in our idioms we want the extreme divide...)

Perhaps if we try to spread our own word of "middleness"  of "down the center"  of  "neither left nor right", of "moderation in all things" (as the Greeks would have us believe)  maybe if we try with all our might to let our voices be heard above the shouting of the "liberals" and "conservatives" of the two extremes in this great Nation we all love dearly...maybe if we can ring the bell of Liberty (which is after all, the bell of Moderation and Temperance is it not?), loud and clear, we can  hear over the loud din of those who would want to separate us, to keep us on either side of the fence, and once again feel proud to live in this great land?

As it is, we can no longer stand to live with this chasm, this great divide keeping us further and further apart and not allowing us to see that, to some extent, each side has a really good point.

So next time someone uses the word "conservative"  or "liberal", and just assumes you know what it means...ask them to define it for you.   Start a conversation about it, and see how you differ or agree on the definitions.     

Maybe that'll get us talking instead of shouting at each other.    And maybe, just maybe, we can all stop facing left or right, and begin to look inwards, to the center...and find the "Moderate" in us all.