Well Duh.

I Am a Liberal. There, I Said It! by George Clooney (Common Dreams) is a very short essay in which George Clooney officially outs himself, even though most would consider Three Kings, Good Night and Good Luck and Syriana to be eloquent enough statements of that. Still and all, there are some nice enough turns of phrase in it:

“…one of the things we absolutely need to agree on is the idea that we’re all allowed to question authority. We have to agree that it’s not unpatriotic to hold our leaders accountable and to speak out.”

He expresses a frustration with the Democratic party as he watches them mysteriously avoid confronting the Republicans, “[i]t makes me want to shout, ‘Fuck you, you weren’t misled. You were afraid of being called unpatriotic.‘” In this, he is still naively clinging to the notion that, with the Republicans firmly in possession of the “Dark Side”, it stands to reason that the only other choice must be the “Light Side”. The Democrats, as we’ve mentioned here before, are simply scheming for a way to switch places with the Republicans. At best, the Democrats would proceed more slowly along the same lines that the Republicans have chosen. America’s direction is executed through a political party, but not dictated by it. Since business interests are behind both, we can expect the same agenda from both. The only path for the principled is an independent one, as always.

Once you’ve disassociated the idea of being a liberal from being a Democrat, it’s easy to see that a liberal isn’t a raging leftist. And a Democrat is not a liberal. Neither a Republican nor a Democrat is a fiscal conservative. The stories the parties would like you to believe are not true. A man of common sense, a true republican (believing in the direct power of the people), a true democrat (believing in the elective power of the people) and, yes, a liberal, believes in the following:

“…it’s not merely our right to question our government, it’s our duty. Whatever the consequences. … You gotta be a grown-up and take your hits.”

A good philosophy to go by. It’s too bad that only a small part of our elected government lives by it.