I am in strange position. I am a Southern White Male with a basic distrust of government and Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Greens, Hard-Line Conservatives, Fox News, CNN… However, there is a special place in my heart for Progressives.

Outside of Conservative Christians, Progressives are the most likely to judge and tell you what you should be doing without trying to understand the people they are preaching to. I applaud their logic-based approach to things. I will even admit that they are usually right.

Rather than trying to persuade people and help them understand their approach. They would rather sit and judge them for being less intelligent and uninformed. I cannot understand why poor people, who live in relative poverty vote Republican on single issues either. However, calling them stupid is probably not a good way to convince them.

Understanding Cultures

If you are a so-called Progressive, I am not trying to offend you. However, if you feel a little put-out by someone sitting in judgment of you. Welcome to my world.

As a Southern White Male, I have had to listen to your yammering about how we are all stupid rednecks without an understanding of what is in our own interest. Apparently, we have been dumber than posts since the Civil War.

To be fair, a lot of my fellow Southern White Males fit that description. As do a lot of working-class Northern White Males. Ask some African-American folks about how friendly certain neighborhoods in Philly still are - as an example. What I find fascinating is the assumption that the part of the country that brought us George Washington, James Monroe, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr, Bill Clinton, LBJ and George W. Bush is a homogeneous place.

The funny thing is that so-called Progressives will “understand” cultures where women are subjected to brutal practices and subjugation - like ultra-conservative Muslims, but they cannot understand a conservative Christian culture that does the same thing in the United States.

A little understanding might go a long way here. Personally, I don’t support either of those cultures. They are just not in step with my view of the world.

Any group that writes off half its population is lost to me.

Self-Interest and Politics

If a CEO of a large business supports lower Capital Gains Taxes, fewer regulations, and lower Income Taxes, Progressives will decry his blatant self-interest.

Flip it. Let’s say it is a builder with a company that promotes green building who is active in environmental issues and works to promote policies that offer incentives and tax breaks for alternative energy.

To many Progressives, this is perfectly acceptable; even something to be encouraged. There is universal acceptance that policies that help the environment, small farmers and poor people are always good. It is hard to argue with that logic, because I support all of those things. But…

It is still a blatant self-interest. Period. There is nothing wrong with that in my book.

Americans Hate Hypocrisy (in others)

As an American, I hate hypocrisy. My personal beliefs are completely justified, but your beliefs must be inconsistent and hypocritical.

Progressives often accept the tag - Limousine Liberal and Liberal Elite - as a badge of honor. Who wouldn’t want to be called elite? It is a nice ego rub. It couldn’t be more wrong.

Liberal Is Not A Dirty Word

I am a Liberal - not a Progressive. I believe in the full Bill of Rights - including the 2nd Amendment. I believe that Government should be by the people and for the people and corporations are not people. I believe that it is a crime that our Servicemen and Women aren’t paid enough to support their families and are abandoned by the same leaders who they so vigorously support (Republicans under G.W. Bush).

I believe that self-interest is not bad and that it is what our Founders intended, so let’s try to win the argument rather than complain about self-interest in others and give it a pass for ourselves.

Once Progressives/Liberals stop saying that people who disagree with them are uninformed and start informing them, they will have success.

Nobody likes a know-it-all.

And why is he showing up in local papers around the country?  Do a Google search and you will find the exact same post from this genius about how the Free Market should handle education in newspapers around the country.

He waxes poetically about how great education was in the 19th Century. I guess as long as Massa’ let the slaves read the Bible it was okay. Also, if you were a woman or poor, you should just forget it and go back to your chores.

Public Schools are a critical part of our government. Thomas Jefferson cites that at the beginning of the Republic. It wasn’t until the greatest experiment in Public Education ever - the G.I. Bill - that this country became more than a white man’s version of a Banana Republic. All of those poor GIs that went to college helped build the prosperity cited in the letters.

Jefferson himself said:

“I have indeed two great measures at heart, without which no republic can maintain itself in strength: 1. That of general education, to enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom. 2. To divide every county into hundreds, of such size that all the children of each will be within reach of a central school in it.” –Thomas Jefferson to John Tyler, 1810. ME 12:393

Now, far be it from me to imply that Thomas Jefferson might have a better idea of the realities of education in his own time period than someone living in 21st Century California.  However, Jefferson was a pretty bright guy for his day and kind of important in the history of the United States.

For someone to say that the Free Market should take care of what is central to the success of our nation; that education and basic research can be driven by a profit-motive; and that a free people can exist by ignoring the basic necessities of its people.

This lazy Libertarian malarkey is a complete joke and ignores one basic tenet: Most one room school houses were publicly funded and not private endeavors.

It is intellectual laziness to ignore the Public Funding of the GI Bill and its importance to the blossoming of our American prosperity. A free market approach to education has proven a failure in almost every case.

If it works so well, why do Private Schools fall all over themselves in the call to have Public Funds - called Vouchers?

To quote the great 20th Century Poets - They Might Be Giants - “Is it sad to say/we will romanticize/the things we knew before?”

Touch the Puppet Head - It is Robert W. Van de Walle of Granada Hills, CA

A lot of things are funny in the mall, but Hot Topic is the worst. MC Lars sang a song about it.

My son and I once walked into a Hot Topic and told a pierced, tattooed twentysomething: “Hot Topic is not Punk Rock” and walked out.

The ultimate insult was that Hot Topic is next to Build A Bear.

Build A Bear is true DIY. You pick out everything and build it yourself. Hot Topic is prefab crap.

Hot Topic is a joke and we can only hope that it goes away. You want to be Punk Rock?

Make your own dress.

Rip your own t-shirt.

Don’t give Hot Topic your money.

You’ll find me at the Build A Bear with my Joey Ramone bear…

Now that’s Punk Rock.