Like you, my friends, I am dealing with a lot of grief and anger about the terrible state of affairs in the United States of America right now.
I’ll be honest with you, the Conservative Supreme Court’s appalling decision to shove a knife in the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 sent me right over the edge this week.
Similar to the decision to bury Roe before it, this was a decided retreat and two significant steps backwards on the long, muddy road toward progress, as well as this flawed notion of liberty and justice for all …
I have now lived long enough to see the birth and death of these two things, and as a liberal, and a patriot I grieve their loss. These were terrible, destructive decisions that have diminished us both as a people and a nation.
I know you feel the way I do, because we have the audacity to care, good people.
By steeling ourselves with the courage to dig in and stand against the terrible forces who toss evil in our faces by the shovelful, we have opened ourselves up to a world of blinding hurt.
Yet here we are.
Tired as we are, we don’t look away or run for cover. We wear our hearts on our sleeves and stand in there and fight like hell.
We are liberals, after all, and people come no tougher than that.
As I get old, I grow ever more comfortable inside my worn skin. I know who and what I truly believe in, as well as the things worth fighting for.
When I take my last breath, I will do so knowing I put up a good, righteous fight.
So what is it I (we) liberals believe in? I thought about this at length yesterday, and put together the following partial list. I say partial because it is impossible to recite all the good we do for Americans and the world.
The word liberal has gotten a raw deal in my lifetime, and I am past sick and tired of it. America is damn lucky to have us.
I am proud to be a liberal.
Here’s why, as well as what I believe in:
- I believe people of color have been getting screwed in this country for centuries.
- I believe women in this country have been getting screwed in this country for centuries.
- I believe as a white man born of privilege that was never earned, I have a responsibility to advocate for these two groups to help lift them up and earn their respect.
- I believe war should be the last resort — I mean, the absolute LAST resort — to solve disputes between nations.
- I believe as a United States veteran I should speak out against wars, and work for peace.
- I believe toxic male masculinity and the bro culture is a dangerous, pathetic overcompensation by little men like Pete Hegseth.
- I believe if more women were in charge, there would be less war and less acrimony.
- I believe that is indisputable.
- I believe in the arts. They are everything.
- I believe we should do everything possible to make it as easy as possible for the citizens of the United States of America to perform the single most important act there is to ensure our survival as a democratic republic: VOTE
- I believe nature is sacred, and must be protected.
- I believe keeping our air and water as clean as possible shouldn’t be a wish, but a law.
- I believe anybody who harms nature should be treated with the same consequences as anybody who harms a person.
- I believe corporations should be taxed at the same rate I am.
- I believe there is no reason whatsoever for billionaires.
- I believe as a veteran, the budget of the bloated Department of Defense is a dangerous, unnecessary joke and should immediately be cut in half — and half more, after that.
- I believe the other halves of that money should go first toward making sure every child gets enough to eat each day, and our seniors get the first-class care they damn well deserve.
- I believe the Department of Defense should be renamed the Department of Well-Being.
- I believe access to affordable healthcare should be a right.
- I believe there is nothing more important than treating everybody with dignity.
- I believe people should mind their own damn business.
- I believe love is love no matter where and how you get it.
- I believe clean energy should be the present not the future.
- I believe every child has a right to a top-notch education.
- I believe teachers should have their salaries immediately doubled with funding from the Department of Well-Being.
- I believe as a white man that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion make America a more just and better place, because DEI is not about favoritism, it is simply about fairness.
- I believe that can’t be said enough.
- I believe there should be reparations paid to descendants of slaves, because owning, chaining, beating and lynching other human beings is an abomination, and is a cancer that still runs through America’s hardening veins today.
- I believe this is obvious as hell when you compare the living standards and wages of Blacks and whites in America, as well as their accessibility to the voting booth.
- I believe if you don’t believe this, you are simply lying to yourself.
- I believe if you are lying to yourself, you probably voted for the racist Donald Trump, the most notorious liar in the world.
- I believe better days ahead, because I believe liberals never give up and keep pushing forward no matter what.
Again, this is but a partial list, and I apologize if I missed things that are dear to you as fellow proud liberals.
Know this, though: I am proud to know you.
Thanks for being in my life and helping to fill it up. Thanks for your friendship, readership and support. You are the people I will remember when I finally go off to join the dogs and cats in my life who left this troubled world before me.
You are liberals after all, and the best there is.
Don’t you ever forget it, dammit.
D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here.
