Over the years I’ve said and written nasty things about liberals. Liberals, progressives, lefties, whatever the name.
And I’ve defended conservatives—blindly at times. I’ve publicly defended policies I privately considered stupid.
All in the name of advancing my agenda. I believed—and still believe—the liberty agenda is the best one. The only one for people live out the full potential of their lives, to own their own lives, and to leave the world better than they found it.
Times They Are a Changin’ #
As central planners in Washington (and other places) suck up more control over our lives, I have a harder time shouting “filthy rotten leftie” at liberals. Some of my very best friends are liberals, and they’re wonderful human beings.
But personal allegiances aren’t the only reasons I ‘m uncomfortable fighting the generic left.
More and more, it seems, the left and the right have a common enemy and a common cause. Look at a few recent examples:
- The social drain of draconian cannabis laws frustrate left and right alike
- The government’s attempts to diminish internet freedom forged and alliance of liberals, conservative, and libertarians
- The IRS attacks on Tea Party groups outraged smart liberals who realized it could happen to them
- The NSA crimes against privacy chaffed left and right equally
- Now, both left and right oppose Washington’s efforts to launch a war on Syria
A Common Enemy #
People of every political stripe are waking up to the reality of a common enemy: the political elite.
The political elite know no party or ideology. It exists to maintain and increase its control and power over everyone and everything. Washington wants to control the economy, right down to the clothes you wear and the fluids you drink.
Political elitists are usually good people seduced by the siren song of political clout. The seduction envelopes and corrupts them. The song fills their heads with reasonable sounding arguments for transferring more power and privilege from the many to the anointed few.
The elitists work our minds like stage magicians, offering the illusion of control with distraction and fantastic stories that suck us in.
Morning in America #
But now more and more of us—the plebes—are waking up. We’re seeing that the enemy isn’t the liberal on the left or the conservative on the right or even the “independent” who can’t make up his mind.
Our enemy is that political elite. Not the individual elitists, really, but the critical mass of that elite. Isolate them, and they rediscover their basic humanity.
And that’s what Morning in America will look like. An awakening. The terrifying understanding that power corrupts and accumulates. Then the comfort of realizing that there are more of us plebes than there are of those elites.
Finally, we’re stirred—compelled—to act. For our own humanity.
History shows that these awakenings suck to live through. But without them, life isn’t worth living at all.
P.S. If you don’t buy the Elite – Plebe dichotomy, Matt Drudge has an alternative in this tweet:
It’s now Authoritarian vs. Libertarian. Since Democrats vs. Republicans has been obliterated, no real difference between parties…
— MATT DRUDGE (@DRUDGE) September 3, 2013
Either way, the battle lines are being redrawn.