Radiofree West Hartford - THE CLOSED LIBERAL MIND by Tim Siggia

THE CLOSED LIBERAL MIND

By Tim Siggia

September 01, 2005

With so much going on right now -- the Hurricane Katrina aftermath, the upcoming John Roberts confirmation hearings, the Cindy Sheehan circus, etc., it seems that the question of what to write about is akin to the selection of a single piece of candy at Russell Stover headquarters. My subject, however, is none of the above. All have been commented on writers far more eloquent and knowledgeable than myself on these matters.

Let me begin by saying that some time ago I was engaged at work in a conversation with one of my colleagues whom I'll call Jim (not his real name). Jim was telling me about something about a new type of compacter he had seen on television that was supposedly more effective than any of its predecessors -- something needed here in America, since Americans are "the most wasteful people in the world."

"Hold it right there," I said. "I could understand your saying that if you were somebody like ________ ..."

Allow me to digress for a moment this point. The mutual friend to whom I was referring is a doctrinaire liberal from his boyhood days. During the Vietnam Era, when Jim and I were both serving in the Navy (though not together), our friend was protesting what we doing and was attending Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, for the sole purpose of -- well, he still affectionately refers to his alma mater as "Roger Dodger". His only out-of-America experiences have been occasional trips to Ireland, the country of his ancestry, and his views have not changed since his college days.

"... but you served in the United States Navy," I continued. "You have seen places like the Bay of Naples and the Port of Alexandria. How can you truthfully say, after what you've seen with your own eyes, that Americans are the most wasteful people in the world? Have you forgotten what you saw (and smelled) back in your Navy days? And what other country routinely recycles its waste for re-use?"

Jim was forced to admit I had him on this, but, in all fairness, it's not entirely his fault. He is, after all, something of a victim of geography. He is a resident of Liberal Connecticut: The People's Republic of Connecticut, where Democrats and Republicans are the same thing by different names, where Bill Clinton is God On Earth, where the ACLU is the voice of all authority, where MoveOn.org is holy scripture, where Hillary is the Queen Mother, where the Far Right (or, if you prefer, the Religious Right) consists of everybody politically to the right of Karl Marx, where the national Republican Party (excluding, of course, the us-too-Democrats Connecticut Republicans) is the Ku Klux Klan, where George W. Bush and Satan are one and the same, and which hasn't cast an electoral vote for a Republican presidential candidate since 1988. He was simply doing what so many Connecticut residents do, unconsciously in most cases. He was accepting the rhetoric of the left as fact.

In Liberal Connecticut, it seems anything that comes from a liberal source needs no verification, especially if it faults the United States. It is absolute fact, plain, simple, end of discussion. When facts prove leftist pronouncements wrong, they are either explained away or simply discarded. This is the Land of the Liberal, and no other viewpoints have any validity here. (I expect any day to hear that Radiofree West Hartford has finally been outlawed.) Be there any doubt, and I invite one and all to pore the slates in the upcoming municipal elections, wherever your locality may be. Now, count the number of conservative candidates for any office! My guess is that it will be about the same as the number of pork chops at a typical bar-mitzvah.

Connecticut, the bluest of blue states, unfortunately represents the closed liberal mind, unreceptive to any and all new ideas contrary to its own liberal dogma. It is a "progressive" state rooted firmly in the failed policies of 1964, whose only new ideas since then have been, typically, lotteries, a state income tax, same-sex civil unions and "campaign finance reform".

Oh, there are glimmers of hope. Bill Buckley and Ann Coulter are, believe it or not, Connecticut residents. Just don't tell anybody.