Column:

Liberals need conservative swagger

By Jordan Stein

Published Nov. 10, 2009

My last article prompted some pretty severe condemnation from some readers who took issue with my views. In fact, when my mother read the comments section, she was outraged at some of the remarks. I told her I was glad people were engaged by what I wrote. Some of the comments were unforgivably rude (my conservative boyfriend IS real and is not ready to dump my Obama-loving butt on the curb yet), but I admired the immediate and forceful conservative response to my tiny, oft-overlooked column.

That's something distinctive about all the right-wingers I know. They're very passionate about what they believe and they sure as hell are ready to let you know about it. Don't get me wrong, I know plenty of fiery liberals, ready to debate whenever and wherever. But most of those liberals are in college, belong to the College Democrats and have some sort of extra-curricular political experience. Conversely, I encounter vocal conservatives of all ages and levels of political involvement. Somehow, when liberals get out of the safe enclave of college, they start to get weak-kneed and soft-spoken.

And who can blame them? When you're outspoken about something you believe, political, you're usually met with lots of static. People are quick to cast aspirations about your sanity, your lifestyle or the position of your lips in proximity to someone's rear end. It really sucks to endure but conservatives tend to just plow through the antagonism and use it to fuel their political passion. Liberals, when met with hostility, usually retreat apologetically.

I don't know why this happens. I'm not sure when or how it became culturally necessary to apologize and be ashamed of liberal beliefs. Nonetheless, we liberals have been dealing with it the wrong way. We need to take a leaf out of the conservatives' book and refuse to apologize for what we think.

This technique would be useful in the legislature. If liberals were as unrelenting in their desire for universal health care as conservatives are unrelenting about everything, we wouldn't have gotten bogged down in the public option compromise. It seems the liberals in both the House and Senate are so afraid to stir the waters with a liberal agenda, they just stick to as close to the middle as they can. Typically, the hope of being re-elected drives this pathetic behavior.

Somehow, we have a majority in Congress, a liberal in the White House and public opinion still swinging toward approval for both branches, according to Gallup polls. Now is the time to get accomplished what we set out to do in 2008, before the power pendulum swings the other way. We need to be unforgiving and infinitely stubborn about what we think is right. That attitude is how the conservatives got us in this mess in the first place and may be the only way to get ourselves out.

So, listen up, Congressional liberals, Missouri liberals and liberals who get into political conversations in line at the supermarket: Stop being such a pansy. Meet the debate with your game face on and stop apologizing.

Jordan Stein is a senior political science major. She can be reached at jesf25@mizzou.edu