So, I'm running late for work. Which means that BBC America finishes its run on WNYC and we switch over to the local broadcast of The Brian Lehrer Show. They're talking Monday Morning Politics, as per usual, and have New Republic editor Peter Beinart in the studio. Beinart has written a book with the sure-to-annoy title of "The Good Fight: Why Liberals -- and Only Liberals -- Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again and how much longer could this book title be, please, I have to go make lunch or something"
Anyway, I don't truly believe (and this as a good upstanding liberal) that only liberals have the knowhow to figure out the war on terror, but I'm going along with all of this because as a movement, we need a little fist-pumping. OK. So, Lehrer gets a call. The caller self-identifies as conservative. He takes issue with Beinart's contention and says the reason liberals can't solve anything related to terror is that "liberals think in the micro, conservatives think in the macro."
He cites bag searches on the subway as his justification: Liberals will fight them, he says, because they're so focused on the individual, and conservatives will go along happily because they recognize you have to give up some small things, as a contribution (my word, my itals) to the fight on terror. Conservatives look at the big picture: We all have to contribute. Liberals would be ninnies and say it's all about the rights of the individual and nobody should be forced to have his or her bag checked.
I'm waiting for the followup from either Lehrer and Beinart, easily squashing this theory for the nonsense it is, and instead we get a mealy mouthed diversionary reply that seems to ignore the point. It's several hours later that I'm writing this, so the content of that reply is already mush in my head. Mush out, mush in.
The real reply is this: Macro/micro my ass.
No. 1: At what point did the conservatives cede individual rights to liberals? I thought liberals (in their POV) were all about big government inciting us to live like socialists, to pay more taxes so we all have more social services, creation of the nanny state, etc. etc. ad nauseum. Oh, this must have happened when Shrub's government got up in everyone's ass with security issues, big tax breaks and enormous government (to the point of creating a whole new bureau with the Homeland Security people). That must have been it.
But really:
No. 2: How small is your perspective to think that anyone who protests bag checks (or wiretapping or publication of 'classified' coverup documents) is doing it for the individual? The reason you protest the small infringements is so that you don't let them build into big ones, which do affect the larger populace -- the "macro." If you let them search your bag without cause today, why not your house tomorrow? Why not give you anal probes before you board a plane? You have to get at these things when they start, even before they start, or suddenly you've walked on to that slippery slope. This is what small-headed, small-thinking people just never seem to get. The fact is the liberals are thinking in the big picture, but the big picture was too big for that caller to perceive. And that is really what the problem is with conservatives.
Did we get that from our host and guest? Not a frickin' word. That said, I then did have to go to work and may have missed the genius. Not likely.
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Related, but different: I'm very pleased that we can now officially say there are no domestic or international grievances or problems greater than the subject of gay marriage. The president's attention has duly turned to the No. 1 issue on his To-Do items list, and since he's cleared it of all other subject matter and potential issues, it's about time he dealt with all this other stuff. Will someone suggest where I should stay in the rebuilt New Orleans? And now that global warming is over, how about we all just get a bunch of new SUVs with 10mpg, spewing diesel? And since Iraq and Iran and the whole Middle Eastern region is at peace, I think I'll go there right after my New Orleans trip. Thanks, Prez, you really know how to take things in their proper order. I'm looking forward to our newly-educated young workforce, whose student loans are paid off by public service and my national health care initiative to take effect.
What a great day to be American!
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