Who Is the Left Inspiring?



Have you shown your appreciation to your favorite political pundit lately? One year ago, the minds behind windsofchange.net showed their appreciation for journalist Christopher Hitchens by launching “Operation ‘Buy Hitchens A Drink.’” I thought it was a rather neat idea, which entailed collecting PayPal donations to buy Hitchens bottles of Johnnie Walker Red Whiskey along with a letter of appreciation including the names of all those who contributed. Hitchens, ever the philanthropist, requested that the money earned ($650) be donated to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

I personally admire Hitchens very much, and had I known about the campaign when it was going on, I think I would have contributed a few dollars. I found out about it only this week while surfing around hitchensweb.com, and it led me to consider the following question: Do liberals inspire anything positive? I don’t mean that as a smear against Hitchens (a liberal war supporter), as he is my favorite journalist out there today, nor do I intend it as a smear against liberals in general (though I am certain that many liberals will call this a smear article), but it illustrates one key difference between right-wing and left-wing commentators.

Larry Elder the other day received a call on his radio show from a young black man claiming that Larry was his hero and had changed his life. Rush Limbaugh (whatever you may think of him) frequently receives calls from listeners saying variations of, “Thank you for inspiring me to stop relying on the government and make something of my life.” I can identify with these callers, because I too have been inspired by the conservative message of self-reliance.

Case in point: When I began attending college in 2001, I accepted large amounts of federal financial aid without giving a thought to where it came from. I lived off campus and things were expensive, and so I felt that my use of taxpayer funds was justified, even though I slacked off that entire first year anyway. These days I rely entirely on student loans to pay for my tuition and books, and I have made the decision to remain with relatives while I finish my education, because I recognize now that it is not the government’s responsibility to keep me in a luxury apartment ten feet from campus. Of course there is still the temptation to apply for Cal Grants and other entitlements, especially since I don’t pay rent and could use the money for pretty much whatever I wanted, but the conservative and libertarian commentators have helped me to realize that that is wrong (and if you aren’t already aware, you should know that millions of college students are using your tax dollars to buy ipods and designer hubcaps). In other words, they have inspired me to stop using the government and start demonstrating some self-respect.

But who is the left inspiring? Or more importantly, WHAT are they inspiring? Most responsible liberals would agree that it is wrong to take money from the government without a sincere need for it, but unfortunately their message does not inspire individual responsibility in the matter. Left-wing ideology insists that women are oppressed, minorities are underrepresented, working class citizens are exploited, and basically that most of our problems are the result of societal imperfections. In other words, you are a victim. If you can’t support your family, it’s a minimum wage problem (as long as you understand that when we raise the minimum wage for you, thousands of other people will lose their jobs); if you didn’t get accepted to Stanford, it’s because you’re black and grew up in a poor learning environment (even though Asians from impoverished backgrounds manage to excel far above the rest of us); or, if you are a woman who just lost a promotion to a man, don’t bother working harder for next time. Just blame sexist hiring practices! I could give hundreds of examples, but I think the point has been made. While it is important to address injustices where they exist, the leftist ideology is, by nature, uninspiring.

If we are made to believe that society is unfair and the cards are stacked against us, why should we bother trying to better ourselves? Why not steal money from the federal government if that government is just trying to screw us anyway? If Jesse Jackson, Ted Kennedy and Gloria Steinem are right, then there really is no point in believing in ourselves for success, because the game is rigged. I call it political predestination, the only solution to which is governmental action.

Liberals would argue that their intention is not to polarize people but to create opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach. This was a pivotal theme at the 2004 Democratic Convention, and it is certainly a noble goal, but noble does not always equal effective, nor does it necessarily equal wise. These things are debatable, but I personally just don’t see the inspiration in being told that I need the government’s help to succeed in life.

Sometimes the road to success is paved with tough love. When Bill Cosby scolded the black community for what he sees as a lack of proactive parenting, many civil rights activists became upset. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson even wrote a book about it, called “Is Bill Cosby Right?” in which he criticizes Cosby for being overly critical and failing to take difficult social circumstances into consideration. But Cosby himself grew up in a poor neighborhood where nothing was handed to him, and yet managed to become one of the most successful entertainers in the country through hard work and persistence. He is an accomplished actor, producer, writer, comedian and musician, and has a Ph.D in education, among other impressive academic achievements. This poor boy from Philly boasts a list of accomplishments that most of us only dream of, and he made most of these accomplishments during a time when race relations were far more turbulent than they are now. Cosby is an inspiring figure, from whom we can all learn something.

So who is right on the issues that face us? Issues like affirmative action, gay rights, entitlements, abortion, and the like? I obviously have my opinions, and you can make good cases for both sides of each of these issues, but perhaps we should remember what’s more important than the issues themselves: Personal accountability. Regardless of where we stand on the government’s role on things, we should be able to agree that the potential for success lies within each of us, and in order to achieve it, we have to be willing to work for it. Democrats and Republicans share this belief for the most part, but I do think that our friends on the left could do a much better job of articulating it once in a while.