Liberals Have Lost Their Minds Over Obama

Let me start off by saying that I have always identified myself as a liberal. I've marched for abortion rights, I've voted almost straight Democrat in 20 years of voting.

It has taken this presidential election, however, to show me that I'm actually more of a moderate than anything. I have Obama's supporters to thank for that.

I knew that there was a small core of liberals who were a bit extreme in their tactics. PETA and their militant stance is a good example of this, as well as the Earth Liberation Front, which thinks somehow that torching buildings so that they spew toxic smoke into the air is an "environmental" statement.

So too, are the current crop of unforgiving anti-war liberals who are backing Obama on the single issue of a vote Hillary made for the Iraq war.

I marched against the first Iraq war, back in 1990, but I did not march again after 9/11. All I saw were angry people who said they were about peace but thought that it was perfectly OK to hang Bush in effigy. (I don't like Bush either, but you can't say you stand for peace and then perpetrate imaginary violence against someone, just because you don't like them.)

With that, I always felt there was a disconnect between the talking points of the anti-war movement and the ideal of peace. The anti-war movement was more about being angry than it was about doing something proactive. And it certainly wasn't peaceful.

There was so much hate, so much foaming at the mouth. I just didn't feel drawn to it.

Don't get me wrong - I was opposed to the war and shocked by the high number of civilian deaths. But I'm open to reason, and it took a viewing of an Iraqi documentary The Dreams of Sparrows, for me to see that the issue was not as cut and dry as it first appeared.

In The Dreams of Sparrows, Iraqis talk to other Iraqis about the Iraq war. This is not an American documentary, filled with bias on one side or another. It is a very balanced piece showing how normal Iraqis feel on the subject.

Surprise, surprise. Not all Iraqis hated America; in fact, quite a few of them were ecstatic that Saddam was gone. (I'll never forget the image of the little old lady who had a picture of G.W. Bush in her wallet, that she kept in praise to him for saving her country.)

There were likewise Iraqis who missed Saddam, saying that Saddam brought some sorely needed "order" to their country.

One of the filmmakers died during the making of that film. You might think this would leave me even more anti-war a the end, but no it did not, as sad as it was. People also died under Saddam's regime, and people died because of the war. In most of the real world: People die. And they don't live the cushy lives we Americans live, where it's easy for us to make pronouncements on what's right and what's wrong from our safe little suburban neighborhoods.

Bottom line is: After watching that film, I'm not sure what is best for Iraq, but I can't say for certain the war was absolutely wrong.

Most anti-war liberals, however, have made the unilateral decision that the Iraq war was not only wrong, but it is the most egregious, evil, hate-mongering thing that Americans ever did to the world. They are fanatical upon this point.

Because of this fanatical belief, these liberals have an unwillingness to give Clinton the benefit of the doubt on the war vote (perhaps she thought it was the best thing to do at the time, given 9/11 and the current climate of fear). Some even go so far as to hate her on this one point (which is, once again, anti-peace at its core).

Thus, they are taking all that anti-war fever and passionately backing a man who they believe is for peace: Barack Obama. Obama will save the Iraqi children, they believe.

Yet, in their fervor, they neglect to step back dispassionately and really take a look at Obama's past and record. All it took for me was to hear that Obama was the lawyer for a man being sued by the city of Chicago for building slum housing that didn't have heat in a Chicago winter. And for me, this is a much more egregious fault than Hillary voting for the war post 9/11.

Will Obama's supporters be willing to listen to reason, to really step back and consider whether this man is as sincere as he says he is?

Apparently not, because all they care about is the fact that here's a guy who for once talks the liberal talking points, who supposedly believes what they believe. And, he's an inspiring speaker! That must mean he's on the side of good.

So when you add up the anti-war fervor, with Obama's charismatic liberal pandering, you get a very explosive combination: Obamamania.

One only needs to look at the WTO riots in Seattle in past years to see what happens when the fanatical, angry core of the left gets riled up. (It is my firm belief that if there is any rioting over Obama not getting the nomination, it won't come from blacks but from the radical white fringe of the party.)

I used to think that fundamentalist Christians were the biggest danger to American democracy. I now think there is an equal threat from the far left. Fundamentalist Christians have turned terrorist in the past: bombing abortion clinics, for example. Fundamental liberals have also turned terrorist: blowing things up in the name of the environment, or destroying public property to free caged animals.

I do not want my country taken over by fanatical fundamentalists on either side of the political spectrum. Obama supporters who use hype-filled scare tactics to try to get me to vote for him are part of that scary trend.

"Don't vote for McCain! He is going to set women back to the stone age! He is going to bomb Iran! He is going to kill little children!"

Well, let me tell you what. Thanks to your righteous fervor, you hardcore Obama supporters have already set women back 30 years by your treatment of Hillary Clinton. You have split the Democratic party with your fundamentalist views on everything from the war to abortion rights. You have turned the moderate discourse in this country into a radical platform that is unwilling to hear the other side.

And you wonder why I don't want you or your chosen one in power? We've seen censorship against Hillary supporters on many major left-leaning websites, including the previously sane and progressive Huffington Post. We've heard what we thought were sensible radio show hosts such as Randi Rhodes turn on her own gender and call women in her own party "f--king whores." We're called upon to "unite" and blindly support a party that we feel doesn't speak to us or our needs anymore.

So this "liberalism" has already taken a dangerous turn towards group-think, censorship, and verbal violence.

That's what happens when you come from a fundamentalist space where you are completely unwilling to look at the other side and consider that maybe, just maybe, your viewpoint isn't the only valid one. Let run unchecked, such viewpoints, when manipulated by those in power, become the basis for a dictatorship, or alternatively lead to civil war.

Fundamentalist Christians get dogmatic over Jesus. Fundamentalist Liberals get dogmatic over Obama. Either way, they are a threat to our democracy, and they must be stopped. And this, more than anything, is why I will not vote Obama in November.

Sign me,
A Liberal Turned Moderate