Of serpents, Rhinos and other things

I hate to tell ‘em, but I’ve been called worse.

He clearly had disagreed with what I had written and he struggled to express just how deeply his disagreement was felt. After a final hesitation he stammered, “It’s … it’s just what I’d expect from you … you … liberalssss,” drawing that final ‘s’ into a silibant hiss evoking the Edenic serpent introducing all manner of sin into the world.  I could almost read the words from Genesis there in his eyes, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals … crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life … I will put enmity between you and the woman…”

Well, that explains my luck with dating in high school, but…

“And your Rhino friends are no better,” he spluttered, in apparent frustration with the less than purely partisan now labeled as “Republicans In Name Only” – an endangered species of political moderates whose extinction my critic appeared to eagerly welcome.

The conversation ended with him in high dudgeon and me somewhat confused. I felt he felt I should be insulted, but I wasn’t sure why – even though he tossed those words around like being one would be a bad thing -- bad for our country, bad for the people who live in it, bad for the whole world, even.

But wasn’t it Franklin Roosevelt, a self admitted liberal if there ever was one, who defeated the Depression, gave us Social Security and the Veteran’s Administration, then led the fight to crush Fascism and followed up with the GI Bill for the soldiers, sailors and marines who did the dirty work?

And wasn’t it Harry Truman, another liberal sort, who took the initiative with the Marshall Plan to rebuild war ravaged Europe, granted independence to the Philippines, recognized the new state of Israel, oversaw the reconstruction of Japan, and held the line against Stalin in Berlin, Korea and across the globe.

Then there was Ike, the moderate Republican who ran the D-Day operation well before he rather reluctantly moved into the White House. Good old, grandfatherly Ike, who stared down the nascent Soviet nuclear threat, constructed the interstate highway system and oversaw a domestic prosperity that’s become somewhat of a legend in modern memory.

And what about LBJ? It took a liberal to come up with Medicare, didn’t it? And a Southern liberal to preside over the demise of the Jim Crow south, then back that up with the Voting Rights Bill to make it the nation’s business to see that all Americans are able to participate equally in the nation’s business.

If Ike was a Rhino, what about his protégé Tricky Dick. Yep, it was Nixon, leftist Republican that he was, who established the Environmental Protection Agency, negotiated the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty with the Soviets, opened the door to relations with mainland China, met with Elvis in the Oval Office and insisted that America be a reliable ally to freedom-seeking people around the world.

Too bad about that impeachment thing…

And in our present situation we could surely do worse than give heed to Jack Kennedy’s admonitions as he accepted the office of president:

“…let us begin anew--remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof…

“Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us…

“United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided there is little we can do--for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.”

Yeah, there are worse things than a liberal. Lots worse.