So – did you hear the news? I am a liberal! Don’t tell my grandparents. (I come from a long line of conservatives.)
It turns out my view on the four bridge players suspended for displaying their anti-Bush signs at the International competition’s awards ceremony resulted in me being labeled a liberal by a conservative site, The National Center. In the Center’s blog, the author had this take on people defending the suspended players:
A handful of the liberal bloggers who are defending the bridge players (for example, here, here and here) don’t seem to understand what the First Amendment says and means.
What a wonderful country we might have if all the liberals who use their freedom of speech rights read the Constitution carefully and with intelligence once in a while.
Anyone who has ever known me will find that previous paragraph to be highly comical and ironic, considering I was a registered republican up until the 2004 election. I campaigned in my school against Clinton before I could even vote. I religiously watched political debates and national republican conventions before I was even a teenager – I was Alex P. Keaton. I even voted for Pat Buchanan in the 1996 primaries. You don’t get much more republican and conservative than I was. And now, because I am speaking out in support of people practicing free speech, I’m instantly classified into a political interest group. Intriguing that my views on our constitution and personal rights automatically categorize me for those who subscribe to mainstream thinking.
At any rate, I have no problem with this criticism. In fact, it has led to the highest numbers this site has ever seen. And of course I encourage it because I believe healthy debate is a means to a peaceful end. It seems that the United States Bridge Association feels the same way. The USBA announced yesterday that it has reinstated the players and dropped any penalties against them. I’m so excited to hear this – and on Thanksgiving too.
On a side note, if you didn’t read the other bloggers labeled as liberals, be sure to check this one out - a very good read.
Create Your Own!
2 responses so far ↓
Bridge babes back, bullies back off « Whiskey Tango Foxtrot // November 23, 2007 at 6:49 am |
[...] vindicated, since this blog was one of three selected for special consideration (the other two are here and here). I was, to say the least, bemused to see myself described as a “liberal”. [...]
Sandman // November 23, 2007 at 7:34 am |
Hey! I’m a liberal, too! Ain’t it great to be pigeonholed? Especially since I, too, was a registered Republican up until this year, voted for Bush not once, but twice, and have devoted over half my life to defending the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…
Oh well. I can live with it. If criticizing groupthink and neocon political correctness makes me a liberal, then so be it.