Update: In my launch column below, I opened this way:
"Why am I, The Relentless Conservative, writing in The Huffington Post?
Because it's the best place for a Conservative to be heard by intelligent Liberals, that's why."
Note: my use of "intelligent Liberals." I was offering an olive branch, trying to make nice to those of a different political persuasion, attempting to stimulate thoughtful and polite debate.
In return, I got kicked in the teeth by a bunch of pseudo-intellectual pansies.
Disappointing, but not to worry. I'll muddle on regardless of these people's close-mindedness and inability to grasp that essential art practiced by intelligent humans: listening.
Within hours, this column had 100+ comments, mostly nasty. Defiling the great tradition of standing behind one's convictions by giving a name, most adhered to the brave new Internet world by being anonymously vicious, the cheapest of cheap shots. Five or six displayed class and grace, saying they liked my thinking even if they could not agree with me. Many were over-the-top spiteful. A couple seemed more interested in debating and criticizing the Sun Tzu quote or my writing style. All were somehow motivated by the simple, direct column about how Liberals should try -- just try, mind you -- to listen to others' viewpoints. I would ask the same of Conservatives.
My first thoughts, on reading some of the more vitriolic comments, turned to Nancy Pelosi blubbering about language. Remember? "I have concerns about language being used because I saw -- I saw this myself in the late '70s in San Francisco, this kind of -- of rhetoric was frightening and it gave -- it created a climate in which we -- violence took place."
Once again, Liberals are convicted, judge and jury, of hypocrisy.
I'm not first to claim that Liberals apparently have a hearing disorder that kicks in only when they are confronted with Conservative thought. It's been a major criticism of the Left for decades now. There must be something to it, especially when I exhort people -- Huffington post readers, in this case -- to listen to each other and perhaps, just maybe, get along together to solve the real problems facing this country.
Nothing is as maddening as attempting a political conversation with Liberals. Believe me, I've tried.
It's almost as if they cannot accept another worldview, that the only opinion about government that exists -- or matters -- is theirs.
I can't think of many mindsets as narcissistic as that. They may as well put their fingers in their ears and shout "La, la, la la ..." at the top of their lungs.
Well Huffington Post readers, you will now have the opportunity to hear, regularly, Conservative opinion that should rankle you deeply and, if I get it right, will make you angry at yourselves and at the Liberal elected officials you've installed. My core concern was, is and will remain the good of the country and all its people of whatever persuasion.
A Conservative who by some wild chance finds a Liberal who listens during a political conversation, should prepare to be belittled, as if he or she is talking to some political strategist steeped in experience and knowledge of what's right for the world. Conservative positions will doubtless be depicted as greedy, self-centered, beholden to corporations and damaging to the planet, while Liberal positions are always what will "leave a better world for our children."
Balderdash.
****
Why am I, The Relentless Conservative, writing in The Huffington Post?
Because it's the best place for a Conservative to be heard by intelligent Liberals, that's why.
I don't want to write for Conservatives. We already know what we think. Here I define Conservatives not in the political sense but using the traditional interpretation of someone who cleaves to bedrock values of the highest quality in his or her life -- values of behavior, morals, ethics and personal attitudes.
But most Liberals don't want to hear a Conservative's opinion, right?
Wrong.
Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War (500 BC): "Know thine enemy better than one knows thyself." Intelligent men and women, whatever their political persuasion, understand that. Intelligent Liberals want to understand us Conservatives. Now, right here, they can. This can be a valuable dialog.
As a Conservative I don't enjoy watching Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow or Bill Maher. They infuriate me. It enrages me that people could be so hypocritical, so narrow-minded, so unwilling to listen to anybody's opinions if different from theirs. They say the same things about Conservatives. I watch those Liberals because they're good barometers of Liberal thought.
I also read the NY Times (the 'Granddaddy' of all Liberal publications), Time and The Washington Post; though they make my gorge rise most of the time. I do so because I want to understand what liberals are doing. I need to know about their plots, their schemes, their plans. I need to know what they're up to.
Astonishingly, many liberals apparently have no such interest. They can't stand to watch Bill O'Reilly, for example. They hate him. They won't even turn to Fox when O'Reilly interviews their guy, Obama.
If I were a Liberal, I'd be devouring all available intel about the Conservatives (Not Republicans! Not Tea Partiers! But good, old-fashioned Conservatives), trying to figure out how and why the Liberal establishment in this country could conceivably give up the White House and both houses of Congress. This is what will happen if Weiner-gate type operating styles continue unchecked as they have.
Obamacare is a disaster because most Americans are against it. If this administration, along with Pelosi and Reid, somehow cram it down our throats without the federal courts declaring it unconstitutional, then Democrats will get what they wanted and it may mean their demise.
The economy is in serious trouble ... still.
Jobs are not being created as promised and unemployment continues to rise inexorably.
The national debt is horrifically high.
We are engaged in undeclared wars at hideous cost in lives and treasure.
These are real and scary problems which we can only solve if we work together, Americans of all political beliefs and persuasions. Partisan politics do not solve problems for the nation, but exacerbate them.
But if liberals cannot listen attentively to Conservatives every once in a while, then I'm afraid these problems will worsen and create the kind of environment where all the Democratic platforms liberals hold dear will be pariahs and the people will turn to a Conservative President and Congress.