![Why Liberals Shouldn’t Celebrate Thanksgiving
As our nation careens uncontrollably into another election year, we take a break again to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. Commemorating the gathering of Pilgrims and Native Americans together to give thanks to God (and/or Great Sky Spirit), this day was established as an early tradition by the 1600s, blessed by Abe Lincoln, and comes down to us as the day to take pause and reflect on our blessings.
However, not all Americans celebrate this day, and it seems to me, not all should. It is my contention that Thanksgiving is essentially a conservative holiday, and that it is philosophically and politically opposed to the beliefs of those Americans who would scurrilously assign themselves the epithet of “liberal“.
There are three important and essential elements to the holiday of Thanksgiving: what we give thanks for, from whence this thanks comes, and to whom it is given.
Conservative Americans are thankful for America and those inalienable rights it defends. This gratitude comes from a sense of humility and piety, and is specifically thankful to God for granting them. There are few things more American than this equation.
Now let us look at the Liberal.
The leftist liberal is not thankful. They don’t believe there’s anything to be thankful about. Many of their intellectual heroes excoriate and condemn America publicly. If you believe America is an evil country that was founded for the sake of the few, and has made the world worse, and allowed the rich to exploit the poor, why would you be thankful for America? Let’s look at some examples:
Howard Zinn could not say World War II was justified.
Michael Moore derides our health care system for a communist one, and hates capitalism.
Barack Obama went to the church where “G-D DA*N America!!!” was preached for 20 years.
The liberal elite mocked Reagan as a warmonger and encouraged us to live with the Soviet Union, identifying any criticism of the socialist paradise as western propaganda.
Prominent Democrats have characterized Republicans as terrorists, and some leftist pundits went so far as to say that conservatives are a greater threat to America than Islamist terrorists.
Ezra Klein, liberal wunderkind, decried any Constitutional sentimentalism, as it was so old, no one could understand anymore.
Noam Chomsky said that George Bush was worse than Osama Bin Laden. He says America picked up where the Nazis left off, and said that the most recent presidents have all been war criminals.
And there are many more examples of how liberals deride America, emphasizing the worst aspects of our history, and ignoring the best. Ask yourself a simple question – do you do this with your friends and family? Do you emphasize the worst of their character because you think it’s the most honest and best understanding of who they really are? Would you want people to do that with you?
American Exceptionalism
Few ideas differentiate between conservatives and liberals more than that of American Exceptionalism. If you truly believe that America is founded on principles and institutions that are not only good, but exceptionally better than those of other countries, wouldn’t you have to be grateful to be a citizen of such a nation? Alternately, if you believe, as Obama has opined, that American exceptionalism is relative, just as good as Italian, German or Greek exceptionalism, then at the very best, we are equal and in no way better than other countries. Why should someone be grateful of that?
That the United States has a special place in history has been an assumption among Americans since before it’s inception. Governer William Bradford first identified America as a city built on a hill, a shining example before the world – this was in the 1600s. Throughout our history, Americans believed we had a special mission to bring prosperity and freedom to the world. How would a liberal have any faith in this, knowing as they do that America was never truly living up to the standards it set forth?
The answer is simple – the liberal cannot be thankful because they do not believe in any American mission, because most do not believe in a God to give us that mission.
So liberal democrats have nothing to be thankful for in America, and no one to be thankful to - so where should a gratefulness come if they had any?
Realism Versus Utopian Idealism
What many on the Right have diagnosed of the liberal mind is that they don’t actually love America as it is. They love it as an ideal they want it to be, but isn’t. The dichotomy between the self-labeling of both parties provide an enlightening contrast. Conservatives mostly want to maintain the institutions and principles that have gotten us to where we are, because we basically believe they are good. “Progressives” believe some murky ill-conceived and undefined process is always better than where we are. Why be thankful for something you essentially believe is a failure at best, and evil at worst?
In this, we show our character – Conservatives look at America and see a glass half full, and Liberals look at it as half empty. In times like ours of entrenched partisanship, the right tends towards saying the glass is all full, and the left tends towards saying it’s completely empty.
So why be thankful?
In the end, I sincerely believe only conservatives can fully celebrate Thanksgiving without severe cognitive dissonance.
Now there have many examples of conservatives not living up to their ideals. I am not arguing that no liberal could live a mostly moral life. However, the simple fact is that conservatives have a philosophical framework that allows, if not, demands, humility and a piety before those blessings bestowed by God. Liberals have no such compunction.
So this is why the liberal cannot reasonably celebrate Thanksgiving. The conservative naturally thanks God for the blessings of liberty and prosperity granted through the establishment of our great nation that defends those rights, from an inner sense of personal obligation and sincere gratitude.
The liberal is opposite in all three characteristics of the meaning of Thanksgiving. They are hateful to our country and it’s founding, and are thankful only to themselves in the hopes that through their self-centered smug righteousness, they might redeem the evils of the world around them.
***
In this spirit, I offer the following olive branch to liberals – if you want to celebrate Thanksgiving with the rest of us, then be intellectually honest about it.
Henceforth I christen liberal Thanksgiving celebrations under the name of “Hatesgiving“!
Here are some suggestions for your Hatesgivings traditions:
1) “We, the privileged descendants of racists and eurocentric imperialists, come together on this day to pray to ourselves that we might go forth, apologizing and begging for forgiveness. We thank ourselves for our strength and fortitude in hating this evil country, founded on slavery, bathed in native blood, erected on the bones of innocents. We, holy in our smug self-regard, justified through empty slogans, thank only ourselves, in the name of the self, the ego and the sacred self-gratification.
And now the ritual wringing of hands. [all wring hands]
2) Our meal: A white pilgrim baby made from tofu, with a little pilgrim hat to signify the willingness of the participants to go through any humiliation of their ancestors to justify their race and their civilization. Other dishes include bitter pie made from unripe fruits.
[all wring hands]
3) “This bottle of tapatio hot sauce symbolizes the pepper spray our unbathed hippy brothers, sisters and otherwise suffered through the 1960s, and now again, our unbathed hipster brothers, sisters, and otherwise, suffer still. Take, shake this tapatio sauce on your tofu pilgrim baby.”
[all wring hands]
4) “This chimichanga from Taco Bell symbolizes the culture, labor and prosperity our evil country have taken from our diminutive brown brothers and sisters to the South. Take, eat this chimichanga, that someday the southern border wall might also be devoured.”
[all wring hands]
5) “This syringe, filled with methamphetamines, ecstasy, and crack cocaine, symbolizes the destruction of our health care system by the right wing Nazis who dare advocate for the remuneration of the eternal enemy of goodness, Big Pharma. Take, plunge, this syringe of revelation into the vein of subjugation.”
[all wring hands and gather in a drum circle]
You’re welcome, liberals.
***
…and just in case you think I’m making all of this up, read Why We Shouldn’t Celebrate Thanksgiving, by a leftist.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdwe4roJUM1rqx2xao1_500.jpg)
Why Liberals Shouldn’t Celebrate Thanksgiving
As our nation careens uncontrollably into another election year, we take a break again to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. Commemorating the gathering of Pilgrims and Native Americans together to give thanks to God (and/or Great Sky Spirit), this day was established as an early tradition by the 1600s, blessed by Abe Lincoln, and comes down to us as the day to take pause and reflect on our blessings.
However, not all Americans celebrate this day, and it seems to me, not all should. It is my contention that Thanksgiving is essentially a conservative holiday, and that it is philosophically and politically opposed to the beliefs of those Americans who would scurrilously assign themselves the epithet of “liberal“.
There are three important and essential elements to the holiday of Thanksgiving: what we give thanks for, from whence this thanks comes, and to whom it is given.
Conservative Americans are thankful for America and those inalienable rights it defends. This gratitude comes from a sense of humility and piety, and is specifically thankful to God for granting them. There are few things more American than this equation.
Now let us look at the Liberal.
The leftist liberal is not thankful. They don’t believe there’s anything to be thankful about. Many of their intellectual heroes excoriate and condemn America publicly. If you believe America is an evil country that was founded for the sake of the few, and has made the world worse, and allowed the rich to exploit the poor, why would you be thankful for America? Let’s look at some examples:
- Howard Zinn could not say World War II was justified.
- Michael Moore derides our health care system for a communist one, and hates capitalism.
- Barack Obama went to the church where “G-D DA*N America!!!” was preached for 20 years.
- The liberal elite mocked Reagan as a warmonger and encouraged us to live with the Soviet Union, identifying any criticism of the socialist paradise as western propaganda.
- Prominent Democrats have characterized Republicans as terrorists, and some leftist pundits went so far as to say that conservatives are a greater threat to America than Islamist terrorists.
- Ezra Klein, liberal wunderkind, decried any Constitutional sentimentalism, as it was so old, no one could understand anymore.
- Noam Chomsky said that George Bush was worse than Osama Bin Laden. He says America picked up where the Nazis left off, and said that the most recent presidents have all been war criminals.
And there are many more examples of how liberals deride America, emphasizing the worst aspects of our history, and ignoring the best. Ask yourself a simple question – do you do this with your friends and family? Do you emphasize the worst of their character because you think it’s the most honest and best understanding of who they really are? Would you want people to do that with you?
American Exceptionalism
Few ideas differentiate between conservatives and liberals more than that of American Exceptionalism. If you truly believe that America is founded on principles and institutions that are not only good, but exceptionally better than those of other countries, wouldn’t you have to be grateful to be a citizen of such a nation? Alternately, if you believe, as Obama has opined, that American exceptionalism is relative, just as good as Italian, German or Greek exceptionalism, then at the very best, we are equal and in no way better than other countries. Why should someone be grateful of that?
That the United States has a special place in history has been an assumption among Americans since before it’s inception. Governer William Bradford first identified America as a city built on a hill, a shining example before the world – this was in the 1600s. Throughout our history, Americans believed we had a special mission to bring prosperity and freedom to the world. How would a liberal have any faith in this, knowing as they do that America was never truly living up to the standards it set forth?
The answer is simple – the liberal cannot be thankful because they do not believe in any American mission, because most do not believe in a God to give us that mission.
So liberal democrats have nothing to be thankful for in America, and no one to be thankful to - so where should a gratefulness come if they had any?
Realism Versus Utopian Idealism
What many on the Right have diagnosed of the liberal mind is that they don’t actually love America as it is. They love it as an ideal they want it to be, but isn’t. The dichotomy between the self-labeling of both parties provide an enlightening contrast. Conservatives mostly want to maintain the institutions and principles that have gotten us to where we are, because we basically believe they are good. “Progressives” believe some murky ill-conceived and undefined process is always better than where we are. Why be thankful for something you essentially believe is a failure at best, and evil at worst?
In this, we show our character – Conservatives look at America and see a glass half full, and Liberals look at it as half empty. In times like ours of entrenched partisanship, the right tends towards saying the glass is all full, and the left tends towards saying it’s completely empty.
So why be thankful?
In the end, I sincerely believe only conservatives can fully celebrate Thanksgiving without severe cognitive dissonance.
Now there have many examples of conservatives not living up to their ideals. I am not arguing that no liberal could live a mostly moral life. However, the simple fact is that conservatives have a philosophical framework that allows, if not, demands, humility and a piety before those blessings bestowed by God. Liberals have no such compunction.
So this is why the liberal cannot reasonably celebrate Thanksgiving. The conservative naturally thanks God for the blessings of liberty and prosperity granted through the establishment of our great nation that defends those rights, from an inner sense of personal obligation and sincere gratitude.
The liberal is opposite in all three characteristics of the meaning of Thanksgiving. They are hateful to our country and it’s founding, and are thankful only to themselves in the hopes that through their self-centered smug righteousness, they might redeem the evils of the world around them.
***
In this spirit, I offer the following olive branch to liberals – if you want to celebrate Thanksgiving with the rest of us, then be intellectually honest about it.
Henceforth I christen liberal Thanksgiving celebrations under the name of “Hatesgiving“!
Here are some suggestions for your Hatesgivings traditions:
1) “We, the privileged descendants of racists and eurocentric imperialists, come together on this day to pray to ourselves that we might go forth, apologizing and begging for forgiveness. We thank ourselves for our strength and fortitude in hating this evil country, founded on slavery, bathed in native blood, erected on the bones of innocents. We, holy in our smug self-regard, justified through empty slogans, thank only ourselves, in the name of the self, the ego and the sacred self-gratification.
And now the ritual wringing of hands. [all wring hands]
2) Our meal: A white pilgrim baby made from tofu, with a little pilgrim hat to signify the willingness of the participants to go through any humiliation of their ancestors to justify their race and their civilization. Other dishes include bitter pie made from unripe fruits.
[all wring hands]
3) “This bottle of tapatio hot sauce symbolizes the pepper spray our unbathed hippy brothers, sisters and otherwise suffered through the 1960s, and now again, our unbathed hipster brothers, sisters, and otherwise, suffer still. Take, shake this tapatio sauce on your tofu pilgrim baby.”
[all wring hands]
4) “This chimichanga from Taco Bell symbolizes the culture, labor and prosperity our evil country have taken from our diminutive brown brothers and sisters to the South. Take, eat this chimichanga, that someday the southern border wall might also be devoured.”
[all wring hands]
5) “This syringe, filled with methamphetamines, ecstasy, and crack cocaine, symbolizes the destruction of our health care system by the right wing Nazis who dare advocate for the remuneration of the eternal enemy of goodness, Big Pharma. Take, plunge, this syringe of revelation into the vein of subjugation.”
[all wring hands and gather in a drum circle]
You’re welcome, liberals.
***
…and just in case you think I’m making all of this up, read Why We Shouldn’t Celebrate Thanksgiving, by a leftist.
![Why I Had to Step Away From Twitter, and Why I’m Back, Gringos
The evening of the election I decided to take down all the info and images on my twitter account, let it go dark, and walk away from twitter.
I hope I didn’t alarm anyone. I thought it was a good way to show just how devastating this election was to me personally, and to this country.
So I stepped away from the computer and started cleaning up. In the days leading up to the election I had built up an elegant castle of empty beer cans by my computer desk. My living room was a mess. The election had consumed a large part of my life, and I needed to just step away, cash some Koch checks, and recoup.
And sleep.
I knew that immediately everyone would blame everyone else, according to their ideological assumptions – social conservatives would say we didn’t go social enough, libertarians would say we did it too much, Ron Paulers would blame the chemtrails. I didn’t want to be a part of that. I knew most of it would just be emotional venting, and not much good would come of it.
When something this catastrophic happens, it’s best to step back, and not go with your immediate, emotional reaction.
So this is why my account went dark.
Now it’s been a week. And I’m back.
I had a lot of people demand I come back – I really appreciate it. It’s nice to be missed when you leave.
But while I was away I tried to read up on what happened in this election without commenting. It was good for me, and I recommend it any time you are faced with an enormous and devastating obstacle in your life.
So here are some conclusions:
The Romney campaign severely screwed up the digital and ground game.
The GOP needs to start seriously courting non-white votes. Not pandering. There is a difference.
Obama beat us by suppressing the vote with overwhelmingly negative ads
Put these together, along with some other lessons from this election, and it’s not hopeless.
We can win this country back.
It will be difficult. We have a lot of odds against us.
But we’re Americans dammit.
We WIN.
It’s what we DO.
If you need some encouragement, read my drunken rant from the night before the election. Also this from Rob Long at Ricochet
And if you need some laughter, listen to our podcast the morning of the election, we had a lot of fun.
I’m back, gringos.
[there are more twitter renditions of “Eye of the Tiger” to come!!!]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdgmzwyKi31rqx2xao1_500.jpg)
![The Obama team released his very very busy schedule!!! How will poor Obama stay awake during this intense trip?!?!?
When you zoom in on the map, some curious notes appear that explain how he’ll keep to his rigorous itinerary!!!!
[Click to see full-size!]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcewqdoTlN1rqx2xao1_500.jpg)
![[Click to see full-size!]](http://www.soopermexican.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/OBAMA-FLY-SCHEDULE-01.jpg){kind=link}