Saturday, July 02, 2011

It seems to me that liberals using "hippies" and "DFH" and so on to refer to themselves, and "Very Serious People" to refer to the Republicans and "centrist" High Broderians, is bad politics. It's a self-inflicted wound and it's time to stop shooting ourselves.

I know that we liberals like to be ironic, but let's dial it back, shall we?

How about we start the fight for a reversal of the labels? I propose "the new serious party" and "the new hippie party."

The new serious party is the party that is interested in facts, science, rational debate, intellectual achievement, and so on. The new hippie party is the party that has abandoned all of these things in favor of a simpleminded ideology that can be reduced to sound bites.

In the 1960s-70s the hippie sound bites were "make love not war" "tune in turn on drop out" "stick it to the man" and other nice-sounding but ultimately wrongheaded phrases.

In the 2010s, the new hippie sound bites are "cut taxes" "eliminate regulations" "get the government out of medicare" and other nice-sounding but ultimately wrongheaded phrases.

Every time Mitt Romney says "cut taxes," I want people to think "just another weirdo hippie with no real ideas!" Don't you?