538 Ways to Live, Work and Play Like a Liberal.
Copyright 2010 by Justin Krebs
ISBN 978-1-60239-982-2
Skyhorse Publishing, New York, New York
I have a few conservative acquaintances. However, they seem to be very "me" oriented. Conversations tend to be about their own lives, their own careers, their own homes, and their own struggles.
And yet, for all of the self-focus, my conservative friends don't seem to be getting very far. A tract home in some luckless suburb and a life of secretive desperation is the best they can do.
Last week I bumped into one of these desperate people at the fix-it-yourself store. You know, it's the store that says, "You can do it, we can help." I didn't want to be bad-mannered, so I simply said hello. The conservative acquaintance said, "You must be mistaking me for someone else."
Today, there are conservatives who are too embarrassed that they can't afford union plumbers and that they, the McMansion owners, are going to try to effect plumbing repairs on their own.
So, it ended up: "You must be mistaking me for someone else."
I simply said, "O.K." Then, I quickly went on my own shopping errands having met my social obligation to acknowledge another human being's presence.
A few conservative acquaintances have declared bankruptcy due to high medical bills. A few have lost their homes in foreclosure because multiple, part-time, minimum wage jobs were not enough to make the mortgage payments.
Today, many conservatives are physically and mentally exhausted. They're struggling in additional ill-fated ways too numerous to mention.
There comes a point when I have little left to say to these conservatives whom I call K-Mart Republicans. As with some gays, K-Mart Republicans are people who get down on their knees and beg to belong to Republican organizations that will never represent them. In short, a K-Mart Republican is often a middle class evangelical who offers prayers--prayers that petition God to cut the supplicant's own head off.
On the other hand, there are liberals. Justin Krebs, author, is a proud American liberal. I subscribe to Kreb's view of the liberal described on page 2 of his book, 538 Ways to Live, Work, and Play:
Liberals believe that we are better off when we live
for each other than when we live only for ourselves.
The book does a good job of defining what it really means to be a liberal from a liberal point of view. 538 items are listed in the back of the book. In short, being a liberal is about making the world a better place, but not exclusively for yourself. If you are a struggling and suffering conservative, living a life filled with hopelessness and despair, stranded in a far-suburban wilderness where streets have no sidewalks, after being sold a conservative castle in the sky, this book might be for you.
(The following link goes to the book at Amazon.)
538 Ways to Live, Work, and Play Like a Liberal
