Flip Flopping

I see more and more “Jesus Freak” t-shirts around. I remember when the phrase first came out it was a derogatory term for the nuts who were “reborn”. People avoided them at all costs, because each was preachy in that quiet singsong voice and they were boring as hell. Many were addictive personalities who had just redirected their excesses to religion. They had been big drug users or nymphomaniacs before their conversion and now they threw themselves into worrying about the afterlife. But lately, I see what was once an accurate insult has been turned into a statement uttered with pride.

So too, the term “vast right wing conspiracy” has been turned into a badge of honor by similar folks. Just google the term and you can see all the right wing pundits who are proud as peacocks to be identified with that term.

I cannot believe that Kerry didn’t co-opt the term flip flopper and use it to his advantage. He should have emphasized his ability to be reasoned with and to change his opinion. The bravest thing he ever did besides going to Vietnam was contributing to the effort to get the country out of it when he saw it was a quagmire. Like all politicians, in time he sold out to contributors with special requests. It was impossible to speak his mind and still please everyone he was beholden to so he adopted the politician's technique of not saying anything that could be pinned down. The Democrats that did well in the election were those that took a stand against the war. According to Peter Phillips, Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University and Director of Project Censored, “November 2 gave us a choice between war and more war, corporate globalization and more corporate globalization; the continuation of gifting billions of dollars to Israel, the Patriot Act and an expanded Patriot Act; a police state and a seriously growing police state, media monopoly and even bigger media monopolies; and wealth inequality or an even greater wealth divide. With the only alternative to these issues being minor candidates without a snowball's chance, for many voting seemed meaningless.”

I too have flip flopped on many issues. Things that I never questioned as a youth no longer seemed fair to me later. Education has a way of doing that so it is no wonder the Religious Right wants to strangle public education. In all cases, listening to and reading different opinions changed my mind. Does that make me weak and a flip flopper? Had I listened to my parents and adopted their ideas, I would still believe Edward R. Murrow was a Communist, blacks and women were inferior to white males, unions are Communist, Martin Luther King was Communist, Hollywood is Communist (actually the more I think about this, my parents were paranoid about Communism). I have no doubt that soon the term “terrorist” or “un-american” or “unpatriotic” will be used to silence dissent – oh, look, it already is.