Written by a man with an anger management problem....

That doesn't judge the truth, just the tone and intent.

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
From Harvey Wasserman:

Those who hate "liberals" really hate a free America
June 1, 2004

The rightist "conservative" media moguls who hate "liberals" actually
hate a free America.

Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, Hannity and O'Reilly, the Weekly Standard
and Wall Street Journal---they all rant at some unspecified species
allegedly left of center.

But right from its birth, America has been the very definition of a
liberal nation.

Today's Foxist ditto-heads would have hated all America's founders:
Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Paine, and even the
father of the modern corporate state, Alexander Hamilton.

All were liberals, both classic and modern. The documents they
wrote---the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of
Rights---all were the definition of liberal. Rush's "conservative"
rightists would have hated them then. And though they won't admit it,
they hate them now.

As for ending slavery, Ann Coulter would have SCREAMED at Abe Lincoln.
The Emancipation Proclamation would have INFURIATED Hannity. The
Gettysburg Address would have ENRAGED O'Reilly.

And don't even MENTION the environmentalism of U.S. Grant or Teddy
Roosevelt.

But lets start with Ben Franklin, the true father of our country. This
ultimate Enlightenment genius was the western world's most famous
citizen. The man who defined electricity was America's leading writer,
publisher, diplomat and humorist. "Poor Richard's Almanac" was one of
the world's most influential publications. Franklin helped found so many
institutions---public libraries, post offices, insurance companies---and
made so many inventions---like the lightning rod and Franklin
stove---that his vita fills whole books.

He was the only man to sign the Big Three: The Declaration, the Treaty
of Paris (which sealed the Revolution's victory) and the Constitution.

Ben Franklin was also the ultimate liberal. He signed the first
abolitionist petition to Congress. Supremely tolerant, he loved
beautiful women, fine food, and the French. He believed in freedom,
diversity, the Enlightenment, and progress. He spoke with amusement of
the wild oats he sowed as a youth, and of "the ladies" he courted while
seducing France into helping the young America free itself from the
British.

Can you hear Rush's blood boil? Can you taste Ann Coulter's venom
spewing through the centuries?

Then there's Tom Jefferson: brilliant, learned, master architect,
ultimate phrase turner, Lockean liberal. Nobody stoked the leftist
rhetoric of revolution and democracy, equality and progress better than
Jefferson. He was a slave-owner, which the right would have liked. But
he also consorted with one, the spirited Sally Hemmings, with whom he
had at least three children. Can you hear Jerry Falwell SCREAM!!!

Then that shrimpy James Madison, spouting off about human liberties,
combing the state constitutions to draft that ultimate liberal screed,
the Bill of Rights. Hannity would have declared it "obsolete" at birth.
If there's one document the conservatives hate most of all, it's Jamie
Madison's Ten Commandments of civil rights and liberty.

Even George Washington, the ultimate war hero, stood his ground on a
free America. When offered the dictatorship, he refused, saying America
should remain a republic. Can you imagine George Bush, who never saw
battle, doing the same?

To top it off, the master of Mount Vernon took enormous pains to make
sure his slaves were freed and well cared for upon his death. What a
bleeding heart!

As for Hamilton, the darling of the early corporations was born a
*******. He was a monarchist, which the National Review would have
liked. He set the foundation for the modern American industrial state,
from which Murdoch still profits.

But like Bill Clinton, Hamilton was also forced to admit to an
extra-marital affair. And---can you believe it---he was an abolitionist!
He opposed slavery!! Fox News is howling!!!

Even John Adams, staunch federalist, distruster of the people, supported
the Bill of Rights. When Haitian slaves staged the world's second
anti-imperial revolution, Adams stood by them. He even made national
headlines by having a man of color to dinner! The Wall Street Journal
edit page would have gone ballistic!

And that feminist wife of his, that Hillary....er Abigail Adams. Rush
would have branded her the ultimate femi-nazi.

Throw in Abe Lincoln, that liberal ACLU-type lawyer, fighting a war to
free black people, telling the southerners they can't secede. A damn
totalitarian, right O'Reilly?

Then U.S. Grant, who established Yellowstone Park, and Teddy Roosevelt
who fought for so many more like it. Wimps! Greenies!! Bleeding
hearts!!! Eco-Terrorists!!!!

Put it all together and you have a group of pointy-headed liberal
geniuses whose Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of
Rights, Emancipation Proclamation, national parks and much much more
remain the liberal bulwark of world freedom---unless the America-haters
can destroy them. Unless the new George III can use the sword of terror
to stab America's liberal heart.

The word "Christian" does not appear in the Constitution, no matter what
Pat Robertson says. Most of the founders were Deists. They believed a
divine being set this world in motion and then set the laws of nature
free to work their magic.

Most of all the Founding Fathers hated---UNANIMOUSLY---the idea of an
official church, or a bunch of self-appointed bigots telling everyone
else what to believe.

They bitterly opposed theocrats like Falwell and Robertson who forever
preach that those who question the corporate church-state are traitors.
In the Foxist world, diversity itself is intolerable.

But it was precisely that diversity the Founding Fathers wrote the Bill
of Rights to protect.

In short, they were LIBERALS. And the nation they so successfully
spawned has always been just that---LIBERAL.

So when we hear extremists like Limbaugh and Coulter, Hannity and
O'Reilly howling away, we know it's not just liberals they hate. It's
the free, diverse, tolerant nation the Founding Fathers created. The one
whose liberal Bill of Rights lets even Foxist America-haters make
oxy-morons of themselves all day, everyday.

That's how Ben and Tom and his liberal pals wanted it. May it always be
thus.