On Facebook, I have my political beliefs box checked as "Other". I was hesitant to do this, since a lot of the people who check it are simply uninformed and afraid to express an opinion, hiding behind sentiments like "I don't like to label myself". But until Facebook responds to one of the many petitions for expanding the list, "Other" is how I'll stay. I think the closest approximation of my beliefs is actually libertarian socialism or anarcho-socialism, a la Chomsky. I am very careful to distingusih myself from the "very liberal" crowd, and here's why.

I have an acquaintance who, to me, represents everything that's wrong with the current state of the left and everything that the average person hates about 'liberalism'. Every couple of days, without fail, he posts a news article from Counterpunch on Facebook, followed by some incoherent sloganeering. He rails against globalization, but supports illegal immigration. He rails in support of women's rights, but defends Muslim society with statements about cultural sensitivity and tirades against racism. He bemoans the lack of education and opportunities afforded to African-Americans, but defends ebonics as integral to their culture and criticizes Obama for 'acting white'. When the Imus fiasco broke out, he posted a rant calling for not only his firing but fines and incarceration. When some people suggested that this may be inconsistent with freedom of speech, he shot back with "how can you talk about freedom of speech? what about the people in Guantanamo? Where's THEIR freedom of speech? Racism isn't freedom of speech!"

I'd like nothing more to believe that people like this are a minority. Conservatives, on the other hand, probably do actually beileve that all liberals and Democrats are like this and worse. The truth, unfortunately is somewhere in between. The majority of middle-class liberals I've known perhaps aren't quite as strident, but they often share the same sense of inconsistency, giving off the impression that they haven't given a lot of thought to their ideas, but simply swallowed a platform wholesale. I grew up in the PC 90's, and now, looking back, there were times that this climate made me veer dangerously close to becoming a Republican. I thought and still think that affirmative action was a terrible idea, that policing speech and censoring everything because someone might get 'offended' is idiotic and that people should grow thicker skins, and that the rejection of all objective values like intelligence and achievement in favor of 'cultural relativism' was anathema to civilization. I was an immigrant from the USSR, just as poor and even more of an outsider than the Blacks and Hispanics in my neighborhood. But to the PC crowd I was just another 'white male'. Where was my special hyphenated label? My 'socio-economic background', not much better than that of my peers, didn't stop me from getting straight A's and a full (private) scholarship to a private college. If Bush had not been elected, I very well may have ended up being a Republican of some sort. But these past 6 years made me realize that annoying hippies who insist on PC language and condescending policies are far preferrable to psychotic fundamentalists who launch disastrous wars.

However, there are a ton of people on whom this realization has not yet dawned, or in whom the irriation at PC liberalism has become so entrenched that they will make excuses to continue supporting the other side. They are not fundamentalists (and probably not very religious at al) or war-mongering ideologues. I am talking broadly about urban and suburban middle-class people and also immigrants who fall into this category, on whom PC language is completely lost. Then there are the 'young Republicans,' many of whom don't have firmly entrenched conservative values but just think they're rebelling against the stereotype of standard college liberals and would be embarassed to associate themselves with that group of theater majors waving posters of Che and shouting ridiculous slogans on the quad.

THESE are the people that the Democrats should be worried about winning over, because the rural evangelicals are already lost, and are not that large a segment to begin with. And unlike the latter, which the Democrats try to woo by shifting to the right (why not just have one party then?), these people can actually be won over by shifting to the LEFT. Unfortunately, most liberals have a skewed understanding of what 'left' actually means. They focus on issues like race and gender differences without understanding that these are economic in nature. Instead of trying to improve society towards a given ideal, they encourage its endless splinetring based on identity politics. They go on ridiculous crusades against vaguely defined ideas like 'hate' without bothering to realize that these, too, are economic in nature.

Of course, my criticisms stem from Marxism. But there was a reason that Marx's ideas appealed to so many people. The fact that 'socialism' has become anathema in the US doesn't mean as much as you think. In spite of themselves, most of the working and middle classes would in theory agree with socialist ideas without recognizing as such. So just don't call it socialism. Focus on economic disparity. Focus on education. Focus on healthcare. Focus on sound foreign policy. Don't focus on warm and fuzzy slogans. Don't focus on meaningless statements like "no human is illegal" when you know damn well that endless immigration is unsustainable and actually helps the corporations fill their pocket more than it helps the immigrants or anyone else. And for crying out loud, don't start crusading for gay marriage when you could temporarily settle for civil unions (which most Americans would support), because under the Republicans, you won't have either.

Overall, liberalism needs to lose its association with meaningless garbage like 'pride parades', 'days of silence', the policing of speech, and over-senstivity, and needs to regain its association with worker's strikes, student movements, and other examples of people actually doing things to impact their lives.