Liberals have changed in the last two generations. I am witness to what they really meant, and they did not mean for it to go this far....
Brookline Massachusetts, 1970’s and 80’s. I made an afternoon play date with Sarah, we walked from Runkle school to her lovely home on Clark road, her mom was there of course, it was about 2:30 in the afternoon, and Mrs. Stein greeted us warmly. She had just returned from a “vote Businger for local council” meeting, and was starting to get supper ready. Tonight she would serve chile, she made great suppers. Sarah and I did some homework, then at 5:30 I heeded my mom’s curfew and headed home. It was just mom, myself and my brother, as dad passed away when we were little. So we did not live on Clark Road, but in a rent controlled apartment across from Dean Park. My mom had a job that was perfect for a woman: school hours and off in the summers, she was always there for us, of course. So I did not have a dad nor did I have a large home, but normal still was, a mom, a dad, mom is there for you, Dad provides the income, mom provides the soul.
“Perfect for a woman”, that would soon sound sexist and therefore reprehensible. But that was still an age when society understood that there are jobs that women are good at and therefore engineered for part time and summer-off hours. We thrived because of that “sexism”.
“Family values” were something we took for granted - mom nurtures, dad provides. Take a stroll from Runkle school down Wiliston Road, left on Cotswold and right onto Clark, the place is graced with lovely homes and moms available to care for their homes and their families, while busying themselves with enriching projects. Moms and dads were not interchangeable, each one would complement the other and add to the happiness of the family.
If I had stayed that day to eat Mrs. Stein’s great chile, Mr. Stein would have returned home at about 6:30 pm, greeted me kindly (people back then knew that if you did not have a dad they should be extra nice to you, because you were missing something vital), sat at the head of the table, and asked his wife for an update on local Brookline politics. It was nice, the contrast between a mom and a dad, an assumption as sturdy as stately Brookline homes, family would never be lost, right?
Liberals back then did not know what they were about to lose. They are now age 70 plus, and were part of well-intentioned innovations that ended up ruining people slowly.
“Unplanned” back then meant - a sexually active woman misses her period, runs to the doctor, and undoes what she did not intend to do within a couple of weeks. I am telling you, they did not intend abortion rights to go this far. It really meant unplanned conception, not unplanned girl-I-wanted -a -boy, or, I-feel-stressed-7-months-into-this.
If you know Brookline in the 70’s then you are acquainted with the “Smiths” - they had not been able to have children, then in their late 30’s adopted twin girls, then a year later Mrs. Smith gave birth to a girl, and a year later another! You see, after the adoption, she was feeling run down (twins mean sleep is optional), her doctor found a hormonal problem, prescribed meds, and voila, two miracle pregnancies followed. Perhaps she had always had this problem, but it just went undetected because her previous lifestyle meant she did not have to watch her health so closely. Perhaps had been able to rest whenever needed, and then with the adoption of the twins, just had to have necessary energy. So, at the age of forty, this couple had four girls under the age of four! And they changed the face of Brookline culture and politics, this family has been active in so many areas, all of them, every single one, had something valuable to offer.
Those twin girls were born before abortion rights. I shudder to think what would have been lost if the Smiths had carried on alone, no babies to adopt. The pain of an unplanned pregnancy and adoption in which the birth mother surely was sad to give them up, turned into precious gifts that continue to touch countless lives. You think you are nice being pro-choice. Please reconsider that “niceness”.
In order to be the liberal of the 70’s and 80’s you need to be conservative today. Brandon Straka attests to this painful shift in that tear-jerking groundbreaking video “once upon a time, I was a liberal”.
Liberals started tying their tongues into politically correct knots in which you could not even consider ideas related to “family values”. Dad died? The attitude would soon be: mom can work full time like anyone, since men and women are “equal” and thus interchangeable.
Feminism started declaring that women can do it all, so let me ask, how can a man feel valuable as a husband or father if women can do it all? Did anyone stop to consider that men need the chivalrous vital role as husband, provider, father, protector in order to feel good about themselves. Now, as a wife and mother of sons, I have noticed that they do seem to need to be fed meals on time. That part always surprises me. Men will neglect themselves. They just may need to be cared for.
Lapsed Catholics, lapsed orthodox Jews, former blue collar - I also started noticing that Brookline liberal adults in the 1970’s had in fact grown up in religious or conservative homes. This was the first generation, this liberal experiment. None of them were nurtured by liberal values, they were toying with something new. Abortion rights were new, feminism in that form was new.
I finally asked, “how do you have a strong family”, and when I did, I realized I was no longer liberal. That is not a liberal question to ask.
I had to turn to the first religious people I knew with that question - the religious Christians whom I met at college. You could not ask liberals, as they were now too intimidated by political correctness to respond.
I noticed that gender role differentiation is in fact vital to familial, social, and psychological health.
The sad hypocrisy however was our liberal assumption that inner city minorities needed welfare for all their inevitable single moms, and of course they needed abortions. We did not consider the sinister racism of this!
Why did we not export the strong family that we were enjoying? Because liberal tongues had been tied into knots. We were living out family values that stemmed from the Bible, but could no longer be articulated.
Liberals could not encourage men in poorer neighborhoods to shore up their manhood as protective husbands and fathers.
They could not encourage women to choose a husband wisely because the book of Psalms predicts, “he is your master and you will bow to him.” Bow? Never! But being part of a family does mean bowing, you are part of a greater whole, you are not here to assert yourself constantly. And the respectful place for a man at the head of the family gives him a confidence he needs, focusing his masculinity, transforming it into kindness. This "bowing" is actually the finest form of empowerment, because you are not deluding yourself into thinking you are poised for a lifetime of debate, for for complementary roles, and you will thus choose a partner with more wisdom.
Liberals meant well, I am witness to that. They did not know where this would lead, many expected to be grandparents by age 50, and they were not.
Have compassion for them
#liberal #leftist
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