Daily Archives: April 2, 2009

Surfing around from Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish yesterday, I followed his link to a blog which appears to be a well-executed version of something I wanted to create years ago, but didn’t have the time for. The Anonymous Liberal is a sustained, well crafted defense of the political principles that guided this country for the better part of the 20th century, but in recent decades suffered derision and slander under relentless assault, first from the radicalizing “New Left,” and, in response, from the radicalizing “Revanchist Right.” Her (or his?) take on current political events are well worth your time.

In the back of my mind, I believe if I could have shown the American masses, through a politically themed blog, that the “liberal” John Kerry was the true conservative in the 2004 presidential race — the kind of thing Anonymous Liberal does so much more effectively, rationally and dispassionately than I ever could — W. would have truly faced an “accountability moment,” and we could have been spared some of the long, national hangover we now face.

Ah, where did the time go?

Instead, working for years under a “creative director” who was an intemperate jerk, exhaustion set in. Certainly one didn’t come home at the end of the day energized to go tinkering in in the proverbial garage of the Internet. Rather, one took one’s comforts in draughts of chilled vodka, the companionship of friends or MSNBC, the contentment of a well-made and (in large part) peaceful marriage.

Now we face the task of not just reinventing ourselves, but reinventing ourselves while the economy around us faces major renovations as well. Who will be better positioned to thrive in the coming uncertain decades, the schoolteacher or the banker? The graphic artist or the writer? The large foundation executive or the entrepreneur? The Congressional aide-de-camp or the assistant vice president?

The life we want is out there. We confront a seeming luxury of choices. Still opportunity narrowly escapes our grasp.