Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

Not like he ever really gets the opportunity to forget this, readership, but Comrade Kevin lives in a fairly conservative part of the county. Alabama middle-class suburban residents often lend their support to Libertarians in times such as these as a sign of rebellion, protest, and dissatisfaction with the current slate of candidates. Their true colors show in times like this, times when they figure they have nothing else to lose.

Forgive me for being blunt, but to these eyes, the libertarian political persuasion is a viewpoint so very close to logic, and yet so far away from sense at the same time. I ought to know this better than most due to the fact I grew up with a libertarian father. Some months back, in a conversation I had with fellow bloggers, someone described Libertarianism as attractive at first glance, that is, of course, until you closely examine the postulates.

I've said this once, and I'll say it again. The irony of many ironies is that most white Alabamians, though they vote GOP, are really libertarians. The idea of small government and limited government interference with one's personal life and affairs are political viewpoints which are quite widespread and popular amongst the masses. In areas like the city in which I live, Hoover, people have enough education to realize this.

The city I live in is more liberal than say, Dog Patch, but far less liberal than any town in a blue state. Suburbia is at least more educated than Podunksville, and so I am grateful for small favors.

Let me tell you, I get down on my hands and knees everyday and give thanks for the fact that I was never raised in the small town South. Scarily enough, this could have very easily been a reality. Had my father gotten his way, I would have spent most of my formative years in a backwoods rural county and I can safely say I would have managed to feel even more isolated, alien, and alone then I did already.

Like David Cross said, "Can you imagine me trying to fit in with a guy named Skeeter?"

Your humble narrator has seen many signs around these here parts that say: "Annoy the Media, Vote Ron Paul 2008." I agree that such an action would definitely annoy the media, if by media you mean Faux News. I'm not exactly sure how the rest of the so-called liberal media would react to a Paul presidency, but I'm not going to even entertain such an silly fantasy.

If I lived in a more liberal part of the country, I might very well see Kucinich stickers thrown up every so few yards as a means of protest. Speaking of which, this Southern boy took a trip to Boston a couple years back in which he encountered absolutely zero W stickers. It was a comforting, yet utterly bizarre experience. Culture shock max factor one.

Comrade Kevin grew up in an area where David Bowie is thought of as a degenerate, the female condom is an exotic concept, vegetables are mushy and over-salted, LGBT folk are either invisible or quietly out, and intercourse is punctuated by a steady diet of missionary, missionary, lather, repeat, rinse.

That being said, I was very naive, uninformed, and unaware of the sort of minutia that characterizes radical leftist activist politics until I reached my earlier twenties. Rest assured that my eyes were opened. Here, the left is easily stereotyped as passive, weak, peace-loving, meek, and generally so mild as to be inconsequential. Radical politics I associated with a time long since past. I wasn't aware the left had the same kind of ugly anger to it that I associated with a few batshit crazy ultra-conservative wingnuts who didn't celebrate Halloween.

Instead, this is what I discovered.