The Liberal's Cinderella Moment

Remember those moralistic stories that you were told as a kid like Peter & the Wolf or how about those great stories that Disney tells. Cinderella was my favorite because her life was really unfair but she did the right thing and eventually a fairy godmother came out of the woodwork. She experienced the ultimate payback - marrying a prince and living well. Oh and the bad guys - the stepmother and stepsisters - got their just deserts! So I learned early on that eventually karma comes around and rewards the good guys and stomps on the bad guys.

So nice and black and white. Too bad life isn't really like that. Well, maybe it is, karma just has a longer life span than humans. I learned recently that the Democratic party had a Cinderella moment a few generations ago. In 1964, under the administration of President Johnson (D) following the precedent laid down by John Kennedy (D), the most important piece of civil rights legislation in the nation's history was passed into law. Despite an 83 day filibuster in the Senate led by conservatives and segregationists, both parties in Congress voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Act and President Johnson signed the bill into law on July 2, 1964.

When he signed the bill into law, Johnson noted that the Democrats would loose the South (and therefore the majority) for the next generation or two. And sure enough, another Democrat was not elected nationally until Carter in 1977 and then Clinton in 1993. So even though the Democrats knew that they would suffer the consequences of loosing power for years to come, they did it anyway because it was the right thing to do.

This is unique to the liberal mindset. While not every liberal is willing to give up control in order to do something that needs to be done, it is rarer for those of the conservative persuasion and would not even be an option for the Republicans in power today.

Using the Cinderella fairy tale as a template here, there will eventually be rewarding payback for supporting the will of the people and the bad guys that further the agenda of the 1% will get their just deserts.

Eventually just may take awhile.