'I hate conservatives, but I really... hate liberals'

PE.com ^ | April 16, 2005 | BRIAN C. ANDERSON

[rwfromkansas]

Well, to be fair, I do sense Bush not being near as popular as he once was. The Republicans must accomplish some big stuff in the next year or so to counter anything bad that is still going on in 2006 (high gas prices etc.)

[RepublicMan4U]

Has anyone heard the song "Love Me, I'm a Liberal"? It was originally recorded by Phil Ochs and then lyrically updated and re-recorded by Jello Biafra and Mojo Nixon. You can Google to find the lyrics. I always found it funny because it skewers Hollywood type liberals from a leftist perspective. It pretty much depicts "liberals" as well-to-do bourguise types who like to brag about recycling and occasionally attend pro-choice rallies.

Even when I was more left-leaning myself, I was always annoyed with Hollywood/MTV type liberals because there leftism seemed so limp-wristed. They love to criticize American empirialism from the comfort of there suburban homes, but how many of them are denouncing their wealth and moving to South America to start co-ops?

[rwfromkansas]

I am a Christian conservative/evangelical who loves SP.

But then, I am also Calvinist and tend to have a very libertarian attitude toward issues of Christian liberty: cussing, drinking, smoking etc.

The sexual stuff sometimes makes me cringe, but I am used to toilet humor.

[rwfromkansas]

I didn't really get that in the episode.

It was so hilarious because I identify with it so much...the parents pushing the kids to play a dull, boring sport they don't want to play etc.

I was rolling throughout the entire ep.

[rwfromkansas]

I didn't really get that in the episode.

It was so hilarious because I identify with it so much...the parents pushing the kids to play a dull, boring sport they don't want to play etc.

I was rolling throughout the entire ep.

[elbucko]

But those critics don't get it.

I agree. They can't seem to look past the vulgarity that's used to attract a young audience to the message that's very anti-liberal.

[Steel Wolf]

In other words, one person may like South Park because it exposes the hypocricy of liberal facism, but another person may like it because it mocks people (teachers, gub'mint, religious figures) who would tell them how to behave or what they should believe is right and wrong.

I think you hit it on the head right here.

However, in many cases, it's not one or the other, it's both. The liberals are the Man, these days.

Authority should always be scrutinized. The teachers, gub'mint, and religious figures above all should be. Anyone who wants to control our lives had better be able to argue why their way is the best. If we intend to remain free, they need to assume that we'll challenge them at every turn.

Schools need teachers, nations need governments, and mankind needs spiritual leaders. But we don't need them to be unaccountable judges who do whatever they want simply because they can. (We have enough of those already). If South Park conservatism is nothing more than a movement to force people to stop being lying weasels, and expose the weasels for what they are, then it will be a wild success.

It can't really be more, and why would we want it to be anyway?

[raccoonradio]

I'm familiar with both versions of "Love Me I'm a Liberal". In the early 90s a "folk-comedy" group called the Foremen did a neat song called "I Used to Be A Liberal (But I Ain't No Liberal No More)" which sounds in some ways like a neo-con anthem, but it also kind of paints neo-cons as being hypocritical--and makes a KKK reference (oh, yeah, there weren't any _Democrats_ in the Klan. Definitely no Dem. Senators from West Virginia...er... :) )

. Read on. (From the band that also gave us "Ollie Ollie Off Scot-Free", "I'm Russian
Limbaugh (I Will Bury You)", etc.

I saw a blinding flash of light
So I pulled over to the first church on the right

And I feel so good, ain't no doubt
Wanna laugh and shout about it
'Cause I once was a liberal 1
But I ain't no liberal no more

I saw a bum on the curb today
Well, I hit the gas and covered him with gutter spray

And I feel so good, ain't no doubt
Wanna laugh and shout about it
'Cause I once was a liberal 1
But I ain't no liberal no more

My heart is jumpin' and my head is swimmin'
I feel like I could take the vote away from women

And I feel so good, ain't no doubt
Wanna laugh and shout about it
'Cause I once was a liberal 1
But I ain't no liberal no more

On that joyful day, yes on that glorious day
The day I threw my Birkenstocks away
The angel told me, "Oh, ye man of sin,
Open up your bleeding heart and let Pat Buchanan in!"

I saw a starving third world nation
So I exploited its underprivileged population

And I feel so good, ain't no doubt
Wanna laugh and shout about it
'Cause I once was a liberal 1
But I ain't no liberal no more

Now, I support all my neighbors of color
And their attempts to make that color a little duller 2

And I feel so good, ain't no doubt
Wanna laugh and shout about it
'Cause I once was a liberal 1
But I ain't no liberal no more

Oh, on that joyful day, yes on that glorious day
The day I burned up all my macramé
The angel told me what is good for GM
Is good for me, and me, and me
And the hell with the rest of them

I used to be so paranoid
But now I'm — what?!

I feel so good, ain't no doubt
Wanna laugh and shout about it
'Cause I once was a liberal 1
But I ain't no liberal
And I once was a peacenik
But I bought stock in Lockheed

And I once was a union man
But I got me this nice office

And I once was a feminist
But I just don't understand women

And I once supported rent control
But I inherited some property 3

And I once was anti-censorship
But I don't have time for fiction

And I once hated racism
But I figure, why fight it?

And I once had compassion
But I ain't no liberal no more

---

Reprise version lyric variations:

1 Because I once was a liberal

2 On the Reprise version, this couplet is replaced with:

I wanna be there when we take the streets
So I cut out two little eyeholes in my sheets

3 Then I inherited some property

[Alouette]

My name is Alouette, and I am a South Park junkie. My family thinks that I am deranged. Maybe they're right.

[SteveMcKing]

"They are the Neo-Libertarians and they will be the dominate political force in this country within twenty years."

By then, they will also start paying their own bills and won't be declared as dependents on their parent's tax form. That will draw a few of them over...

[EveningStar]

I encounter the same thing. :)

[RepublicMan4U]

Very interesting. Not too complementary of conservatives, but the song seems to lump a lot of different kinds of conservatives together. Of course, it's comedy, so I've got to cut them some slack and give them props for creativity.

I found the line "I saw a blinding flash of light/ So I pulled over to the first church on the right" particularly ironic since this tune seems to describe the more heartless, atheistic, Ayn Rand worshipping side of conservatism.

And the Buchanan reference? The song must have been written before the Republicans drummed him out.

Sorry I'm over-analyzing comedy. I found it funny. Thanks for posting.

[Wormwood]

You're in good company

[Tax-chick]

What peculiar paragraphy.

[agitator]

ping

[AnalogReigns]

I must admit, I hate Southpark, but I hate Doonsbury more...

[rdb3]

[AnalogReigns]

If conservative values stand for freedom AND a return to civility then the incredible (and yes, therefore funny) crude vulgarity of Southpark cannot be seen as conservative. Yes it points to the stupidity of the Liberal nanny-demagogues...but it also does so while ignoring (and fostering) a central part of 60s generation liberalism, namely the tolerance and even glorification of degeneracy--which is ultimately a denial of the essential dignity of (flawed) human beings, which underlies ordered liberty.

You can't laugh at the hypocrisy and inconsistancy of liberals while your sewer mouth and mind point you in the same ultimate direction.