George Clooney

I read this morning what George Clooney wrote for The Huffington Post and cheered!

I Am a Liberal. There, I Said It!
I am a liberal. And I make no apologies for it. Hell, I'm proud of it.
Too many people run away from the label. They whisper it like you'd whisper "I'm a Nazi." Like it's dirty word. But turn away from saying "I'm a liberal" and it's like you're turning away from saying that blacks should be allowed to sit in the front of the bus, that women should be able to vote and get paid the same as a man, that McCarthy was wrong, that Vietnam was a mistake. And that Saddam Hussein had no ties to al-Qaeda and had nothing to do with 9/11.
This is an incredibly polarized time (wonder how that happened?). But I find that, more and more, people are trying to find things we can agree on. And, for me, one of the things we absolutely need to agree on is the idea that we're all allowed to question authority. We have to agree that it's not unpatriotic to hold our leaders accountable and to speak out.
That's one of the things that drew me to making a film about Murrow. When you hear Murrow say, "We mustn't confuse dissent with disloyalty" and "We can't defend freedom at home by deserting it at home," it's like he's commenting on today's headlines.
The fear of been criticized can be paralyzing. Just look at the way so many Democrats caved in the run up to the war. In 2003, a lot of us were saying, where is the link between Saddam and bin Laden? What does Iraq have to do with 9/11? We knew it was bullshit. Which is why it drives me crazy to hear all these Democrats saying, "We were misled." It makes me want to shout, "Fuck you, you weren't misled. You were afraid of being called unpatriotic."
Bottom line: it's not merely our right to question our government, it's our duty. Whatever the consequences. We can't demand freedom of speech then turn around and say, But please don't say bad things about us. You gotta be a grown up and take your hits.
I am a liberal. Fire away.

It said many of the same things my family and friends have discussed between us for years. We wondered why we would know there were no WMD and shouldn’t be invading Iraq and that our elected officials didn’t. Were we more intelligent than they or what? My answer is... there was no way I would have been ‘misled’ simply because I never believed a single word this ‘chickenhawk’ thug living in the White House has spoken. Why would I trust someone who had to STEAL BOTH elections? Me, a liberal Kennedy Democrat! I imagine Barry Goldwater must be spinning in his grave seeing how his Republican party has been taken over by neo-con fascists! Even he wasn’t this hardcore!

Clooney was right about “too many people run away from the label.” The word liberal. It started back with Michael Dukakis and no Democrat seems to want the word attached to them anymore. I am proud of being a liberal, too.

I would hope that Democrats who are liberal would stand up and say it with pride and not be fearful of getting labeled ‘unpatriotic.’ Who gives a shit what the right-wing, neo-con fascists thugs in the Republican party label us? Quit cowering. Start questioning. Return our country back to the way it should be.

Republican President Theodore Roosevelt made a statement of which part of it says: “To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.” I want my liberal Democratic lawmakers to take this and run with it. Start questioning and stop fearing. As I write this I read that Democrats are distancing themselves from Senator Feingold in his attempt to censure Bush over domestic spying. Here goes that fear again...damn! Shame on Democrats who won’t stand with him.

Thank you, George Clooney, for sharing your thoughts.