Anyway, the point of this post is to talk a little bit about the disconnect between liberal politics and the way they actually live their life. The book, Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy, shows quite clearly the way prominent liberals say one thing and live something else, but I think we can all easily find evidence of liberal hypocrisy in the people we encounter every day.

Nowhere was this disconnect more clear to me than in my last job. As you may know, I live in Los Angeles. West Los Angeles. Land of Hollywood movie stars and yuppie Santa Monica liberals. I'm like a lone red dot in a sea of blue here.

My first job was essentially working for the Republican Party (national and state as well as local candidates) so obviously I was surrounded by the few other red dots that exist here in LA. Since it's California they were obviously relatively moderate for the most part and in general they preached what they lived. They were extremely giving, generous people who also enjoyed the benefits of capitalism (like shopping) and espoused capitalist and libertarian values for the most part.

At my second job we never really discussed politics and I got the feeling that most of the people there weren't too involved or even interested in politics. There was the John Kerry fundraiser guy, of course, but he was a REALLY nice guy, didn't come across as money hungry at all and was truly committed to the causes he espoused. By committed I mean, he did real tangible things such as...working for the Kerry campaign and consistently worked with his uncle to donate money to various causes.

Hm...now that I think about it there was that ONE guy that was all "Bush is a dumb monkey and Republicans are evil" but he came across as more of a "it's cool to bash Bush" liberal than a truly committed one.

Anyway, onto the last job I had. As I've mentioned before, I was recruiting for what is essentially a staffing company and although at first they try to sell you on being a "customer service" company, the truth is they are a sales organization. The salespeople are "selling" to companies and the recruiters are "selling" to the candidates. The reason we had to "sell" people jobs is because it felt like for the most part the companies that used us had not so great jobs that paid pretty poorly and were HARD to fill because who wants a job like that? So basically, what everyone did there was sell in one form or another.

I must say there was a decent mix of "conservatives" and "liberals" amongst my small group of coworkers there. But of course, this being LA, more people were liberal than not. It was just really interesting seeing these "committed" liberals talk about politics and policies and then see them turn around and live by a completely different set of values.

I don't think I'm explaining myself very well so far, kinda all over the place, but let me try to elucidate. The Democrats/liberals are generally seen as the "Mommy" party because they believe the best in people, they want to hug you and kiss your booboos when you fall down, or comfort you when you bomb a big test. Liberals are supposed to trust people and believe that people won't take advantage of social programs. Everyone is a victim. Corporations are the oppressors.

So it was really interesting for me to see these liberals I worked with talk about politics and then turn around and live something else out in their lives. I was once told by one liberal coworker "You need to build relationships in this job, but you can't let people use the relationship, you need to be the one using it for YOUR benefit." That's not even a conservative statement, that's something beyond, in my opinion. Or always hearing we weren't really there to help people but to make money. Isn't that what liberals are supposed to be against? What's going on here? It's like my "liberal" war-hating cousin who works for Northrop.

The funny thing is a lot of conservatives that I know actually live by pretty liberal values in their personal lives. But I think this is actually the best way to live. In your personal life you should be trusting and helpful and believe the best in people. However, on a governmental level we cannot afford to be so giving and generous. Why? Because people love to freeload, especially when they have no idea who they're actually hurting.

Okay, that was pretty convoluted and rambly but whatever. Just another day, just another case of verbal diarrhea.