Losing battle

Looking at American politics over time you see an overlying trend that has never deviated, except in the most trying times. This country, after founded with liberal rooting in religious freedom, has proceeded to march undeterred into liberal territory. The conservatives of today often turn out to be the forgotten or demonized of tomorrow, and for that sacrifice, they should be lauded. This is why the right is such a hateful and vocal minority. They are losing ground every second as the river of change flows on, simply slowed by their vain efforts.

Those who stood against the American Revolution, the emancipation proclamation, restrictions on the monopolies of the robber-barons, women's suffrage movement, Social Security, Medicare and minority voting rights are the parents and grandparents you'd be embarrassed to mention.

Now the conservatives are making a stand with gay marriage. Sure, they will be able to slow the movement's progress, but gay rights will happen, just later rather than sooner. Those people will be embarrassed to say in 40 years that they stood against gay rights just as nobody will admit today that they were against the civil rights movement. Only the most feckless conservative would say that they mourned the day the Jim Crow laws were abolished. Democrat and Republican conservatives stood against the tide of change, against the civil rights which we now couldn't imagine losing. Are those people heroes now or do we respect the Martin Luther King's and JFK's over the Strom Thurmond's and John Stennis'?

From fighting against black voting powers, to the women's right to vote, to the abolition of slavery, we see that as time passes, the conservative agendas of the past grow increasingly repulsive. These agendas produced no lasting heroes. We laud the accomplishments of Susan B. Anthony but who can remember a soul who stood against her movement? The conservative hero is one for an era while the liberal is one for the ages. The conservative champion ultimately fails because of the nature of his cause. He is forgotten as his cause ferments into the future. The list of liberal American heroes is endless, but who can name a conservative hero from the past? They do not exist. Ronald Reagan may hold that standing now, but time has not yet taken its toll on the man's conservative image.

A conservative stands against the tides of change, fighting for the status quo, fighting for those white men that think that things could only get worse because things are so darn good now. All the conservative can hope to do is slow the unstoppable momentum of change. From Jesus, to Martin Luther, to Thomas Paine, to Frederick Douglas, to Teddy Roosevelt, to FDR, to Martin Luther King, the liberal is an enabler of change who sees that there is work yet to be done and that society can improve. There is work left to be done and America's future does not lie in the past.