February 21, 2009

"Love Me, Love Me, Love Me, I'm a Liberal."

This morning, we were talking about the attitudes of liberals and that got us quoting the old Phil Ochs song "Love Me, Love Me, Love Me, I'm a Liberal." Listen to it, and let's talk about the old song and the attitudes of liberals. They just want to be loved. Isn't that sweet of them?

73 comments:

CCMCornell said...

Then why do they make me hit them?

Anonymous said...

Because its tough love they want.

traditionalguy said...

I love you liberals. Telling you the Truth about things as I see them is a form of love.I will even listen to you and learn the new liberal philosophy in vogue this 20 years until it is revealed to be lacking by the next 20 year's liberal philosophy under the sun.

Anonymous said...

So my wallet isn't enough, now they want my heart too?

Paul said...

Yes love me even though I'm brimming over with streaming demonic hatred for George Bush, Sarah Palin, conservatives, Republicans, Capitalism, America, Western civilization.....

Steve M. Galbraith said...

Well, they're so easy to love too.

As they say and practice, "Don't be judgmental of others."

Unless the others draw stupid cartoons that make little sense but if you squint you can see nefarious racist stereotypes in them.

In that case, all of that talk about not being judgmental? Fughet about it.

rhhardin said...

I liked Jim and Jean's cover of The Crucifixion. (real audio)

It gets more into the audience for liberalism.

Who was the lady that the chimp attacked for the sin of having a pet.

garage mahal said...

I guess I missed all those liberals asking you to love them. I don't want to be loved. Matter of fact, I'd appreciate it if you try your hardest NOT to.

KCFleming said...

You're right, grage. They aren't asking for social approval from me, but from the right sort of people.

They're seeking a pat on the head for having all the right beliefs; a form of buying indulgences.

Anonymous said...

Oh garage, don't flatter yourself, it's not that hard not to love you.

Anyway, it's not love they want, it's admiration to compensate for a lack of self esteem. "See how caring I am!" "My thoughts are so nuanced!"

Ron said...

To hell with the liberals; if there are songs about libertarians that involve dancing, I claim dibs on the tall econo-blogger from the Atlantic...

What good "law" songs are there? Outside of "I fought the law", of course.

Steve M. Galbraith said...

I guess I missed all those liberals asking you to love them

I seem to recall a lot of handwringing and angst from some folks about the world's opinion of the US. Y'know, how we're not liked anymore?

I guess that changed this past January?

LouisAntoine said...

Us. And them. Over and over again.

Us. And them. Over and over again.

rhhardin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rhhardin said...

Love me is a form of indifference to consequences.

Jason (the commenter) said...

If they updated that song I'd play it 24/7.

Liberals are creepy and I agree with the song, they are obsessed with being loved. I think that's why they all have to agree with each other. If you disagree, you don't love them.

Richard Dolan said...

The problem with "Love me!" is that it tends to stay focused on the "me" part. Others should love me-the-liberal because being liberal is capital-G Good (and so superior to the Evil alternative). When the goodness-of-me is the reason for love, you know that you're dealing with narcissism at its purest.

The liberal idea, at least in today's usage, has little to do with its root (libertas) or its classic meaning of tolerating differences in the name of liberty. Instead, it's mostly about enforcing equality, and accepting the sacrifice of liberty and the imposition of a degree of social leveling that goes with it. That not all bad, but it tends to make liberals the party of grand social solutions.

For many, of course, the solution ends up worse than the problem. And the team that has a ready-made solution to everyone else's problems has a hard time acting on the concept of equality that got it all going in the first place. What you end up with is lots of liberals who love humanity but can't stand their religion-and-gun-loving neighbors.

Sound like someone we've all come to know?

traditionalguy said...

Liberal is another word for permissiveness. That's great until a reaction sets in and "Order creating safety" becomes a higher value than "Free to do as I please." The conservative has experienced the freedom given by the private ownership of property, his/her own property. Liberals want to share everything. Then the Fascists want to Control the Shared Stuff and kill off all surplus people who threaten their Control. Good news is that permissiveness lets more good things happen as well as more bad things.

Walt said...

Johnny Cash - One On The Right Is On The Left

Sofa King said...

"This is John Galt speaking."

"Whenever you rebel against causality, your motive is the fraudulent desire, not to escape it, but worse: to reverse it. You want unearned love, as if love, the effect, could give you personal value, the cause - you want unearned admiration, as if admiration, the effect, could give you virtue, the cause - you want unearned wealth, as if wealth, the effect, could give you ability, the cause - you plead for mercy, mercy, not justice, as if an unearned forgiveness could wipe out the cause of your plea. And to indulge your ugly little shams, you supposet the doctrines of your teachers, while they run hog-wild proclaiming that spending, the effect, creates riches, the cause, that machinery, the effect, creates intelligence, the cause, that your sexual desires, the effect, create your philosophical values, the cause."

"Who pays for the orgy? Who causes the causeless? Who are the victims, condemned to remain unacknowledged and to perish in the silence, lest their agony disturm your pretense that they do not exist? We are, we, the men of the mind."

garage mahal said...

Oh garage, don't flatter yourself, it's not that hard not to love you.

LOL. That's not really how you should treat your new Overlords, now is it? We are in charge. We slipped a radical black muslim communist through door without even a proper birth certificate! We've taken down the most powerful financial institutions every built with lowly poor minorities resulting in a world-wide recession. We tricked America into not loving the most lovable and best-ist vice presidential candidate evah in the whole wide world! You have to admit, all this wasn't easy. Looking to be loved had to take the backseat on this mission.

Rose said...

You're right about this, garage. It took the sneakiest, dirtiest campaign ever imagined by mankind to pull this off. And all involved are the filthiest of liars, despite Biden's assertion that someone is "clean."

TitusFreezeFrame said...

What does I am a liberal really mean?

I ask myself that frequently.

I am a big fag who lives in a fabulous city.

I am also a big capitalist who works in corporate America and makes decent money.

What am I?

I am a dichotomy wrapped in an enigma surrounded by smegma.

Curtiss said...

I love liberals.

Because they're cute.

Jason (the commenter) said...

Curtiss: I love liberals.

Because they're cute.


Yes, they are cute, but then you catch them eating your friend's face and you end up having to stab them in the back.

chuck b. said...

There isn't anyone here I want to love me.

Richard Fagin said...

They just want to be loved. Well as my wife is fond of telling her children when they want something they can't have, "Want in one hand, crap in the other."

TitusFreezeFrame said...

God I don't want to be loved.

I would hated to be loved except by my mommy.

My mommy loves me long time.

Not in a sexual way though.

My mommy loves me more than she loves my daddy or my sisters though. I know that. She has told me. Is that weird?

I think my mommy would be pissed if I actually met someone and had a relationship. Hey, maybe that is why I only do people in bushes for 5 minutes?

ricpic said...

At bottom, love, like everything else, is an economic equation.

Liberals want to be loved despite the fact that it is uneconomical, extremely so, to love them.

It's an UNHEALTHY RELATIONSHIP (to love a liberal).

Anonymous said...

Titus -

You are a self-absorbed tool who meditates on his own bowel movements and who judges other people purely according to their ability to excite you sexually. Of course you are a liberal.

Anonymous said...

Remember, this song is from a time when "liberal" was a term of insult from the White/Jewish radical lefties.

Some conservatives can now read this as one of their own complaining about stereotypical White liberal creepy pretentiousness.

But Phil Ochs was a secular Jewish radical leftist who was criticizing other White non-right wingers for not being left wing/radical/"progressive" enough.

He was adopting an I'm-more-progressive-than-thou attitude towards other White non-right wingers, for lack of a better term.

He was an example of someone whose career was "Notice Me, Notice Me, Notice Me, I'm Morally Superior To All Of You. Even You Well Meaning Liberal White Folks."

Not that Ochs was completely wrong in his criticism of a stereotypical White liberal.

Here is a tragic example of "Love Me, Love Me, Love Me, I'm a Liberal" in the post racial Age of Obama:

“Would you like for me to escort him up?” the guard asked Calle, according to Meadows. “No, it’ll be fine,” Calle responded. “I don’t want him to think that we don’t trust him.’ “

Anonymous said...

Love Me, I'm a Liberal lyrics.

ricpic said...

Don't let your mother down, stay close and in touch, keep repeating mommy;
But know that at least half the time she'd like to level you with a Tommy.

traditionalguy said...

Ricpic... You can love most people as a friend without taking a financial hit. Friends must go by the Covenant that says, " I will do anything you ask me for, but you will never ask me for what you do not need." The raising of sons by a father is more a banking relationship than a friendship. Some liberals will leave you alone because they want more than a traditional friendship covenant. But many liberals do enjoy friendship with mutual respect.I call them Traditional Liberals.

Wince said...

Isn't it obvious that Ochs oozes contempt for "liberals" as compromised, hypocritcal, self-serving, fallen radicals seeking acceptance at the periphery of, if not actually impeding, the progress of the "movement"?

Love Me, I'm A Liberal lyrics, emphasized:

I cried when they shot Medgar Evers
Tears ran down my spine
I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy
As though I'd lost a father of mine
But Malcolm X got what was coming
He got what he asked for this time

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I go to civil rights rallies
And I put down the old D.A.R.
I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy
I hope every colored boy becomes a star
But don't talk about revolution
That's going a little bit too far

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I cheered when Humphrey was chosen
My faith in the system restored
I'm glad the commies were thrown out
of the A.F.L. C.I.O. board
I love Puerto Ricans and Negros
as long as they don't move next door

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

The people of old Mississippi
Should all hang their heads in shame
I can't understand how their minds work
What's the matter don't they watch Les Crain?
But if you ask me to bus my children
I hope the cops take down your name

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I read New republic and Nation
I've learned to take every view
You know, I've memorized Lerner and Golden
I feel like I'm almost a Jew
But when it comes to times like Korea
There's no one more red, white and blue

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I vote for the democratic party
They want the U.N. to be strong
I go to all the Pete Seeger concerts
He sure gets me singing those songs
I'll send all the money you ask for
But don't ask me to come on along
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Wince said...

jdeeripper,

Missed your post while assembling mine. Obviously, I agree with you.

TitusFreezeFrame said...

Thanks Henry.

Doesn't everyone evaluate everyone based off how they excite them sexually?

I didn't think that was a liberal or conservative trait?

For example if a hot woman walks into a restaurant with a nice rack and ass would you not evaluate and say, "I would like to fuck her...bad". Maybe not out loud but to yourself. I just say it loudly. If a hottie walks by my friends are going to hear my approval and I generally hear their approval. Same with straighties looking at hot chicks walking the street.

Hot people are hot.

TitusFreezeFrame said...

I believe part of the attraction to Palin was her physical beauty. Yes, issues but she was wrapped in a great package.

She shares basically the same issues with Representative Virgina Foxx from North Carolina who looks like Aunt Bea. I don't think Virginia Foxx would of received the same positive response than Palin because Virginia Foxx is pretty much a dog...physically.

TitusFreezeFrame said...

Face it, we all admire physical beauty, even if we don't want to admit it.

It makes us horny. And then we cum. And then we feel better. And then we take a nap.

john said...

It's true. Here's a nice picture of 3 liberal girls who just wanted to be loved.

TitusFreezeFrame said...

Now I am horny.

I am going to choke it.

Then take a nice nap.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I believe part of the attraction to Palin was her physical beauty..

You see.. proof positive that Palin has been misunderstimated all along.

Turning Titus, if that's not change, I dont know waht is ;)

Clyde said...

I liked the cover by Jello Biafra and Mojo Nixon better. It was on Prairie Home Invasion...

William said...

Further footnote to the comments of EDH and jdeeripper: Phil Ochs was a bipolar, suicidal radical. This is exactly the kind of person liberals wish to be loved by. Rotarians and Republicans not so much.... Phil proved the sincerity and authenticity of his alienation by committing suicide. His suicide, like his music, had nothing to do with chemical imbalances. The wretched excesses of America tortured him to death. This song is a projection of his own needs. If only liberals had loved him enough and followed his wisdom, America would be a better place and Phil would still be alive. His death was because liberals saw the grandeur of Huey Newton and hesitated. Who wants to live in a country like that? Who want to even live? You liberal bastards killed Phil.

Clyde said...

Here's the video of the Jello Biafra/Mojo Nixon cover: Love Me, I'm A Liberal

Freeman Hunt said...

Love Me, I'm a Liberal lyrics.

Much better. Prefer to read.

Ha! Funny, but obviously written by a super lib to make fun of the regular libs. And yeah, most of modern liberal ideology seems based around good intentions rather than good results. And why care about intention over result unless you either (a) are simply ignorant of results or (b) want to appear to be a great person, a lovable person.

Brian Doyle said...

And yeah, most of modern liberal ideology seems based around good intentions rather than good results.

Most modern conservative ideology seems based around being completely insane.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

..let's talk about the old song and the attitudes of liberals. They just want to be loved.

Norman Goodman: I would be happy if Jerry had no emotions whatsoever. Because the thing of it is once you go down that road... here's Jerry, an emotional being cooped up for 300 years with no one to talk to... none of the socialization, the emotional growth that comes from contact with other emotional beings...

Harry: So...?

Norman Goodman: What happens if Jerry gets mad?

Sphere 1998

ricpic said...

OT - For all you depressed to be Wisconsinites out there: Business Week just named Pewaukee, Wisconsin the best affordable suburb in America!

hdhouse said...

and we have so many conservatives from whom we really really want some lovin'...

not just from the petre dishes like anthrax annie coulter and that michelle thing, but the real conservatives among you...the true great americans like rush and sean and gordon and ...well that list seems endless.

hdhouse said...

Doyle said...
"Most modern conservative ideology seems based around being completely insane."

thanks for reminding me doyle, i had forgotten that there was a conservative ideology....insane is a good moniker...so much better than freakishly wierd.

Steve M. Galbraith said...

Most modern conservative ideology seems based around being completely insane.

Finally there's something that our tolerant, multicultural non-judgmental liberals can stand up to.

Let's see, liberals say we must understand the historical conditions and social causes of radical Islamists and not be so judgmental.

But American conservatives? They're all nuts.

Yep, that about sums it up.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Much better. Prefer to read... but obviously written by a super lib to make fun of the regular libs.

Thanks Freeman... I thought I've been missing out on a liberal who had converted. I didnt get most of the song.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Let's see, liberals say we must understand the historical conditions and social causes of radical Islamists and not be so judgmental.

You could almost say that the root causes of conservatism is that we were not aborted.

(thats.. killed, for the children in the audience)

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I liked Walt's 11:59 much better.

The one on the rear... got drafted.

Brian Doyle said...

Let's see, liberals say we must understand the historical conditions and social causes of radical Islamists and not be so judgmental.

No, this is just what wingnuts heard when we tried to tell them that Saddam Hussein and 9/11 were unrelated "bad things."

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

No, this is just what wingnuts heard when we tried to tell them that Saddam Hussein and 9/11 were unrelated "bad things."

And truth be told, after the liberals in congress got thru with their friend the CIA is a miracle we heard anything at all.

No wonder they got some shit wrong!

But no liberal allways, allways get their shit right.

Sofa King said...

Most modern conservative ideology seems based around being completely insane.

The activities of adults frequently make little sense to children.

Sofa King said...

thanks for reminding me doyle, i had forgotten that there was a conservative ideology....insane is a good moniker...so much better than freakishly wierd.

This from the guy who can't say he isn't a unicorn.

Peter V. Bella said...

The song was actually an expose of the hypocrisy of the upper middle and upper class so called liberals. You know the type- do unto others as long as it is not done to them. The NIMBY people.

blake said...

This from the guy who can't say he isn't a unicorn.

lol

jeff said...

Yes they want to be loved. But it's a conditional love. And they set the conditions.

Steve M. Galbraith said...

No, this is just what wingnuts heard when we tried to tell them that Saddam Hussein and 9/11 were unrelated "bad things."

Terror-sponsoring states and terrorists are "unreleated 'bad things'"?

Let's see, I remember the Clinton Administration telling us about all of those contacts between Saddam and al-Qaeda.

The chemical plant in Sudan, for exmaple.

No, it doesn't excuse the failures of the Bush Administration.

But it does demolish the argument that only "wingnuts" thought there was a relationship.

Eric said...

No, this is just what wingnuts heard when we tried to tell them that Saddam Hussein and 9/11 were unrelated "bad things."

It's hard to love people who lie all the time.

Walt said...

Saddam Hussein was not what I would call a good man but he did gave religious freedom" to Kuwait, and he wanted to sell America cheaper oil. For those unforgivable sins, he and so many thousands are now dead, and thousand more will soon be. Yes we did a good job of making sure there would be no churches in evil Kuwait. My God have mercy on our soul.

somefeller said...

Phil Ochs? Never heard of him. According to Wikipedia, he died when I was in elementary school, and unlike Sid Vicious (who died a couple of years later), was never in a band worth talking about. Meh. Boomer nostalgia is something to see.

UWS guy said...

Right. You see after 8 years of a free market Christian democrat in the white house, 10 years of republican rule in the legislator 1994 gingrich revolution-2006) and literally an Ayn Rand devote running the banking system (alan Greenspan--little known fact; clarinet major at Juilliard)

Apparantly, our problem is we didn't have conservative rule quite long enough...

Btw black people getting loans from acorn caused Greenland to collapse, go fig.

Roberto said...

You do love me...

...I feel so much better now.

Thank you for loving me.

Henry said...

"Sorry."

dick said...

UWS,

What you don't mention is the 40 years of Dem rule in the Congress and Senate that needed to be fixed. 10 years was just long enough to get a start and now they are already trying to get rid of the good things that happened under Clinton and which he took credit for. Welfare reform, anyone?

Cato Renasci said...

The best antidote to "Love Me, Love Me, I'm a Liberal" was Tom Lehrer's wonderful "Folk Song Army"

We are the folk song army,
every one of us cares,
we all hate poverty, and injustice,
unlike the rest of you squares..."

Chris said...

Stick with constitutional law, and give the junk psychology a wide berth.

Mark Daniels said...

It's easy, when listening to this, to understand how Dylan, Ochs' great Greenwhich Village folk scene rival, blew him away. Dylan never said, "Get it?" to an audience. He wrote stuff that people got differently. He was a poet. Ochs wasn't.