Updated: Charles Johnson Rides Off Into The Sunrise

Charles Johnson has decided to ‘part ways’ with the right.

In Why I Parted Ways With The Right, he lists what are some compelling reasons for refusing to identify with and support the political Right. The response and reactions to Johnson’s remarks have been predictable. Many on the Left have lauded his ‘courage’ and much of the Right have excoriated him for ‘betrayal’.

Very few it seems, actually understand Charles Johnson. He isn’t a Darth Vader that has been seduced by the dark side, blind to all things good.  If anything, his experience and influence have opened his eyes. Johnson hasn’t abandoned the moral and ethical pillars of what is the Right. Nor will he excoriate or discard those ideas embraced by Left that have proved to benefit this nation and society.

Therein is why Johnson rankles so many people. He refuses to accept a political environment that is predicated and hell bent on one side destroying the other. He expects political representatives to elevate political exchange, not denigrate it.

Johnson’s critique isn’t perfect nor is it a repudiation of what is good about the Right side of the political spectrum. What he has done is call out the hypocrisy that has found a home in many Republican circles and he is right to do so.

You don’t have to believe in God to be a Republican. You don’t have to reject Darwin or dismiss global warming science to be a part of the GOP. What you have to be is open. What you are supposed to be is welcoming. The Right is supposed to be welcoming and fiercely defend the right of the individual to have their own beliefs, whatever they might be. Groupthink is supposed to be anathema to the Right!

When did belief in God and Creationism become the litmus test of what it means to be a conservative or a Republican? In pandering to the religious right, the GOP has built a great wall they foolishly believe will isolate from the onslaught of progress.

Johnson makes clear you don’t have to believe in God to have the moral values of a conservative any more than you have to reject God to be a progressive.  In fact, that single ideal has done more to shape the character of this nation than any other. Everyday, millions of mouths are fed by organizations that are both religious and secular. Enough said.

Simply going to church doesn’t mean you are morally superior to those who don’t. By looking down at the non religious, many conservatives cast themselves as elitist and exclusionary, hardly Godly or admirable traits.

By the same token, going to church or believing in God doesn’t make anyone foolish or less American. Being an antagonistic atheist should not be the litmus test for being a liberal or progressive. Johnson has made that clear many times as well.

Charles Johnson’s listed rationales are  imperfect, to be sure. Some of his remarks are sweeping generalizations and at times unfair (lots of us right types are on board with the reality of global warming) . While we get the point he is trying to make, his status encumbers him with a certain responsibility to be more precise.  Still, when all is said and done, the imperfections of his remarks may be a good thing because politics and reason are evolutionary in nature. His remarks and ideas will be constantly refined and updated, which is more than we can say for a whole lot of ideas that stem from both the Right and Left.

Finally, Johnson recognizes a truth most ideologues don’t want you to think about.

We have noted previously that to be an American is to acknowledge we don’t care where you came from or for whom you vote for. We don’t care what church you belong to, or synagogue or mosque. We don’t care if you don’t believe in God. What we do care about is the truth that we are all equal. All we care about is your behavior- as is appropriate in every civilized society.

Our neighborhoods our populated with people of varying political ideologies and beliefs. We live next door to each other and meet and chat on the corner. We look out for each others kids and we loan each other tools.

We may not agree all the time, but we manage to put our differences aside. As in any debate, one side or the other may come out on top on any given day, but in the end, we still look out for each other’s kids, we still chat at the corner and we still borrow each other’s tools and attend neighborhood BBQ’s.

That is what kills the agenda based hypocrites- and we know exactly who and what they are. Without us succumbing to their ever escalating efforts, they have nothing. They are found on both sides of the political spectrum, raising money by fomenting fear and hate.

We may all have different beliefs, but in the end, we are Americans first and not agenda based Americans first.

Live and let live is the skeletal ideology and morality of this country, and that is anathema to the agenda based persons. The last thing they want are tolerant Americans. Tolerant Americans are their real enemy. Their agenda, whatever it may be, cannot survive tolerant Americans. That applies equally to the Right and the Left

This country has an amazing record of self correction, if needed. Our real enemies are not those who have different points of views or political beliefs. Our real enemies are those whose agendas would have us believe just that.

Johnson is abandoning the status quo and riding off into the sunrise in search of a better and more honest political expression and debate. He may find it or he may not.

I hope he does.

UPDATE:

Pablo Picasso once noted that before he became the celebrated artist, he had to learn how to copy those artists who preceded him. That truth applies to virtually every noted  writer, musician and artist of every discipline. Before you can claim original work, you have to master the art that has preceded you.

The same applies to politics. Before a political party can demand another party clean up it’s mess and behave in a moral way, that party must clean their own house and assume a moral position first.

Many of Johnson’s detractors assume that his excoriation of the Right signals an embrace of the political Left. Don’t bet on it. That he won’t go over the edge with the Right is by no means indicative of a desire to plumb the depths with the Left.

Charles Johnson’s critique of the political Right serves to highlight the mess in which the GOP and much of the Right find themselves. His critique is equally applicable to the Left. They have their own set of ugly baggage.

Time has shown that when it comes to politics, Charles Johnson travels light. It is a lesson that Americans of all stripes need to learn.

See also AJ Strata for another take on Charles Johnson’s Why I Parted Ways With The Right.