I’ve been very fortunate to do a lot of traveling in my life. But though I’ve been around the world, I’ve called California “home” for all of my life. I lived for nine months in Vienna when I was five, and spent three months teaching abroad in Florence, but with those exceptions, my trips abroad — or even out of state — have never lasted more than six weeks.
And I’m proud to say that I’ve only lived in areas currently represented by Democrats. Our home today is in Henry Waxman’s district. I teach in Adam Schiff’s district. I was born in Lois Capps‘ district, and spent most of my childhood in what is now Sam Farr‘s district. The family ranch is in Jerry McNerney‘s district, and I got my bachelor’s degree in Barbara Lee‘s district.
My brother manages to live in the only Labour-held constituency left in Southwest England. (Though my grandparents lie buried where my father grew up, in a tiny town now represented by a Tory.)
I love to travel. But I love to come home to the liberal enclaves of the Golden State.
I don’t think I’ve commented here since October, and I’m absolutely sick of doing course prep for the coming week, so I think I’m going to procrastinate a bit.
I grew up in rural Northern California. The second most popular political party in the congressional distinct where I grew up, consistently over the last 30 years, has been the Libertarians; the Democrats have only fielded a serious candidate for Congress once or twice in that time, and the race has never been close. It’s as safe of a Republican district as any. While I had gay friends in high school, they were deeply closeted in public, and a friend of a friend changed schools after he was publicly outed. I read Marx and called myself a `socialist’ in some ridiculously vague sense and was considered one of the most politically radical people on campus.
In college and the first phase of graduate school (in Tacoma, WA, and Chicago, respectively), I lived in congressional districts that were just as safely Democratic. It was extraordinarily freeing to be in a climate where lesbian and gay folks were as accepted as straight folks, and it was during this time I began to identify myself as a feminist and straight ally. I had friends who joined the WTO and IMF protests in Seattle in the Fall of 1999, and it was easy for me to protest the Iraq war and go to meetings of a vegan organization with one of my Chicago roommates.
Then I decided to change my career trajectory, and started grad school over at Notre Dame in South Bend, IN. Many religious conservatives consider Notre Dame either a bulwark or a major front in the culture war. In my time here, I’ve seen the Queer Film Festival and Vagina Monologues banned from campus (either officially or unofficially); been a TA for a course in which the professor lectured (without critical evaluation) on Pope John Paul II’s views on abortion and the `culture of death’; observed weeks of protests against having President Obama as the commencement speaker; participated in an unsuccessful protest with a couple hundred other students to officially recognize a Gay-Straight Alliance club and add sexual orientation to the non-discrimination clause; and had students officially excused from class to attend the anti-abortion March for Life. But I’ve also had insightful discussions with students who were opposed to abortion (several of whom are both deeply committed Catholics and deeply committed feminists and either LGBTQ or straight allies); realized that there are anti-abortion positions that are neither crazy nor evil nor stupid; convinced at least some students that Marxist, feminist, and pro-choice views are neither crazy nor evil nor stupid; come to appreciate Dorothy Day, Catholic Social Thought, and other prominent elements of leftist Catholicism; witnessed the election of a Democratic congressman in what was thought to be a safely Republican district; witnessed the re-election of that same Democrat against a Tea Party candidate; and gotten involved in a local food organization that is an eclectic meeting-ground for libertarian farmers and progress university faculty.
Those two lists might be excessive, but the two points I want to make are the breadth of my experiences here in South Bend and the interplay between both the positive and the seemingly negative list. I don’t think I wouldn’t have learned many of the things I’ve learned here if I had stayed in the urban, liberal strongholds of my early 20s. I could not, for example, have been able to appreciate the existence of a reasonable anti-abortion position if I was surrounded by reflexive pro-choicers.
That’s not to knock liberal strongholds, or your pride in living your whole life in them. I just want to express the value of being a liberal living, at least for a time, in a rather conservative community.
I also see myself as a vitally-important voice of dissent in a fairly conservative evangelical Christian community in the Midwest. It’s not always a comfortable place to be, but it feels like an important calling — to quietly change the community from within, rather than flouncing away to someplace where people are more likely to share my own views on things. Apparently, it works; more than one former student has told me that I was influential in helping them think about the world in different and less rigid ways.
Dan and Sarah Jane, I do understand the importance of being a voice of dissent in monolithically conservative areas. And I hasten to say that I haven’t made my decisions about where to move based on Congressional representation. It has worked out that way.
When I was married to my third wife, I got connected to a lot of very strong conservative evangelicals affiliated with Fuller Theological Seminary; I know what it is to be the only lefty in the room even if that room is to be found in a Democrat’s House district.
Hugo, man of the people: born in Santa Barbara, raised in Carmel, lives in Beverly Hills, has a family ranch, drives a Mercedes SUV and is married to a former model.
See “limousine liberal” in the dictionary.
Oh yeah: so subtly mentions he not only loves these incredibly expensive enclaves, but he has managed to visit all seven continents including Antarctica.
It’s not privilege. It’s a freakin caricature.
When the middle class are left-wing, it is insincere posturing. When the working class are left-wing, it is childish envy. Presumably, Carlos CS’s of this world have managed to identify the exact level of socio-economic privilege at which it is considered acceptable to hold such views, but they seem to have kept it to themselves so far.
Traitorfish, people who are insulated from reality are either clueless or insincerely posturing when they identify with the left. It’s all romantic to them. People should have the courage to live according to their views. Hugo identifies himself with the left and with the poor and oppressed but has no idea what it means to be poor, and he has no idea what it means to start a business or meet a payroll. He pays taxes on wealth that isn’t his to begin with, as his income comes from family money, his wife, or the taxpayers of California.
Carlos, drop it. You don’t know what you think you know about my life. Take it elsewhere.
Carlos CS is a hero.
There is a wonderful variety of ad-hominen socio-economic arguments that can be made. Mostly, they are made in lieu of any substantive arguments and as a last ditch attempt at character assassination. Here they are followed by some additions of my own:
First, the list provided by Traitorfish:
left-poor. Childish envy.
left-middle. Insincere posturing.
left-upper. Liberal elite.
right-poor. Uneducated hick. (possibly racist)
right-middle. Suburbanite air-head.
right-upper. Rich fatcat.
In short: Carlos CS, stay classy my friend.
Back on subject matter though: Until recently I lived in a moderately liberal part of Washington state. I recently moved down to Austin, TX. While Austin is a fairly liberal part of Texas, Texas is not liberal by a longshot. Despite the warnings of relatives and friends, the people down here don’t have horns, don’t carry pitchforks, and it doesn’t smell like brimstone. It is, however, sunnier for most of the year and I like the food. Who woulda thunk.
Oh David, that’s good. Thank you.
“While Austin is a fairly liberal part of Texas, Texas is not liberal by a longshot. ”
I have a theory. Every state is going to have at least one contrarian enclave, and the intensity of that enclave is going to be in direct proportion to the climate in the rst of the state. So I would expect Austin TX, Lawrence KS, etc to be liberal, but not equally intensely, and also it is no surprise to find a right-wing enclave in California like Orange County, the home of the John Birch Society. The there are flat-out secessionsist areas like the State of Jefferson in the far north.