Zepp's Commentaries

Users

Written with Witt

An expansion on liberal principles

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

July 30^th, 2025

 

Lori Gallagher Witt writes:

I’m a liberal, but that doesn’t mean what a lot of you apparently think it does. Let’s break it down, shall we? Because quite frankly, I’m getting a little tired of being told what I believe and what I stand for. Spoiler alert: not every liberal is the same, though the majority of liberals I know think along roughly these same lines:

Long time readers know that I’ll sometimes take a laundry list of talking points that some right winger has posted, usually in lists of ten. I take that list and address the points in sequence, eviscerating them. Most of the them tend to be pretty mindless, not because the author is stupid, but because the author thinks his target audience is. The results are like shooting fish in a barrel for me. It’s rare that a point is raised that requires pondering, let along ones that require research in order to rebut. It’s the writing equivalent of a cheap date.

Something different appeared this week. A list, written by one Lori Gallagher Witt, and for some reason it has been attributed to Ron Howard, the movie director. While the attribution is plausible—Howard is forthcoming about his opinions and I doubt he would take exception to the contents of the list—Witt is apparently the person deserving of the credit.

While the lists I’ve used in the past are usually grievances and/or utter falsehoods, Witt’s collection is basically a statement of principles; it reflects how she believes our society should be. It’s a very American sort of document, and even in these dark times would have the support of a large majority of people who read it.

Of course, there is a contingent who will declaim the document as being “socialism” or even “communism.” Many are ignorant and brainwashed, and have no idea what either term actually means. (Unfortunately, nobody ever told them what fascism actually is, either) But most are a privileged group who regard efforts at diversity, equality, and inclusion with gimlet eyes and respond with such fear mongering tactics as “if all are equal, nobody is rich” or “your hard work subsidizes the unworthy.” Most aren’t even trying to protect profits—they have simply lost perspective and want to endlessly extend their power and wealth. And every social reform, according to them “costs jobs” or “takes away your job” or “puts the undeserving above you hard-working people.”

So I’m working with a complementary response, wherein I’ll try to give short and effective elaboration on the points that hopefully will aid in convincing others to implement them. It’s one thing to express principles; in the political arena, you have to promote them in such a way that derails the inevitable attacks and provides a foundation for those principles.

Even if you are familiar with Witt’s list and agree with all of it, read on. Hopefully I can provide some ammunition for defending them and deflecting the attacks. Witt’s points are in italics.

1. I believe a country should take care of its weakest members. A country cannot call itself civilized when its children, disabled, sick, and elderly are neglected. PERIOD.

The primary attack on this is that the government will be giving the idle and the poor your hard-earned money. The foundation for that isn’t based on a concern for your well-being, it rests on the basic idea that anyone incapable of contributing to the economy, whether because of age, infirmity, or lack of skills, is of no value. In short, no person is worthwhile if they can’t be monetized. It is the psychotic cruelty of Ayn Rand’s libertarianism, one that devolves to the old slander against Inuits that the elderly should be left on ice floes to die.

2. I believe healthcare is a right, not a privilege. Somehow that’s interpreted as “I believe Obamacare is the end-all, be-all.” This is not the case. I’m fully aware that the ACA has problems, that a national healthcare system would require everyone to chip in, and that it’s impossible to create one that is devoid of flaws, but I have yet to hear an argument against it that makes “let people die because they can’t afford healthcare” a better alternative. I believe healthcare should be far cheaper than it is, and that everyone should have access to it. And no, I’m not opposed to paying higher taxes in the name of making that happen.

I’m always amazed at people who grouse that their taxes might go up a couple of thousand dollars even when it means they save twice that or more in health insurance premiums. For those lucky enough to be working for a large company that provides health insurance as part of your “benefits package” that “luck” comes at a cost; not only is the company using funds that might actually go to your salary, but you’re also absorbing the costs and time needed to deal with the health insurance companies. The company isn’t doing it for free; someone has to pay. You’re being double dipped.

Privatized health coverage is fantastically inefficient. In addition to the 30% in profits the shareholders expect, there’s the fact that every company has their own forms, their own rules, and countless, usually competing, divisions for implementing those. It’s a massive burden on the actual health providers, physicians and hospitals.

In addition, there’s the corporate charter of every insurance company, which requires the company to maximize profits while reducing expenses. YOU, the client, are an expense, so they aren’t doing this for your benefit. Entire divisions are paid to find ways to deny or reduce the benefits you’re already overpaying for.

Universal not-for-profit medicare, conception to grave, would save over a trillion dollars a year. That money would work to your benefit, rather than vanishing into the off-shore accounts of wealthy parasites.

Finally, you would end up with a healthier, longer-lived society.

3. I believe education should be affordable. It doesn’t necessarily have to be free (though it works in other countries so I’m mystified as to why it can’t work in the US), but at the end of the day, there is no excuse for students graduating college saddled with five- or six-figure debt.

Student loans are a huge and vicious racket, second only to health insurance. Basically, it turns the vast majority of people with marketable skills into wage slaves. There’s no escaping the debt, and often the exorbitant interest rates eat up a large part of what normally would be a comfortable salary. Bankruptcy is not permitted. So if someone graduates with $50,000 in annual interest payments and can’t find work that pays six figures, all they can do is watch the debt—and interest on the debt—grow and grow and grow. It’s turned millions of ambitious young lives into nightmares.

Privatized schools are often a racket—remember Trump University—and church-funded schools are an entirely different sort of racket, one that gives religion an unwonted ability to control and suppress young minds. As Witt notes, other countries can provide universal education. There’s no reason America can’t, but for greed and lust for power and control.

4. I don’t believe your money should be taken from you and given to people who don’t want to work. I have literally never encountered anyone who believes this. Ever. I just have a massive moral problem with a society where a handful of people can possess the majority of the wealth while there are people literally starving to death, freezing to death, or dying because they can’t afford to go to the doctor. Fair wages, lower housing costs, universal healthcare, affordable education, and the wealthy actually paying their share would go a long way toward alleviating this. Somehow believing that makes me a communist.

There is a huge difference between “wanting to work” and “being able to work.” The bureau of Labor Statistics lists those unable to work in the following categories: “ill health or disabled; retired; home responsibilities; going to school; could not find work; and other reasons.” That’s a sizable chunk of the population.

Put it this way: right now we have what the economists term “full employment” with the official unemployment rate at 4.1%. But the percent of the overall total population who are employed is 59.7%. That means that under ideal circumstances, the economy humming and booming, over 40% of the population is unable to work. Nor is that unique to America: it’s true of all civilized societies. And with baby boomers retiring coupled with a dropping birthrate (last year was the lowest birthrate in American history) that ratio is going to worsen.

Are we a decent people? Do we understand that people who can’t work aren’t lazy, but just people caught in various human afflictions, be it age, parenting, or infirmity?

Are we a society that exists to serve the economy, or an economy that exists to serve the society? If the latter, expect a great deal of privation and misery and a parasitic class of unimaginable wealth. You know, like France in the 1780s, Russia in the 1910s, or America now.

5. I don’t throw around “I’m willing to pay higher taxes” lightly. If I’m suggesting something that involves paying more, well, it’s because I’m fine with paying my share as long as it’s actually going to something besides lining corporate pockets or bombing other countries while Americans die without healthcare.

Few people know that the average private pension has overhead (mostly administrative costs) ranging from 15-30% of their revenues. Or that about a third of them go bust anyway. Social Security’s administrative costs are less than 1%, and it’s been going strong for nearly a century. It is the greatest deal in American history. Raising the income limit on SS paycheck taxes would ensure it goes on for as long as there is an America. Given the profiting and inefficiency costs of most privatized services, an alternative of raising taxes is almost always a way of saving money. Government has a much higher rate of return than private industry.

6. I believe companies should be required to pay their employees a decent, livable wage. Somehow this is always interpreted as me wanting burger flippers to be able to afford a penthouse apartment and a Mercedes. What it actually means is that no one should have to work three full-time jobs just to keep their head above water. Restaurant servers should not have to rely on tips, multibillion-dollar companies should not have employees on food stamps, workers shouldn’t have to work themselves into the ground just to barely make ends meet, and minimum wage should be enough for someone to work 40 hours and live.

It’s a fact of a capitalist economy that inflation is built in. Without inflation, a necessary mechanism to spur growth is missing. It’s the ultimate ‘necessary evil.’

In 1963, the minimum wage was $1.25. It’s $7.25 in quite a few states now. So if a 40 hour week paid $50 then, to have the same purchasing power today, that paycheck would have to be $530.35, according to the CPI calculator. The minimum wage, just to meet the standards set in 1963 for a lowest-paid full time worker, would be $13.25 an hour!

The CPI tends to understate the actual costs for people on the bottom economic rung. Rents have increased by about 50% over and above the median income since 1980, and close to 300% compared to minimum wage. So someone who might be spending 25% of their paycheck for lodging would be spending 75% now.

The wealthy and corporations were taxed much more heavily. Investors expected a lower, albeit more stable ROI. And the sixties were the greatest economic boom for the working class in economic history! The whole country flourished! The rising tide truly did lift all boats.

Finally, every time the minimum wage has been raised, there has been a surge in economic activity. People with more money to spend will spend it. Against all expectations, restaurants are often the biggest beneficiaries of a minimum-wage hike.

7. I am not anti-Christian. I have no desire to stop Christians from being Christians, to close churches, to ban the Bible, to forbid prayer in school, etc. (BTW, prayer in school is NOT illegal; *compulsory* prayer in school is – and should be – illegal). All I ask is that Christians recognize *my* right to live according to *my* beliefs. When I get pissed off that a politician is trying to legislate Scripture into law, I’m not “offended by Christianity” — I’m offended that you’re trying to force me to live by your religion’s rules. You know how you get really upset at the thought of Muslims imposing Sharia law on you? That’s how I feel about Christians trying to impose biblical law on me. Be a Christian. Do your thing. Just don’t force it on me or mine.

We’re living in an era of religious overreach, one that threatens to turn us into a grubby, corrupt, inefficient and cruel theocracy. While claiming to only be “saving the lives of unborn babies” (philosophical twaddle flat out disputed by their own Bible) they’ve passed a huge volume of laws in various states that abrogate the rights of women to control their lives and their bodies. It was never about children—it was about control. Christian Nationalists are Christian fascists. They’ve always been around, a toxic form of Christianity, and always have been a threat to freedom.

Like government and corporations, religion is a “good servant but a terrible master.” The founders wanted a government responsive to the people that existed to curtail the power of the church and the aristocracy. Not just a wall of separation, but a demand that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States,” in terms that make it the only phrase in the Constitution that cannot be amended. They believed that everyone has a right to their religion, and that everyone also has a right not to be subject to any religious power.

8. I don’t believe LGBT people should have more rights than you. I just believe they should have the *same* rights as you.

Rights aren’t a zero-sum game. “Letting others have rights” doesn’t detract from your rights. Quite the opposite: if the rights of all are respected, your rights are stronger. If they aren’t, yours are on the chopping block. And no, it’s not up to you: people have those rights, regardless of your opinion. Grow up and recognize that. Note this one: I refer to it two more times further on.

9. I don’t believe illegal immigrants should come to America and have the world at their feet, especially since THIS ISN’T WHAT THEY DO (spoiler: undocumented immigrants are ineligible for all those programs they’re supposed to be abusing, and if they’re “stealing” your job it’s because your employer is hiring illegally). I believe there are far more humane ways to handle undocumented immigration than our current practices (i.e., detaining children, splitting up families, ending DACA, etc).

Calling people “illegals” is a Naziesque phrase revealing a Naziesque mind-set. They haven’t even broken any law coming here, despite what the haters claim. But they DO contribute over a trillion dollars a year to the national GDP, and they do pay taxes because the people employing them don’t want to get in trouble with the IRS. So they’re already getting cheated without small-minded people trying to deny their humanity—or the huge benefit they create for America. Oh, and the crime rate among undocumented aliens is much lower than among native-born Americans.

10. I don’t believe the government should regulate everything, but since greed is such a driving force in our country, we NEED regulations to prevent cut corners, environmental destruction, tainted food/water, unsafe materials in consumable goods or medical equipment, etc. It’s not that I want the government’s hands in everything — I just don’t trust people trying to make money to ensure that their products/practices/etc. are actually SAFE. Is the government devoid of shadiness? Of course not. But with those regulations in place, consumers have recourse if they’re harmed and companies are liable for medical bills, environmental cleanup, etc. Just kind of seems like common sense when the alternative to government regulation is letting companies bring their bottom line into the equation.

Everyone agrees regulations can be a pain in the ass. But nearly everyone has had their lives saved by regulations at various times, many times over. Take autos: there’s all sorts of safety regulations for vehicles, many of which the auto manufacturers fought tooth and nail against, such as seat belts and airbags. In 1921, the first year such statistics were kept, there were 24.09 fatalities for every hundred million vehicle miles traveled. In the most recent year, 2023, there were 1.27 such fatalities. Without safety rules and regulations, the annual death toll could easily be twenty times higher now than it actually is.

As for food safety, just read Upton Sinclair’s “The Urban Jungle.”

11. I believe our current administration is fascist. Not because I dislike them or because I can’t get over an election, but because I’ve spent too many years reading and learning about the Third Reich to miss the similarities. Not because any administration I dislike must be Nazis, but because things are actually mirroring authoritarian and fascist regimes of the past.

Doctor Lawrence Britt in 2003 wrote “The Fourteen Characteristics of Fascism.” I’ve referred to it many times over the twenty years since I first read it. If you haven’t already read it, please do so.

12. I believe the systemic racism and misogyny in our society is much worse than many people think, and desperately needs to be addressed. Which means those with privilege — white, straight, male, economic, etc. — need to start listening, even if you don’t like what you’re hearing, so we can start dismantling everything that’s causing people to be marginalized.

See my reply to point 8.

13. I am not interested in coming after your blessed guns, nor is anyone serving in government. What I am interested in is the enforcement of present laws and enacting new, common sense gun regulations. Got another opinion? Put it on your page, not mine.

If Trump consolidates power, he WILL come for your guns. The clowns who brayed they were America’s “Second Amendment solution” to the rise of a dictatorial regime have gone missing in action now that we actually have one. But all it will take will be one assassination of a member of the Trump regime, and the great clamp-down will begin, and yes, it will be very bloody. But gun owners, spare me your posturing; your chance came, and you chickened out.

14. I believe in so-called political correctness. I prefer to think it’s social politeness. If I call you Chuck and you say you prefer to be called Charles I’ll call you Charles. It’s the polite thing to do. Not because everyone is a delicate snowflake, but because as Maya Angelou put it, when we know better, we do better. When someone tells you that a term or phrase is more accurate/less hurtful than the one you’re using, you now know better. So why not do better? How does it hurt you to NOT hurt another person?

I have no problem with laws designed to prevent bullying, intimidation, or abuse. If you do, you should ask yourself what sort of person you really are.

15. I believe in funding sustainable energy, including offering education to people currently working in coal or oil so they can change jobs. There are too many sustainable options available for us to continue with coal and oil. Sorry, billionaires. Maybe try investing in something else.

Clean energy, and a clean economy, make for efficient energy and economy. The billions the filthy fuels industry spent on lies about climate change and for raising illiterate monsters like Trump aren’t being spent for your benefit. Corporations are not your friend, they are not here to serve you, and they are, by the terms of their charters, psychotic. Giving them trillions of dollars to mold a society to their ends is the height of stupidity. And we subsidize those trillionaires, because without those subsidies, they couldn’t compete with wind and solar. For decades we subsidized them just because they thought it would be nice to have the extra money. They didn’t even need it up until very recently.

16. I believe that women should not be treated as a separate class of human. They should be paid the same as men who do the same work, should have the same rights as men and should be free from abuse. Why on earth shouldn’t they be?

Again, see point 8. Either rights are absolute for all, or they are absolute for none.

“I think that about covers it. Bottom line is that I’m a liberal because I think we should take care of each other. That doesn’t mean you should work 80 hours a week so your lazy neighbor can get all your money. It just means I don’t believe there is any scenario in which preventable suffering is an acceptable outcome as long as money is saved.”

Agreed.