What Liberal America Should Know About Evil

Andy Schmookler’s June 22 Message in Summary

Andy Schmookler delivered the sermon at HUU on Sunday, June 22, 2014. The title of his talk was “What Liberal America Should Know about Evil.” He says that America faces a crisis in which the stakes could not be higher. Both the right and the left play a role, he says, but the roles are very different.

He drew upon a line from William Butler Yeats: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are filled with a passionate intensity.” Likewise in America now, the heart of the crisis is that the political right has been taken over by an “evil force,” while the response from Liberal America has been woefully weak.

The first step in the necessary change in our destructive political dynamic, Andy said, has to be a change on the liberal side. A fire must be lit, and he believes that the way to light it is to present a clear and compelling picture of the nature of the force we are up against.

With a series of articles — presently appearing only on his own website but soon to be launched on major national websites — Andy is painting the picture that America needs to see. It’s a picture of a coherent force that moves through the culture, consistently imparting a pattern of brokenness, as well as exploiting the brokenness it already finds in the culture and in individuals.

And he is addressing the elements in a worldview held by too much of Liberal America—one that does not regard things like “value,” or “evil,” or the sacred as entirely real. You can’t hit what you can’t see, and you can’t see what you don’t believe can exist, he says.

America needs an “Emperor’s New Clothes” moment of realization. Here’s an unprecedented force that’s pushing to change our democracy into a plutocracy, and blocking our nation’s acting responsibly to protect our children and grandchildren – and indeed all life on earth – from the potential catastrophes of climate change. Andy’s campaign is an attempt to help drain the power from that force.

Here’s how people can help this campaign to get our national conversation to focus on the real truth about our national crisis, and perhaps reach the “Emperor’s New Clothes” moment of realization so sorely needed:

1) Check out Andy’s message. Go to The Series: Links to All the Entries , which presents the sequence of articles with which Andy hopes to light that fire in Liberal America– to move it, in the words of his motto, to “See the evil. Call it out. Press the battle.”

2) Spread the word by emailing all your liberally-minded friends and neighbors and associates – everyone potentially receptive to this message – to invite them to check out this series and join the “campaign.”

3) Contribute financially to help cover the costs of a publicist, an overhaul of the website for the new campaign, and the production of a book based on the series.

4) Ask yourself “What can I do to help this effort succeed?”

Andy can be reached at andybard@shentel.net.