The first permanent European settlers of North America were perverts.

The Puritan Pilgrims weren’t just perverts because they wore stiff, kinky garb and believed in public punishment involving stocks and other kink. They were perverts because they believed vastly different things about life and God than their fellow English Christians. And since they couldn’t gain permanent power on the British Isles they sought refuge in other countries throughout Europe. But wherever they went everybody thought that they were perverts.

Of course, the Puritans thought everyone but the Puritans were perverts. And they had the evidence they needed for this conclusion. Sickening hypocrisy is almost too easy to see when you observe human behavior. Hence, the Pilgrims were so convinced that they had figured out the proper, non-perverse way to conduct one’s self that they were willing to cross an endless ocean and settle in a wilderness that was already home to something worse than perverts—savages. But the savages weren’t going to tell them how to worship their God, so the wilderness was good enough for them.

But the perverts didn’t really settle this continent. The traders did. The stock companies saw opportunity and didn’t care what kind of perverts they had to deal with to make a buck built this country. These traders were motivated by love—love of money. And the Pilgrims were motivated by fear—fear of being the oppressed rather than the oppressors.

Thusly we have the formula for how to create this country: Fear + Love = America. Tattoo that on your shins, patriots.

In 2008, we face a stark choice between these two contrasting threads of American life. We have love from Ballsy Barrack Obama versus fear brought to you by Sweet John McCain.

Now, you expect to tell me how Obama is selling only love and McCain is selling only fear. Of course, there is no black and white distinction. Part of love is the undertow of fear. When you love something tangible that implies a fear that will not attain or keep it. And fear is powered by love. And when you fear something, you’re motivated by a love of what you think you already or can have.

But essentially: Love allows for differences. Fear can’t.

So let’s look at the real choice we’re facing between these two candidates:

John McCain used to be a complex man. While assembling the exact team George W. Bush used to get elected and then fuck up our country, he is also trying to keep this image of a middle-of-the -roader who doesn’t think that you are a pervert if you disagree with him.

He’s saying that protecting this country is so important that these issues of who’s a pervert and who isn’t are secondary. It’s a winning strategy. Sell people on fear and blur what fear really means.

But here’s what the fear of John McCain means based on the policies and people he’s embraces: He believes that terrorism is an existential threat to this country worth sacrificing liberties that we weren’t willing to give up when we actually faced an existential threat in the Cold War. He stands by a government that used torture knowing firsthand the futility and evil of such behavior. He believes in tax cuts for the prosperous while the poor struggle unable to enjoy true freedom because they don’t have the same support and opportunity the rich have. He believes that he knows when life begins and it’s his job to tell a person what is going on inside her body. And he believes in confronting opposition instead of managing it.

And fear motivates all kinds of ridiculous solutions like drilling for more oil to solve the energy crisis—which is like taking cocaine to deal with your chronic depression.

And worst of all, he and the people around him believe that if you don’t agree with them, you are a pervert. He just can’t deal with people that he believes are cowards and murderers, for that’s what a Pro-Life position is—an accusation that choice equals murder.

There’s a surface clarity to McCain’s positions that is very appealing to people who are sick of all of the perverts who want to move into our gated communities.

However, there is also the obvious conclusion that war equals murder. If Pro-Lifers were adamantly anti-war and anti-death penalty there would be sincerity and nobility to their position that would make it almost impossible to resist. Thankfully, most Pro-Lifers are like most people who see perverts everywhere—they fail when it comes to consistency.

The truth is that everyone fails when it comes to consistency. We hate people who pass in the slow lanes, except when we have to. We hate people who litter, but we drive cars that litter the atmosphere permanently. We hate war, but we love World War II.

To deal with the overwhelming inconsistencies of life, there is only one choice: Love.

Love is the ability to overlook differences. Love does not take satisfaction in punishment. Love allows for dissent. Love demands that individuals be allowed to make their own mistakes and only be judged when crimes can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

Love—and to use Obama’s own term “empathy”—is the key principle behind the Progressive mindset. It’s a mindset that hopes for the best for all people, a mindset that recognizes we’re all perverts. The love mindset says that whatever you love you have a right to pursue as long as you do not unduly harm anyone to do it. It’s the realization that it’s impossible to expect perfection from your self so it’s ridiculous to expect it from anyone else. Love says that if you have the resources you should do everything you can to help other people. Not because you owe them, but because that is what you’d hope for if the situation is reversed.

Love is as ultimately self-interested as fear, of course. But love isn’t perfect or easy. Fear is.

Like all of us, the winner of the 2008 election will be a pervert to someone. And they’ll likely do many perverse things, if given the chance. Just like you would. But as we live with what fear has wrought, it’s pretty obvious that it’s about time to give love a chance.

Photo by Bob Bobster.

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