Paula Deen and the "liberal agenda"

A letter in today’s paper criticized Matt Lauer for his handling of the Paula  Deen  interview (when she finally showed up) , branded all of those who are disappointed with Ms.  Deen as “Lauerites” and slapped the nonsense syllables  “liberal agenda” on top of it all. I, like many, was and am a Paula Deen fan. I am now a disappointed one, I must admit. Ms. Deen conquered a nasty divorce, and agoraphobia, but the thing she couldn’t overcome is the thing which has apparently brought her low.

Let’s break it down. Whether or not you feel Ms Deen deserves  forgiveness and another chance to continue making the multi millions her self-created empire earns is a personal decision. There are however, several  points to be made which  bear notice.  First is that,  like many modern media darlings, there are those idolatrous fans  for whom Ms. Deen, like Kim, Martha, Amanda, et. al. can do no wrong, so any negative opinion  regarding her (their)  actions doesn’t count.   Second is that regardless of Ms. Deen’s central Georgia upbringing and the accompanying racial  intolerance she no doubt learned at home, she is now 65 years old, lived through the Civil rights movement, and as a rational adult had two choices.  She could have  seen the error of her ways and discontinue using hate speech regardless of her upbringing  or  alternately, continue to harbor those prejudices and  public behaviors based on them.  In light of her position as the public persona  of a financial  empire, it was unfortunate that she apparently  chose the latter option.

The larger issue for me ( since Paula Deen can retire with a mountain of money and slide into memory) is the letter writer’s use of the phrase “liberal agenda.”  The number of corporations who rushed to cut ties  with Ms. Deen  immediately are indicative of how little concern she applied before speaking her mind in public.  Her biases and opinions like all of ours, are our own until  we  unveil them publicly. Her continued public ties with her vilely racist brother  are even more indicative of her lack of judgment.  It is especially worthy of note that in addition  to Walgreens, Home Depot, Food Network, Smithfield, her publisher, Target, J.C. Penny and Sears the issue was far from liberal. It was financially conservative , and apparently reflects their lack of faith in Ms. Deens ability to redeem herself in the public eye, The most significant proof of the total lack of “Liberal Agenda” conspiracy is  that  Wal-mart,  the world’s largest retailer and a company run by generations of rabidly  conservative Republicans,  dropped her like a hot rock.. 

So what, then,  is this “liberal agenda?”  As far as I can determine, the liberal  agenda  it is the radical  idea that all Americans, regardless of an individual’s personal feelings and biases  either way, deserve equal treatment before the law and in health care  and opportunity in society – a level playing field. Period! Now that I put it in writing I guess I actually can see why the Rabid Right fears  it so much.  Equal treatment also extends to marriage, freedom from religious intrusion into one’s life, freedom from job. housing, voting discrimination as well.  Using the phrase “liberal agenda”  like  swear words  does much more to describe the emotional pathology of the speaker than the attitudes of those who espouse it.