i’m liberal, yes, but…

There was a school shooting at my son’s High School in Seattle last week. It was the third this year.

An interesting article is going around from the Seattle Times that references Officer Bennie - the police officer who was on campus from 2008 to 2019. He was let go by the district during the “defund the police” movement around George Floyd and now, many, are wondering if that not only did not help, but hurt.

Which brings me to a broader principle. I’m liberal as hell but I’m also practical and it seems like the one thing liberals don’t do well is acknowledge the state of the culture,

So, yes, I think homeless should be treated as whole human beings and allowed to camp in cities, BUT, are we ready for that culturally?
Yes, I think drugs should be decriminalized, BUT are we ready for that culturally?
Yes, I think we should defund the police, BUT…

And if I want to be an asshole I could argue that it’s the MAGA wing of the Republican Party who, in part, is not letting the culture be there. But I think it’s much more than that - I think it’s acknowledging that we don’t live in a culture where those things always work. There is so much to be done BEFORE we can get to those principles and many of those principles require a shit ton of time and work that we don’t necessarily want to give.

Are we ready to tax the wealthy and build housing?
Are we ready to provide free mental health treatment and addiction services to homeless?
Are we ready to do so many things that we might need to do before we’re ready to just let humans camp in downtowns for however long and wherever they want.

In short, it’s been said many times but it’s definitely worth saying again: culture eats strategy for breakfast.

We aren’t Sweden. God I wish we were, but we’re not. We’re a selfish, capitalistic, violent, individualistic, culture. Yes, there is all kinds of beautiful moments (and if fact violent crime is at some of the lowest levels its been in years) but maybe we need to work on moving the culture a bit more, before acting like we already live in it?

I could be wrong but it’s how I feel right now.