“Hi, my name is Heshy.  I’m a liberal-holic.”  Everyone in the synagogue basement room, sitting on folding chairs, responds, “Hi, Heshy!”

Heshy speaks: “I’m a little bit nervous to share my story.  I guess I’ve always been a liberal-holic.  Ever since I was a kid, I can remember not really caring about anyone but wanting to make it look like I cared.”  Moans of understanding emanate from the crowded room.

Heshy shares: “It became so easy as a teenager to promote such irresponsible thinking, as I had no responsibilities and never read the paper or intelligent political writings or had any concept of fiscal stability or global insurgent threats.  What made it worse was that everyone around me encouraged such behavior.  It was the thing to do.  Peer pressure dominated over sensibility.  And then, as I got older, I learned to binge on the catchphrases ‘social justice’ this and ‘environmental’ that.

“Any sobering thought of reality and common sense was immediately tossed out of my head for fear that I would be shunned by the welcoming liberal community around me, by my parents and their friends, or by teachers and professors whom I so wanted acceptance from.

“The television and radio broadcasted over and over again images and stories and concepts that made me drunk with aloof feelings of correctness and a dreamy false sense of security and elitism over my fellow citizens.  The media became my gateway drug, fostered by my peers.  I couldn’t get enough of liberalism, and one useless futile liberal cause led to another.  I would sometimes have blackouts and not even remember what the purpose of a solidarity boycott stood for, or what a liberal political candidate was even talking about.  I would wake up on a street curb with a ‘Save the Dolphins’ brochure in my torn jeans’ pocket and lipstick stains on my collar left by Ralph Nader.  Children would pass by and taunt me about how I was the cause of their grandchildren’s monetary deficit.

“I learned to hide my anti-social behavior and counterproductive mindset by labeling everything I did as ‘human rights. ’  My liberalism got so bad that even if it would impoverish an entire community, I would support all types of programs and entitlements just to maintain my feel-good high.  I was not a substance abuser; I was a form abuser.

“Yes, now that I am socially sober and on a road of recovery, I can see everything more clearly.  I had been living a life of form over substance.”

Some in the room applaud, while others wipe the tears from their sympathetic once government-codependent eyes.  Heshy continues, “It was so difficult to go against or separate from the seemingly happy-go-lucky group who filled their bottles with terms like ‘open-mindedness’ and poured out the words ‘free thinking’ into their mugs and steins.

“I certainly didn’t want to be close-minded and obstinate.  Who wants to be a downer?  Who wants to be the killjoy of the (liberal) party?  I didn’t want to be accused of attacking and standing in the way of races and genders and ovaries and sperms and cells and unwanted fetuses and bi, tri, and trans lifestyles.  I didn’t want to be a right-wing religious nut.  I just wanted to fit in and be liked, and that meant always being anti-war, anti-guns, and anti-military, and blindly supporting any and all underdog global regimes.

“I thirsted for the ‘saccharinated’ feigned sugary liberal Kool-Aid.  I couldn’t give it up.  I needed it.  I was too weak to even try going dry.  Do you know what it takes to not support UNICEF?  Children, children, children was the magic mushroom that brought hallucinations of immediate self-satisfaction to my mind.  Worry about the welfare of the children of terrorists, legalize drugs for our children, open the Arizona border for their children...as long as I put the word ‘children’ in the serum, I could stick the justification needle in my liberal arm and get high.

“I really believed at that time that the only way to stand up for justice, social issues, and the civil rights of all citizens and humanity was to smoke the liberal pipe.  I didn’t know at the time that I could support real social justice issues and care about all races, religions, genders, and lifestyles and still breathe within a different political community.  I so wanted to be compassionate and caring and fair.  That form over substance mantra kept gnawing at my gut.  Did I care about the perception and the reception, or the consequences and the cost?

“And then finally I hit rock bottom.  There I was, smiling, holding hands with an entire community singing Kumbaya while chewing gum that was manufactured without the harming of baby seals; I was living the dream.

“And then something happened.  I noticed that I was holding hands and singing at a party that didn’t understand that Iran has nuclear weapons a breath away from destroying Israel.  I didn’t mind hugging trees, but I was nauseous with the thought of embracing any faction or entity that did not understand the moral integrity of Israel and its right for security and a life without constant terror and fear.  I was incensed with any group that didn’t comprehend that Jews are indeed indigenous to the land of Israel.  I was awakened with a cold wind of knowledge that I was standing with uncompassionate cold-hearted stoners who had no care for the fright of the citizens of Sderot and who rationalize and validate the murderous actions of Palestinian terrorism.

“How could I hold hands with those who, for their own liberal political and religious agendas, would hijack Israel, threaten Israel, and extort Israel?  How could these people who supposedly stand for justice, civil rights, and social welfare try to suffocate the living, breathing, existing paradigm of justice – modern-day Israel?

“How could the liberal president travel all over the world and visit every dictator, monarch, and despot while distancing himself from the very nation of social political democratic justice, Israel?  Israel, the place where all genders, lifestyles, and social issues and causes are part of the fabric of its society.  Israel, where debate and ethical discussion live in democratic security, while being surrounded by a geography of lands that blatantly obstruct the fight for the downtrodden, the feminist plight, and human rights?  I am shaking from such treatment, but I am in recovery, sober, and clear-headed.

“My name is Heshy.  I am a liberal-holic.”

Rabbi Dr. David Nesenoff is an internationally renowned speaker on Israel, anti-Semitism, Judaism, Chasidut, and media.  His video interview exposing and expelling the anti-Semite Helen Thomas from the Washington Press Corps went viral and became global news. nesenoff@gmail.com