And to those who have voted for that distinction, I wanted to say thanks.


I’ve always thought it funny that this feature, so diametrically opposed to what a supposed majority of Lancaster Countians think, should be so honored. But then, Lancaster County is an extraordinarily fertile place to write a newspaper column — particularly one that specifically seeks to challenge the conventional wisdom.


Frankly, I get the idea that no one ever really has challenged the conventional wisdom around here. Which isn’t to say that there aren’t those who disagree with it; but mostly, they seem to have been intimidated into silence, afraid to raise their voices and be angrily shouted down.


I get a lot of that, as you might imagine. I get a lot of how dare yous. People who hew to the conventional wisdom in a town where it isn’t often challenged don’t want it to be challenged. And they’re mortally offended when it is.


Good.


Such people should be offended, I think. They should be challenged. Their complacency needs to be shaken. They need to be exposed to something beyond what they already think. I have tried to do that.


And over the years, what has given me the most satisfaction has not been those who say they agree with everything they read here — because face it, if you agree with me all the time you probably need mental help — but rather those who say they usually disagree with me, but that I’ve forced them to better consider their own position, that I’ve made them think.


That’s what it’s all about. And some of the best exchanges I’ve had have been with conservative readers, who, frankly, wind up making me think.


But I’ve also gotten a kick out of how many conservative readers can’t hit the curve ball. It’s as if they expect and need their liberals to be meek and mild, begging for a place at the table rather than defiantly seizing it. That someone like me, an adamant proponent of treating gays like actual citizens and human beings, might also be a married father of two, a beer-drinking Pittsburgh Steelers fan, simply does not compute. Because they have bought into the stereotypes. They think liberalism is what Ann Coulter or Fox News says it is.


But the wind is shifting.


It was The American Prospect magazine that coined the term “new ‘new’ Democrats”: gleefully pugilistic, fiercely opposed to the war in Iraq and proudly unapologetic about the progressive agenda. I most definitely place myself in that camp. And since Sept. 11, and even more so since the invasion of Iraq, I have determined that I shall not sit idly by, a mere observer as mendacious fools drag us ever closer to disaster and turn this country into something resembling a police state. Instead, I will give as good as “liberals” typically get.


And I’ve found that, like all bullies, the bellowing, bellicose followers of the conservative movement tend to whine like spoiled children when you stand up and smack them, rhetorically, in the mouth.


I can’t lie: It’s great fun to do so. And so for those who have enjoyed reading it, as well as those who have been on the receiving end, the message is the same:


Stay tuned. There’s more where that came from.


Gil Smart is associate editor of the Sunday News. E-mail him at gsmart@lnpnews.com, or phone 291-8817.