"Park Geun-hye, trying to dissolve the progressive party, is scary!" I add a little fun when replying to a friend's text message. "Do you think she really thinks the Jusapa (Juchesasangpa: a South Korean far-left movement) is dangerous or is it purely revenge on Lee Jung-hee?" "Pure revenge! Haha" "It must be hard for her. If it was her father, he would have handled it so easily; but with democracy, she has to justify herself and keep an eye on public opinion. Kind of like the sorrows of a princess living in a republic." "Yeah, right." "I'm just joking around because I'm unhappy with our habit of establishing an identity through Lee Myung-bak and through Park Geun-hye. Let's stop justifying ourselves by cursing others and talk about our story, our prospects."

"Watching the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun government, I realized that the world does not change simply because the government did. But watching the Lee Myung-bak government, I realized that the world can completely be ruined depending on the government." The leftists, who were critical of the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun government, probably joined the anti-Lee Myung-bak movement in the name of "social liberals," because of these thoughts. Lee Myung-bak was evil enough, but he was hideous at the same time, so his words and behaviors simply drove the leftists crazy. "The Lee Myung-bak government returned the Korean society to thirty years ago." Such words are an exaggeration (Of course, Lee Myung-bak would have managed more than that. But in order to make society go back thirty years, we need citizens at "the level of thirty years ago.") His ugly behavior will go down in history.

Anyway, that was how most of the leftists joined the anti-Lee Myung-bak movement, but the problem was what followed. As they continued to grind their teeth at Lee Myung-bak and spend their days cursing him, the anti-Lee Myung-bak movement lost its content and became a feast of "Who can curse Lee Myung-bak better?" and Lee Myung-bak ended up at the helm of the movement. The enthusiasm for the anti-Lee Myung-bak movement was solely an issue of how many problems Lee Myung-bak provided. Ironically, Lee Myung-bak became the actual leader of the anti-Lee Myung-bak movement. The words of Kim Kim Ou-joon--"Everything was all thanks to the president"--in the end, were not a joke. But submission can be achieved not only through respect, but also through contempt, and more firmly at that.

The progressives, as an anti-Lee Myung-bak movement, collapsed in three stages. First, a social reflection on the topic of "Why was Lee Myung-bak elected?" disappeared. (Why bother to reflect when anyone could easily secure a position of justice and progress as long as they criticized Lee Myung-bak.) Second, as all social problems, even those that were passed down from previous liberal governments were blamed on Lee Myung-bak, accurate criticism and analysis of reality disappeared. In addition, all discussions and discourses ended up condemning Lee Myung-bak, and thus all discussions and discourses were leveled down to Lee Myung-bak's level. (What's the need for serious debates and discourses when all people are doing is just criticizing Lee Myung-bak?) Third, with such natural consequences, the diverse and serious alternatives and prospects of the social liberals disappeared. (Anything other than "Shut up and let's have a change of government" all were regarded as ideological and unrealistic words.)

These social liberals found it difficult to win an election. Many in the progressive camp expressed their disappointment at the public which voted for Park Geun-hye, but from the public's perspective, why did they have to vote for the liberals? Why did the public have to vote for those whose 10 years in office were also disappointing, who took advantage of the public's hostility toward Lee Myung-bak and spoke of moral superiority and hope without any self-reflection, who seemed to have no prospects, nothing different other than that they had changed from "Lee Myung-bak bashing" to "Park Geun-hye bashing"? What choice did the public, "who hated Lee Myung-bak or criticized Lee Myung-bak," have left?

Eventually, the only thing left to today's social liberals is just a single feeble slogan: "minimum common sense." Needless to say that guarding this minimum common sense is important, when it is threatened. But talk of this minimum common sense may mean that we should recover it; or it can also imply that we have nothing to claim other than this minimum common sense. Today's liberals argue that we should recover this minimum common sense, but actually this is all they have to boast about. The only thing that these liberals can do is wait until the enemy destroys that minimum. The liberals have approached the threshold of "the ideal death of liberals after democracy," which is what the governing system wants.

The Progressive Party, the Korean Teachers' Union, the Korean Government Employees' Union... As everyone says, there's something disquieting about the dark shadows of the Park Geun-hye government. The meticulousness and decisiveness in reading the public's mind and executing their plans is in a different class from Lee Myung-bak. If there is no reflection, independent content, and prospect among the liberals, nothing will change just by calling Park Geun-hye "a president of online comments," and by condemning her for being "a dictator" just as nothing changed by calling Lee Myung-bak "a rat." Just as the anti-Lee Myung-bak movement ended as "a movement of people who were already against Lee Myung-bak," the anti-Park Geun-hye movement will remain "a movement of people already against Park Geun-hye." Just as the true leader of the anti-Lee Myung-bak movement was Lee Myung-bak, the leader of the anti-Park Geun-hye movement will be Park Geun-hye. How easy it is to curse and taunt! However, we need to calmly ask ourselves before we curse and taunt. Are the liberals fighting against Park Geun-hye or are they living off her?