I deal daily with conservatives. I live in a viciously red state in a dominantly red community and even the Democrats are moderate to conservative socially and fiscally conservative. I stick out like a sore thumb. I am ultra-liberal socially. I am progressive, liberal, community-oriented fiscally. I speak out to ears of those ignorant of politics and what is going on every day. I've been labelled every name possible by the Right and some on the Left. My main issues are social ones. Civil liberties are huge. Probably #1 in my book. However, I get sick and tired of my "liberal" friends talk about how they are economically conservative. WHY? What the hell do you want to support trickle-down, pre-Depression, CEO-lobbyist-commanded economics for?!? Some REPUBLICAN or CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRAT gets up at 6:00 am to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot full of good clean drinking water because some liberal fought for minimum water quality standards. He takes his daily medication with his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure they are safe and work as advertised. All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by his employers medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance, now he gets it too. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs this day. His bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry. He takes his morning shower reaching for his shampoo; His bottle is properly labeled with every ingredient and the amount of its contents because some liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained. He dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some tree hugging liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air. He walks to the subway station for his government subsidized ride to work; it saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees. You see, some liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor. He begins his work day; he has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation days because some liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. His employer pays these standards because his employer doesn't want his employees to call the union. If he is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some liberal didn't think he should loose his home because of his temporary misfortune. It's noon time, he needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. his deposits are federally insured by the FSLIC because some liberal wanted to protect his money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Depression. He has to pay his Fannie Mae underwritten mortgage and his below market federal student loan because some stupid liberal decided that he and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his life-time. He is home from work, he plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive to dads; his car is among the safest in the world because some liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood home. He was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans. The house didn't have electric until some big government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification. (Those rural Republican's would still be sitting in the dark). He is happy to see his dad who is now retired. His dad lives on Social Security and his union pension because some liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to. After his visit with dad he gets back in his car for the ride home. He turns on a radio talk show, the host's keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. (He doesn't tell Joe that his beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day) He agrees, "We don't need those tax and spend liberals ruining our lives; after all, I'm a self made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have". OH YEAH...THOSE CONSERVATIVES....Other than telling us how to live, think, marry, pray, vote, invest, educate our children and, now, die, I think the Republicans have done a fine job of getting government out of our personal lives. And for you FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE Democrats, your "conservative" economic policies benefit the Top 1% who use and ABUSE the majority of the natural and public resources--they should pay more.
So, basically anyone who doesn't share your views is an idiot? Gotya! Liberal = Good Conservative = Bad
Libertine, this sort of society doesn't exist any more. The unionised jobs are FAST disappearing. Ford, GM and Dodge are laying people off left and right. Only 6% of people have a pension.
Swap the words 'republican' and 'democrat'/delete the word 'conservative' (misnomer). Post #1 still reads pretty much the same...
In my opinion, liberals are just as bad, if not worse, when it comes to telling people how to live, think, vote, etc... Like the conservatives he so much despises, people like Libertine are blinded by their own caged beliefs, always failing to see the much bigger picture. As long as we continue with this sort of mindless, childish, hateful mentality, people will remain divided and there never will be any change, because people will always be at each other's throats, failing to see their common enemy, which is the state. Perhaps some radical robot leftists see a bit of themselves in the opposite polarity of radical robot conservatives. Both believe THEY are right and that THEY are justified in imposing their rigid beliefs on other people. All I can say to BOTH sides is GROW THE FUCK UP!
You DUMBASS, I am not a Party Democrat. And if you want to compare PROGRESSIVE philosophy with those of Conservatives, it shows all of your ignorance of history AND politics.
Rat As far as I can tell you believe that there is a fight going on for world domination between your ‘good’ god and ‘evil’ devil worshippers. And that if people are not on the side of your ‘good’ god and do and believe what you tell then they are working (knowingly or not) for the ‘evil’ devil worshippers. So you presumably believe you are justified in your rigid beliefs and your attempts to impose them on others ?
Libertine, I thought it was good. I don't send "Forwards" to my freinds, but if I did, I would make this into one. Good job.
Libertine, without question knows how to write effective posts. The State is not the problem, it's merely a symptom of much deeper problems. The State is Civilization itself, and technology is making it stronger every day. So unless you've found the balls to let go of Civilization, your critique of The State will remain naive. In our Civilized social environment, the only question is; in whose interest is State power to be used, the Propertied Elite or the Rest of Us. The Liberal Enlightenment and its Age of Reason has done more to fight Elitism, and promote our common humanity in the mind of Western Man than any other movement. The Liberal Movement has definitely helped fight the Elite's State sanctioned racism, classism and sectarianism. If it were not for Liberalism, Western Man would be so in the grip of propertied Elite prejudices that even your feared Fascism would seem a utopian heaven.
Yeah! Everyone else missed the point of the original post entirely. While so-called liberalism today has its downfalls (ie being morphed into conservatives) it's people who cared about people who made this world a tolerable place to be in. As many problems as we have, we're really living in the best times there have ever been. We have wide-spread justice, we have a pretty good general security, most of us don't have to fear our neighbours or diseases or violence because people fought for us. The disturbing thing is all the modern thinking shifting toward making everyone fend for themselves. Yeah, you should make your own way, but do it for the good of society. Give a shit about someone else, and you'll find there are greater rewards....
Libertine, overall I agree wholeheartedly with your assesment, but true conservatism has its merits. The word conservative was meant to denote a progressive philosophy that would be carried out systematicaly. Liberalism was simply those same objectives carried out in a quicker succession. They were in essence, variations on the same overarching idea of reform. You seem to have an excellent grasp of history though, so I applaud your post.
