I am a Liberal
And I want others who feel like me to be proud of being a LIBERAL!!!
I look at what LIBERALS have done for this country and I am proud of LIBERALS accomplishments.
Somehow conservatives have made LIBERAL into almost a curse word
Yet its LIBERALS who have made this country what it is.
If you want to measure us in Red State, Blue State terms then do
Blue States have higher rates of High School Graduation, lower Teen Pregnancy rates, Higher percentages of College Graduates, lower Crime Rates, lower infant mortality rates, and Higher incomes.
LIBERALS live better
The states with the most uninsured - almost all Red States
The states that get more in Federal spending states than they pay in taxes - mostly Red States. The states the get less in Federal Spending than they pay in taxes - mostly Blue States
Since WWII, the economy has consistently performed better under Democratic Administrations than under Republicans
Same for the Stock Market
Arise Liberals
Take on Conservatives
Ask them what Conservatism has done for America
Ask them how Conservatives have made America better. They won't have an answer. They will only have attacks on Liberals and Democrats
Arise Liberals
Proclaim your politics
Be proud of what Liberals have done for this country
Challenge Conservatives. Ask them to show anything they have led on other than opposing things that this country needs
Ask them when was the last time Conservatives were right about anything
Arise Liberals
Be proud of what LIBERALS have done for this country
This country is a better country because of what LIBERALS have done.
Can conservatives say that. Can they tell you about all the great things they have done for this country??? No!!
Arise Liberals
Be Proud of the traditions and heritage you are inheriting
Continue to be those things that have made this country better
ARISE LIBERALS
Announcement of opinions for Tuesday, April 16
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[image: Announcement of opinions for Tuesday, April 16]On Tuesday, April
16, we will be live blogging as the court releases opinions in one or more
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8 comments:
Another statistic to consider was detailed several years ago on the 60 Minutes (CBS) tevevision show. One county in Missippi is infamous for the gretest number of medical/pharmacautical malpractice suits in the United States.
Walt - suggesting that labels like "Liberal" and "Conservative" contain the depth and breadth of ideas is both foolish and counterproductive, especially if blue-staters have a monopoly on liberalism and red-staters a monopoly on conservatism.
Martin Luther King, Jr. - a conservative if defined solely on his belief in something that seems only to be found the red camp: eternal salvation and present peace through the Jesus Christ as savior. But certainly "liberal" in that civil rights was a progressive movement.
Increasingly polarizing people as idealogues rather than judging individual ideas as conservative or liberal will further widen the gap and further embolden some of the strange bedfellows that red and blue have created.
Why do right-for-lifers typically ignore the poor? Because red political idealogues have aligned themselves with both the "moral majority" profit-for-greed capitalism and their lobbyists.
Why do tree-huggers typically advocate gay marriage? Because blue idealogues have aligned themselves with both environmental activists and gay-rights activists and their lobbyists.
There do exist environmentally-conscious pro-lifers and gay oil barons. Our bipartisan system drives us to vilify our opponents as merely evil-doers of the other color rather than allowing us to discern each issue on its merits.
Liberalism as such is merely progress away from conservatism for progress' sake, and conservatism as such is maintaining the status quo simply because that's the way we've always done it.
There are two kinds of fools: the one who believes that the old is best because it is old, and the one who believes the new is best simply because it is new.
As the Coach has implied, there are only two valid choices when voting. Many in the GOP are pro-abortion, gay, and/or "liberal" but do not like the all-white leadership of the DNC.
Many Democrats voted for Ronald Reagan and detest Al Gore.
To lump people into stereotypical groups is bigotry...
We are all unique.
Coach,
I admit your point that many people have a range of beliefs some of which are "Conservative" and some of which are "Liberal".
But the terms do have power.
Conservatives/Republicans have, for decades, acted if Liberal was almost a curse word.
The point of my post is not that everyone falls completely into one camp or the other. The point of my post is for people like me who broadly belief that government can be a positive part of solutions to many of our problems, people who believe like I do that government is not the enemy, the point of my post is for people like me to proudly stand up and declare their Liberalism.
The point of my post is not that we have to put others into one category, its for Liberals to stand up proudly and proclaim that LIBERALISM HAS BEEN FAR FAR BETTER FOR THIS COUNTRY THAN CONSERVATISM!
So although I accept the point of your comment, you ignored the point of mine.
In an earlier post I asked all my readers (even though that is a frustratingly small number) what has Conservatism done for this country? What are the positive things that Conservatives have done to make this country better?
And no one was willing to stand up and praise the benefits of Conservatism.
I have no such problem praising the benefits of Liberalism.
I am proud to be a Liberal and proud of what Liberals have done for this country.
That was the point of my post. A appreciate, as always, any comments. However, I don't think you can read my post to say that I insist that everyone, or anyone for that matter, has to fit neatly into a box labeled Liberal or Conservative.
Arise Liberals Arise.
Walt -
To respond clearly to your request/challenge of "conservatism":
What have conservatives done?
Martin Luther King, Jr. led a progressive movement by regular people (not government) to move more closely to equality through both legislation and personal conscience.
Jimmy Carter (a democrat to be sure) has urged and led regular citizens (again, not through the power of government) in humanitarian causes across the board and around the world. Similarly acting for the good of the poor: Conservative organizations like Compassion International, the Heifer Project, Christian Children's Fund, World Vision.
LIberalism as you define it has certainly begotten some powerful and meaningful changes in our country and society as a whole, but asserting that Liberalism is better than Conservatism because of the greater number of things it has improved negates the value of having both Liberal and Conservative ideas. Some things are better without government control - not because the government is the enemy of everything but because it is sometimes a poor solution for things.
Coach,
Thanks for rising to the challenge.
I find it interesting that you chose Martin Luther King (not a conservative by any measure) and Jimmy Carter (at best a moderate Democrat) as your examples of what conservatives have done for this country.
Dr. King, in particular led the most important movement for social and legal change in this country since womens suffarage.
Your concept that Dr. King was a conservative pure because he was a Christian implies that there is some contradiction between Liberalism and Christianity. There is no contradiction. It would be easy to show Jesus Christ as a Liberal. His compassion for the poor and his disdain for the wealthy are traits that are far more common in modern Liberals than in modern Conservatives. The concept that there is some inherent contradiction between Liberalism and Christianity is ludicrious on the face of it
I accept that both of these men have accomplished great things and both have richly deserved the Nobel Prized each was awarded. But neither are conservatives.
And the organizations you cited also do great work. Some of them even do great work in this country. But the focus for all of the organizations you cited is helping people in need in the poorer parts of the world. Their work in this country is not what they talk about, its not the focus of their requests for donations and its not the focus of that their websites talk about.
Organizations like ACORN whose focus is on domestic needs are the frequent brunt of conservative attacks.
Please understand me, I don't simply believe that Liberals and the Liberal things they have done for this country have been far more beneficial to this country than conservative "accomplishments", I am hard pressed to find any conservative "accomplishments".
I'm glad that you agree with me that MLK is liberal despite (or because of) the face that he's a Christian. The same with Jimmy Carter. We have come to a point in our nation (and have probably been here a while) where our political views have so associated themselves inappropriately with other views (religion in particular) where people will seriously ask questions like "Is Jesus a Democrat or a Republican" and think they can answer one or the other.
Again, I go back to the idea that names like liberal/conservative or red/blue really do nothing to add to the argument, and that the line-item veto in personal politics is essential.
On another note, you have a hard time finding conservative "accomplishments." This may be a function of your definition. If conservatism is keeping an existing system intact, then indeed there won't be much to accomplish except maintenance. Liberalism will, by definition, always "accomplish" things when it takes hold, whereas conservatism only accomplishes its goal when things continue as they are.
Coach,
I agree that a lack of accomplishment is to a degree in the definition of conservativism.
And there in lies the problem. As a nation we have serious problems. The concept that we have 47 million uninsured people in this country is a national disgrace. Our two biggest social programs are underfunded. We are fighting two wars. We have huge budget deficits. We have more people per capita in prison than any other industrialized nation. And that doesn't even address the global problems we are facing because of climate change/global warming.
We, for all our greatness, have real problems.
And the response of conservatives is to do nothing. To obstruct, to delay, to out right lie in order to stop Democrats from addressing these serious problems.
From 2001 till earlier this year this country had a Republican President and for the first 6 of those years he had a Republican congress and they ignored all of our problems.
So yes, the absence of achievement by conservatives is partly due to the definition of conservatism.
But can we afford to do nothing?
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