I found it interesting that in the last 24 hours of GOP electioneering in Florida, the two favorites, US Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, accused each other of the worst of heresies: liberalism.
I mean, what could be worse than any hint of liberal thinking in a Presidential candidate's brain or background?
To me, liberalism has always connoted open-mindedness and tolerance.
And in the nation's history, liberal politics gave us Social Security, Medicare, The Clean Water Act, The Clean Air Act, The Civil Rights Act, Rural Electrification and a host of other programs that most Americans use, support and take for granted.
Liberals let conservatives like Rush Limbaugh demonize the term and substitute their own false definitions for liberal and liberalism.
Liberals need to reclaim the language, be in charge of defining it, never apologize for it and certainly not run from it.
The trouble with engaging Limbaugh's limitless stream of fallacies is you actually have to sit down and listen to him at some point. Thankfully several others are actually willing to make that commitment.
ReplyDeleteMe, I can handle a few minutes of Hannity or O'Reilly every now and then, but even that's just for entertainment and laughs (and not the sort of laughs they're seeking, either).
I listen here and there. Sometimes, on road trips, it keeps me awake.
ReplyDelete"Open mindedness" you have got to be kidding me. Liberals are the most closed minded people I know. If they do not get their way, the moan and whine. Most are disrespectful if you do not agree with them. Just tying telling one you do not agree with man-made global warming. Liberals want power, that is it. Conservatives want to give individuals power. Most liberals are elitists. I would want my worst enemy being called a liberal
ReplyDelete>"Open mindedness" you have got to be kidding me. Liberals are the most closed minded people I know. If they do not get their way, the moan and whine. Most are disrespectful if you do not agree with them.<
ReplyDeleteThen Sykes, Belling and Wagner are liberals, because that's how they behave daily.
The question that needs to be asked is what has conservatism done for the American people?
ReplyDeleteKR:
ReplyDeleteI cannot answer that question here. The short answer is that it has given you the power to make your own choices and not have the Government make them for you. Where I think that our current Government has failed (not a failure of conservatism), is not providing the average American with more opportunities to get ahead. NAFTA (Which Clinton signed), tax benefits for going overseas, lack of oversight over financial markets. Not having more of a free market in health care and taking care of special interest groups, instead of doing what is best of the American people. Healthcare got expensive when the Government started mandating things.
I guess I can counter, what has liberalism done? Except make Americans dependent on Government programs. Social Security, medicare and medicaid are going broke. Americans are going to be in for a massive tax increase to pay for these promised entitlements.
President Bush and congress since 2006, have not acted like true conservatives. They spent money like crazy on stupid pet projects and on that mistake in Iraq.