Ten Reasons I'll Never Be A Liberal
What It Means To Be A Liberal
Taken from an article in the Chicago Tribune, written by Geoffrey R. Stone, Law Professor at the university of Chicago.
Mr. Stone writes
1. Liberals believe individuals should doubt their own truths and consider fairly and open-mindedly the truths of others. This is at the very heart of liberalism. Liberals understand, as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once observed, that "time has upset many fighting faiths." Liberals are skeptical of censorship and celebrate free and open debate. Yup, just as long as it coincides with what THEY believe in. They have no problems censoring debates and anything else they don't agree with. Columbia University, anyone? Instead of listening politely to the speaker, Columbia University students decided that storming the stage and shouting the opposition down was the order of the day. Real champions of free speech there, huh?
2. Liberals believe individuals should be tolerant and respectful of difference. It is liberals who have supported and continue to support the civil rights movement, affirmative action, the Equal Rights Amendment and the rights of gays and lesbians. (Note that a conflict between propositions 1 and 2 leads to divisions among liberals on issues like pornography and hate speech.) All programs and ideas that have wreaked untold damage on those it was meant to help, i.e., the poor and black. In my opinion, welfare has done nothing for blacks except reduce black men to sperm donors. They have been replaced as providers for their families by the ubiquitous "welfare check." And we wonder why they go to jail in such alarming numbers, way out of proportion to their percentage of the population.
3. Liberals believe individuals have a right and a responsibility to participate in public debate. It is liberals who have championed and continue to champion expansion of the franchise; the elimination of obstacles to voting; "one person, one vote;" limits on partisan gerrymandering; campaign-finance reform; and a more vibrant freedom of speech. They believe, with Justice Louis Brandeis, that "the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people."Yep, the Liberals believe in voting, all right! They believe that the dead should still vote, that convicted felons should vote, and that illegal aliens should have the vote, too! Who cares if they don't have that pesky citizenship? The Liberal philosophy is "Vote Early, and Vote Often!!
4. Liberals believe "we the people" are the governors and not the subjects of government, and that government must treat each person with that in mind. It is liberals who have defended and continue to defend the freedom of the press to investigate and challenge the government, the protection of individual privacy from overbearing government monitoring, and the right of individuals to reproductive freedom. (Note that libertarians, often thought of as "conservatives," share this value with liberals.) As long as We The People are in charge, of course. When it's the Republicans in charge, it's Bushitler all the way!
5. Liberals believe government must respect and affirmatively safeguard the liberty, equality and dignity of each individual. It is liberals who have championed and continue to champion the rights of racial, religious and ethnic minorities, political dissidents, persons accused of crime and the outcasts of society. It is liberals who have insisted on the right to counsel, a broad application of the right to due process of law and the principle of equal protection for all people.
And it's those same Liberals who want to treat terrorists like mere criminals, give them lawyers, and hold trials. They just don't seem to get the idea that terrorists do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Geneva Conventions, and although I'm sorry for John McCain's experience in a Vietnamese POW camp, today's terrorists do not wear uniforms, and do not represent a particular country. They don't DESERVE protection, as they don't recognize Western laws anyway.
These are also the same Liberals who would have your school aged children reading about Dick and Lane, instead of Dick and Jane. They want to make homosexuality not just an "alternative" lifestyle, but they want it to be considered mainstream, and the aggressive Gay lobby wants to indoctrinate YOUR children that homosexuality is OK. Well, it's not a mainstream lifestyle. I have gay friends, and I don't have any problem with them practicing their lifestyle if it makes them happy. What I DO have a problem with is the idea that it's a NORMAL way of life. It's not. As far as I'm concerned, there are plenty of civil documents that can be used to address the issues that gays think marriage will solve, i.e., who can be in the emergency room when someone is dying (living will), inheritances (a regular will) and breaking up (a contractual agreement, signed and witnessed). They don't NEED marriage, per se, what they WANT is to have homosexuality accepted as normal. Sorry, but it isn't normal.
6. Liberals believe government has a fundamental responsibility to help those who are less fortunate. It is liberals who have supported and continue to support government programs to improve health care, education, social security, job training and welfare for the needyest members of society. It is liberals who maintain that a national community is like a family and that government exists in part to "promote the general welfare." Sorry, but I'm grown and don't need the government to be my DADDY. What ever happened to personal responsibility and civic duty? All the problems that occurred in New Orleans would never have happened if all those poor blacks had been encouraged to DO FOR THEMSELVES, instead of waiting on DADDY to come bail 'em out. The welfare mentality is killing our country. What ever happened to "Ask not what your Country can do for you, but what YOU can do for your Country." JFK must be twirling in his grave. WELFARE DOES NOT WORK. Handouts don't work. There is no dignity in handouts. Welfare should be a hand UP. What part of that don't the Libs understand?
7. Liberals believe government should never act on the basis of sectarian faith. It is liberals who have opposed and continue to oppose school prayer and the teaching of creationism in public schools and who support government funding for stem-cell research, the rights of gays and lesbians and the freedom of choice for women. Well, this may be the one point the Libs and I somewhat agree on. I'm in favor of stem cell research, and I'm also pro-choice. I realize that this doesn't quite jibe with the image of a conservative, but that's why I call myself a Liberal Republican. I really don't understand why they need to take the phrase "under God" out of the Pledge of allegiance, though. This country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and the lips need to get over it. If you're not religious, great, I'm not, but I respect the idea of God, and I respect the Judea-Christian principles that our country was founded upon. I believe there MUST be morals in any society that wishes to survive.
8. Liberals believe courts have a special responsibility to protect individual liberties. It is principally liberal judges and justices who have preserved and continue to preserve freedom of expression, individual privacy, freedom of religion and due process of law. (Conservative judges and justices more often wield judicial authority to protect property rights and the interests of corporations, commercial advertisers and the wealthy.) Judges are appointed to INTERPRET the law, not MAKE the law. Until the lips get the difference, I hope the only Presidents choosing Judges will be conservatives, who want the Judges to STICK TO THE CONSTITUTION.
9. Liberals believe government must protect the safety and security of the people, for without such protection liberalism is impossible. This, of course, is less a tenet of liberalism than a reply to those who attack liberalism. The accusation that liberals are unwilling to protect the nation from internal and external dangers is false. Because liberals respect competing values, such as procedural fairness and individual dignity, they weigh more carefully particular exercises of government power (such as the use of secret evidence, hearsay and torture), but they are no less willing to use government authority in other forms (such as expanded police forces and international diplomacy) to protect the nation and its citizens. Boy, Anita that the truth! Trouble is, they're willing to use the government to impeach and otherwise harass conservatives! The Libs flat cannot be trusted with national security. They can't even be trusted to reform immigration. If they had their way, they'd just throw open our borders and actively encourage the Mexicans to take back California, Texas and parts of Arizona and Nevada. The Libs idea of "diplomacy" is to throw all kinds of money at Kim Jong Il, and then turn a blind eye when he goes back on their "deal" before the ink is even dry. They're all about appeasement, and will never learn that appeasement does not work.
10. Liberals believe government must protect the safety and security of the people, without unnecessarily sacrificing constitutional values. It is liberals who have demanded and continue to demand legal protections to avoid the conviction of innocent people in the criminal justice system, reasonable restraints on government surveillance of American citizens, and fair procedures to ensure that alleged enemy combatants are in fact enemy combatants. Liberals adhere to the view expressed by Brandeis some 80 years ago: "Those who won our independence ... did not exalt order at the cost of liberty." Innocent people, eh? Like Mumia? Like Tookey? Please, the ACLU needs to be disbanded and done away with. We're harboring Marxist/Lenonist/Communist traitors in our own ranks, and the rot is corrupting our society from the inside.
Taken from an article in the Chicago Tribune, written by Geoffrey R. Stone, Law Professor at the university of Chicago.
Mr. Stone writes
For most of the past four decades, liberals have been in retreat. Since the election of Richard Nixon in 1968, Republicans have controlled the White House 70 percent of the time and Republican presidents have made 86 percent of the U.S. Supreme Court appointments. In many quarters, the word "liberal" has become a pejorative. Part of the problem is that liberals have failed to define themselves and to state clearly what they believe. As a liberal, I find that appalling.
1. Liberals believe individuals should doubt their own truths and consider fairly and open-mindedly the truths of others. This is at the very heart of liberalism. Liberals understand, as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once observed, that "time has upset many fighting faiths." Liberals are skeptical of censorship and celebrate free and open debate. Yup, just as long as it coincides with what THEY believe in. They have no problems censoring debates and anything else they don't agree with. Columbia University, anyone? Instead of listening politely to the speaker, Columbia University students decided that storming the stage and shouting the opposition down was the order of the day. Real champions of free speech there, huh?
2. Liberals believe individuals should be tolerant and respectful of difference. It is liberals who have supported and continue to support the civil rights movement, affirmative action, the Equal Rights Amendment and the rights of gays and lesbians. (Note that a conflict between propositions 1 and 2 leads to divisions among liberals on issues like pornography and hate speech.) All programs and ideas that have wreaked untold damage on those it was meant to help, i.e., the poor and black. In my opinion, welfare has done nothing for blacks except reduce black men to sperm donors. They have been replaced as providers for their families by the ubiquitous "welfare check." And we wonder why they go to jail in such alarming numbers, way out of proportion to their percentage of the population.
3. Liberals believe individuals have a right and a responsibility to participate in public debate. It is liberals who have championed and continue to champion expansion of the franchise; the elimination of obstacles to voting; "one person, one vote;" limits on partisan gerrymandering; campaign-finance reform; and a more vibrant freedom of speech. They believe, with Justice Louis Brandeis, that "the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people."Yep, the Liberals believe in voting, all right! They believe that the dead should still vote, that convicted felons should vote, and that illegal aliens should have the vote, too! Who cares if they don't have that pesky citizenship? The Liberal philosophy is "Vote Early, and Vote Often!!
4. Liberals believe "we the people" are the governors and not the subjects of government, and that government must treat each person with that in mind. It is liberals who have defended and continue to defend the freedom of the press to investigate and challenge the government, the protection of individual privacy from overbearing government monitoring, and the right of individuals to reproductive freedom. (Note that libertarians, often thought of as "conservatives," share this value with liberals.) As long as We The People are in charge, of course. When it's the Republicans in charge, it's Bushitler all the way!
5. Liberals believe government must respect and affirmatively safeguard the liberty, equality and dignity of each individual. It is liberals who have championed and continue to champion the rights of racial, religious and ethnic minorities, political dissidents, persons accused of crime and the outcasts of society. It is liberals who have insisted on the right to counsel, a broad application of the right to due process of law and the principle of equal protection for all people.
And it's those same Liberals who want to treat terrorists like mere criminals, give them lawyers, and hold trials. They just don't seem to get the idea that terrorists do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Geneva Conventions, and although I'm sorry for John McCain's experience in a Vietnamese POW camp, today's terrorists do not wear uniforms, and do not represent a particular country. They don't DESERVE protection, as they don't recognize Western laws anyway.
These are also the same Liberals who would have your school aged children reading about Dick and Lane, instead of Dick and Jane. They want to make homosexuality not just an "alternative" lifestyle, but they want it to be considered mainstream, and the aggressive Gay lobby wants to indoctrinate YOUR children that homosexuality is OK. Well, it's not a mainstream lifestyle. I have gay friends, and I don't have any problem with them practicing their lifestyle if it makes them happy. What I DO have a problem with is the idea that it's a NORMAL way of life. It's not. As far as I'm concerned, there are plenty of civil documents that can be used to address the issues that gays think marriage will solve, i.e., who can be in the emergency room when someone is dying (living will), inheritances (a regular will) and breaking up (a contractual agreement, signed and witnessed). They don't NEED marriage, per se, what they WANT is to have homosexuality accepted as normal. Sorry, but it isn't normal.
6. Liberals believe government has a fundamental responsibility to help those who are less fortunate. It is liberals who have supported and continue to support government programs to improve health care, education, social security, job training and welfare for the needyest members of society. It is liberals who maintain that a national community is like a family and that government exists in part to "promote the general welfare." Sorry, but I'm grown and don't need the government to be my DADDY. What ever happened to personal responsibility and civic duty? All the problems that occurred in New Orleans would never have happened if all those poor blacks had been encouraged to DO FOR THEMSELVES, instead of waiting on DADDY to come bail 'em out. The welfare mentality is killing our country. What ever happened to "Ask not what your Country can do for you, but what YOU can do for your Country." JFK must be twirling in his grave. WELFARE DOES NOT WORK. Handouts don't work. There is no dignity in handouts. Welfare should be a hand UP. What part of that don't the Libs understand?
7. Liberals believe government should never act on the basis of sectarian faith. It is liberals who have opposed and continue to oppose school prayer and the teaching of creationism in public schools and who support government funding for stem-cell research, the rights of gays and lesbians and the freedom of choice for women. Well, this may be the one point the Libs and I somewhat agree on. I'm in favor of stem cell research, and I'm also pro-choice. I realize that this doesn't quite jibe with the image of a conservative, but that's why I call myself a Liberal Republican. I really don't understand why they need to take the phrase "under God" out of the Pledge of allegiance, though. This country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and the lips need to get over it. If you're not religious, great, I'm not, but I respect the idea of God, and I respect the Judea-Christian principles that our country was founded upon. I believe there MUST be morals in any society that wishes to survive.
8. Liberals believe courts have a special responsibility to protect individual liberties. It is principally liberal judges and justices who have preserved and continue to preserve freedom of expression, individual privacy, freedom of religion and due process of law. (Conservative judges and justices more often wield judicial authority to protect property rights and the interests of corporations, commercial advertisers and the wealthy.) Judges are appointed to INTERPRET the law, not MAKE the law. Until the lips get the difference, I hope the only Presidents choosing Judges will be conservatives, who want the Judges to STICK TO THE CONSTITUTION.
9. Liberals believe government must protect the safety and security of the people, for without such protection liberalism is impossible. This, of course, is less a tenet of liberalism than a reply to those who attack liberalism. The accusation that liberals are unwilling to protect the nation from internal and external dangers is false. Because liberals respect competing values, such as procedural fairness and individual dignity, they weigh more carefully particular exercises of government power (such as the use of secret evidence, hearsay and torture), but they are no less willing to use government authority in other forms (such as expanded police forces and international diplomacy) to protect the nation and its citizens. Boy, Anita that the truth! Trouble is, they're willing to use the government to impeach and otherwise harass conservatives! The Libs flat cannot be trusted with national security. They can't even be trusted to reform immigration. If they had their way, they'd just throw open our borders and actively encourage the Mexicans to take back California, Texas and parts of Arizona and Nevada. The Libs idea of "diplomacy" is to throw all kinds of money at Kim Jong Il, and then turn a blind eye when he goes back on their "deal" before the ink is even dry. They're all about appeasement, and will never learn that appeasement does not work.
10. Liberals believe government must protect the safety and security of the people, without unnecessarily sacrificing constitutional values. It is liberals who have demanded and continue to demand legal protections to avoid the conviction of innocent people in the criminal justice system, reasonable restraints on government surveillance of American citizens, and fair procedures to ensure that alleged enemy combatants are in fact enemy combatants. Liberals adhere to the view expressed by Brandeis some 80 years ago: "Those who won our independence ... did not exalt order at the cost of liberty." Innocent people, eh? Like Mumia? Like Tookey? Please, the ACLU needs to be disbanded and done away with. We're harboring Marxist/Lenonist/Communist traitors in our own ranks, and the rot is corrupting our society from the inside.
posted by Duchess Of Austin at 10:13 AM
1 Comments:
Secret shopping? I think anonymous has been out shoplifting again.
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Good piece, Duchess.
Do you ever wonder what's become of language? As in "liberal"? or "conservative"? or "gay"?
Language seems to've been stood on its head. Most "conservatives" I know are risk takers, fierce protectors of liberty and independence, developers, investors, innovators, extractors, builders, and contributors. Hardly seem to fit the defined origins of "to conserve" it seems. You might even say they're quite liberal.
And "liberals". Seems they're the first to nurture rules and regulate everything, and in doing it deprive more and more liberties from everyone.
In common use, "Gay" is a tragic theft of an otherwise innocent and happy word. I don't use it to describe deviants and their behavior. They're queer and sad and perverted to me, not gay. What they do to themselves is their business, as long as it's kept out of the public parks and parades. Funny thing about this is that I am way more negative toward male homosexuality than I am regarding female lesbianism. Affection between girls seems more natural, somehow, as long as it's private. Maybe it's just the way we're wired. (Or maybe it just turns me on?)
It's gotta be confusing to the kids.
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