I lament the loss of perfectly good words, but the truth is that language evolves. The word liberal has ancient Latin and Greek roots and has changed meanings more than once. In the 12th century it referred to noble, gracious, munificent, and generous but by the 15th century there was also a connotation of free, unrestrained, unimpeded, libertine or licentious. Through the 16th and 17th centuries it was used to describe someone free from restraint in speech or action and was a word of reproach. By around 1776 the word was revived in a positive sense during the Enlightenment taking on the meaning of one free of prejudice and tolerant.
Today the word can be a noun or an adjective and has retained the more positive aspects it came to represent during the Enlightenment. Tolerant, broad-minded, generous, favoring reform and progress, not bound by tradition. It can also mean big or large as in a liberal helping of dessert, or someone who was liberal (generous) in their donation to charity. If you're from southwestern Kansas Liberal could be the name of the town where you live. If you are a Tea Party Congressman it's a handy expletive for everything that's gone wrong with the country.
A while back Galanty Miller posted a humor column at the Huffington Post describing a long list of differences between conservatives and liberals. Some of them were pretty funny. Funny enough that I'll risk using a few of them without his express written permission.
Liberals are concerned about economic inequality. Conservatives are confident that one day they will be rich.
Conservatives don't want to hear liberal Hollywood celebrities talk about politics. Liberals also don't want to hear liberal Hollywood celebrities talk about politics.
Liberals support good teachers. Conservatives support eliminating bad teachers.
Conservatives support free speech. Liberals support free speech unless it's politically incorrect.
Liberals love having sex. Conservatives hate when other people have sex.
Conservatives support issues that help their families. Liberals support issues that help families.
Liberals are full of crap because they don't really believe what they say. Conservatives are full of crap because they truly believe what they say.
I suppose this is a good time to bring up the purpose of this edition. I have finally been able to admit it, it took a while, but I'm coming out, Yes, I'm a liberal. I'm not sure how long I've been a liberal, maybe longer than I know. I started out voting for Republicans. I guess it was sort of expected of me. For more than 30 years I was pretty faithful to the GOP. I was raised in a middle class family, my parents were Republicans, my grandparents were Republicans. I was a police officer, a profession where most of my colleagues were Republicans...even those few who always supported the local Democrats were conservative. I first thought of myself as "moderate". I really didn't want to be called a liberal. Geez, after all a liberal is practically a communist.
But a funny thing happened...the Republican Party moved to the right. I shuffled along with them for a while but by the time George W. Bush came along I felt pretty out of place and by the end of his first term I knew. I was a liberal. Holy Crap! A dirty, rotten liberal. Me? What would my family think? It took me a while to become comfortable wearing that label. So why am I now happy to say I'm a Liberal?
I think I have both specific policy reasons and general philosophic reasons for my political views and I think it's a good idea to be able to state what those are...if you can't then you shouldn't be voting.
1. I believe in science.
2. I believe corporations are businesses, not people.
3. I believe our sexual orientation is something we are born with, not something we choose.
4. I believe in global warming and that humans have had a hand in it (see number one above)
5. I believe women deserve equal rights and equal pay.
6. I don't believe 47% of Americans are looking for a government handout.
7. I don't believe God uses weather to punish sin. (see number one again)
8. I don't believe we are "entitled" to social security and Medicare, we paid for these programs.
9. I believe demand creates jobs, not tax cuts.
10. I believe our constitution doesn't only protect the rights I agree with...sometimes it also protects the rights I don't agree with.
11. I believe we should protect the weakest among us, not the richest.
12. I believe we should put people before profits.
13. I'm a liberal because I believe in a Constitution that is meant to evolve, grow, and progress.
14. I believe in a free market, with rules.
Speaking of Social security here are what a lot of Republicans in Congress were saying while FDR was trying to get it passed.
“Never in the history of the world has any measure been so insidiously designed as to prevent business recovery, to enslave workers, and to prevent any possibility of the employers providing work for the people.”
“…Invites the entrance into the political field of a power so vast, so powerful as…to pull the pillars of the temple down upon the head of our descendants.”
“…Sooner or later will bring the abandonment of private capitalism.”
Of course none of those things happened but it's always the same story from those who most loudly belittle liberal ideas and fight any and all progressive change...."it will ruin the country", "the sky is falling", "death panels", "squawk, squawk, squawk!"
Even with all the name calling between the right and the left in America today, it remains clear that all of us really want the same things for our family, for ourselves, and for our country. What we can't agree on is the best way to get there, nor can we agree even on how we got here. While my own political beliefs would seem to have sprung from some very conservative ground I can point to at least one ancestor who would, by all known standards, have been thought of as radically liberal in his day. So radical that he and his brother might have gone to jail had the full nature of their activities been known.
2 comments:
I read this with interest because at times I was unaware of my political beliefs. My parents were Democrat but while living in Colorado most of my friends were Republican. They convinced me to vote Republican because truth be told, I didn't much know the difference at the time.I kept asking "what's the difference" and I didn't get an answer that satisfied me. Once I started following politics closer, and the 'almost' slap in my head from my Democrat sister asking what is WRONG with me ? I got off the fence and yes, I am a liberal too! I enjoyed your 14 points being a liberal. The one that stands out most to me is "Republicans care about their family" ... "Democrats care about families." Good job breaking from the hard tradition following your parents and ancestors political affiliation. Most people don't.
I look forward to part II about how William Robinson and his brother could have landed in jail because of their liberalism.
Suzy Robinson
Thanks Suzy. In a lot of ways there isn't a great deal of difference between the two major political parties today and both parties share the blame for not being able to get along well enough to carry on the business of governing. I believe that part of the problem actually is the fact that parties control the process we use to elect officials. That is the reason for the circus we are now witnessing between the dozen or so folks who want to be the Republican candidate for President. They will follow a process designed for and controlled by the Parties....not the people. They are required to be the most "pure" Republican possible in order to get the most votes in the Party primary elections. Primary elections receive little participation from the "average" voter...usually only the most "avid" Republicans come out to vote for their favorite in the primary. Therefore the candidates know they must appeal, not to the average, middle of the road, Republican voter...but instead to the most conservative who are the ones who will be voting. As a result the candidates continue to lean more and more to the far right...because those are the folks that vote the most often in a Primary election. Of course...the same is true of the Democratic primaries....Candidates lean farther left in the primary election because more of the primary voters lean that way. As a result we end up electing people who have positioned themselves at the far right or far left...even though the vast majority of voters fall somewhere in the middle. What also happens is that politicians campaign toward one extreme but when elected actually govern from somewhere closer to the middle. If the Parties did not control primary elections I believe politicians would campaign more from the middle of the road. The ideal solution would be that we hold one primary election for persons of all parties and ideas....then the top two vote getters would face each other in a general election...regardless of what Party they belong to. Sadly, I'm not in charge.
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