2005-10-17 06:18:00
My Friends,
I told you earlier that I planned on writing a political book after I finished Book 4. I was going to write one called Fixing America, but another idea came to me that I think has a good possibility of success.
My plan is to alternately post writings from this book and the commentary on Revelations.
Hope you enjoy them both.
I place this as number one on the list because this is the core idea that separates America into the red and the blue, the left and the right and the good and the bad - as it is held in the minds of many. This division not only applies to the United States, but to the world, for in almost every country we see a war between the conservative and the liberal mindset.
The Democrats, and their sympathizers, call every Republican (or sympathizer) they do not like either a "right winger," a "right wing extremist" or just "extremist."
Any of these terms used by the media implies that the person or group is way out of control and would nuke the world if they got a chance.
The Republicans, and their sympathizers, just call every Democrat (or sympathizer) they do not like by basically one term - a "liberal." Some are using "extremists," but that doesn't seem to stick as the Democrats seem to have a monopoly on the use of that word.
Conservative talk radio has pretty much defined what a liberal today is, and it's not pretty. A generation ago, many Democrats (and a few Republicans) would even admit to being liberal, but not any more. Today, even the most liberal politicians run from the word and proclaim themselves as "progressive," "moderate," "centralist," "mainstream," or "middle of the road," while proclaiming the other side as extremists, even if they have a view supported by half the country.
One who is labeled as a liberal today is a person who could never get elected for he is seen as a mindless person devoid of logic who will swallow any bill of goods if it just sounds good.
Now get this. The strange thing about all of the name-calling is that even the staunchest Republican is part liberal and the most extreme Democrat has a lot of conservative in him.
The unrecognized truth is this. The difference between the Republicans and Democrats is not that one is conservative and one is liberal, for both contain a mixture of the two.
Now if these two traits do not demarcate the two, what does? We shall talk about this in a moment but first let us explain who are the liberals and who are the conservatives.
If we are to identify them we must first define them.
What is a liberal.
Below are some applicable points from my Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary. Let us examine them one by one.
Both sides will periodically push toward progress and reform. To say this characteristic only belongs to Democrats is to fool ourselves.
Neither side does enough in this area, as far as I am concerned, but, at the time of this writing, the Republicans are pushing for more reform than the Democrats. Bush, who is often called an "extreme" conservative, has pushed for reforming Social Security while the Democrats are conservative on the issue.
Bush wants to go back to the Moon and on to Mars whereas the Democrats want to take the conservative path and spend the money on the status quo.
Bush has sought to reform education whereas the Democrats have resisted the reforms and take the conservative stand of keeping things the way they are.
Bush wants to bring in a new generation of nuclear reactors which will generate power with no greenhouse emissions and the Democrats again take the conservative stand of keeping things the way they are.
Bush again takes the liberal stand of seeking to reform the legal system, discouraging frivolous lawsuits and extreme awards.
The fact that Democrats disagree with Republican reforms does not make the reforms conservative. They are, after all, still reforms backed by close to half the nation.
Both sides speak a lot of "individual freedom." In fact, many forget that it was the Republicans under Lincoln who fought the war to free the slaves and then later voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in a larger percentage of Republicans over Democrats with over twice the number of Democrats opposing than Republicans.
Republicans liberally endorse the freedom the bear arms, freedom from higher taxes, freedom of speech, freedom to practice religious views, freedom from excessive litigation, freedom from excessive government interference and many others, making them at least as liberal as the Democrats in this area.
Today it seems that the Republicans are campaigning for more freedom of action while the Democratic supported ACLU litigates time and time again to restrict expression and action.
Again, Republicans are big on supporting representational government as outlined in the Constitution and would qualify as being fairly liberal by this definition.
Both sides accuse each other of prejudice and bigotry, but neither is free from it. It would be difficult to prove who is the most liberal here, but a case could be made that the Republicans are as liberal as the Democrats in this area.
Both sides claim to be this. All people think they are open minded and tolerant and again it would be difficult to prove who is the most liberal here, but it would be difficult to make the case that the Democrats are more liberal in this area than the Republicans.
Democrats are indeed liberal in giving out other people's money but the true liberal gives away his own. One way to gauge as to which party has the most liberal givers is to examine a study done by the Catalogue For Philanthropy located at:
http://www.catalogueforphilanthropy.org/cfp/db/generosity.php?year=2004
They have tabulated which people in the various states give the largest percentage of their income to charities. Many will be alarmed to discover that the top 25 states in giving to charities all voted Republican in the 2004 election. Conversely, the seven stingiest states all voted Democratic. That is indeed an embarrassing statistic for Democrats and hopefully it will inspire them to live up to their liberal image and be more giving.
Conclusion:
To call the Democrats liberal is a misuse of the language and obscures the true differences between the parties.
Next let us see who the real conservatives are.
The more he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)
Copyright © 2005 by J J Dewey, All Rights Reserved