Are YOU a LIBERAL???

[feistydem]

Merriam-Webster's definition...

LIBERAL: BROAD-MINDED; especially : not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms
6 a : of, favoring, or based upon the principles of liberalism b capitalized : of or constituting a political party advocating or associated with the principles of political liberalism; especially : of or constituting a political party in the United Kingdom associated with ideals of individual especially economic freedom, greater individual participation in government, and constitutional, political, and administrative reforms designed to secure these objectives
: a person who is liberal: as a : one who is open-minded or not strict in the observance of orthodox, traditional, or established forms or ways b capitalized : a member or supporter of a liberal political party c : an advocate or adherent of liberalism especially in individual rights

LIBERALISM: lib·er·al·ism
:a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of the human race, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties

(http://www.merriamwebster.com)


...and this is the GOPs idea of a 'dirty word' in politics?


So how about...

CONSERVATISM: con·ser·va·tism
:disposition in politics to preserve what is established b : a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing established institutions , and preferring gradual development to abrupt change
:the tendency to prefer an existing or traditional situation to change


...that sounds pretty dull


TGIL (Thank God I'm a Liberal)!! We're obviously having a lot more fun.

[Pale_Rider]

1. Why yes I am ...

As JFK put it back in 1960 ...

But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."

http://www.dashes.com/anil/liberal.html

[HEyHEY]

2. I'm more of a "Librul"

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. Hmmm...always thought I was a little ODD

(oppositional authority disorder)...then I figured out, I'm a LIBERAL! :bounce:

[Nordic]

4. Bushco has turned us into "conservatives"

in that we don't want him to fuck up 200 years or progress. He already has, which is why we're so pissed off.

That's my take on the last four years -- we're now the ones saying "hey! what about the way things USED to be? We worked HARD for that! Our forefathers DIED for that shit (like unions) and now you're trying to take it away? FUCK YOU!"

Which is why we all had this odd simpatico with Pat Buchanan about a few things lately including the invasion of Iraq and the place of America in the world.

These four years have been WEIRD WEIRD WEIRD.

[feistydem]

5. I guess I consider that the "protection of political & civil liberties"

part of the definition. I think that is what we are doing when we defend the principles of our forefathers.

[Nordic]

9. I didn't used to be very "liberal" but now

the goddamn fuckwads of the right wing in this country have guaranteed I will fight them tooth and nail until the day I die because of their actions.

I was brought up to be a republican. Both parents, grandparents, father a military veteran and extremely right wing.

But in my first election, in 1980, when I saw what the Reaganites wanted to do, well, that's what did it for me.

These idiots wanted to DELIBERATELY wreck our environmental laws, many of which had been signed into law by Richard Nixon, laws which had reversed decades of poisoning our water, our air, our earthly home.

If somebody takes a big shit in my front yard every day, and I complain about it, and the cops say "well there's no law against that" and I go out and get a law passed to keep some asshole from shitting in my front yard ....

And then a group of people come along and DELIBERATELY make fun of me for being a "front yard hugger" because I don't want someone else's SHIT in my front yard, and then they go out of their way to repeal the "anti-shitting-in-the-yard-law" and start telling LIES about me to my neighbors in order to pass that law .....

Well, that is analagous to what these motherfuckers were doing and have continued to do ever since.

From that point on, I have vowed to fight these fuckers every step of the way.

This land is your land, this land is my land, this earth is our home, and anyone who wants to pollute it or destroy is it my ENEMY. They are the ENEMY of the human race and need to be destroyed.

[Technowitch]

6. I am a Liberal

Have been all my life. I am and always have been proud to wear the term, and NEVER will I allow another to make me feel ashamed to hold those ideals.

[crimson333]

7. I am a Gemini

:crazy:

[DianeG5385]

8. Proudly, yes

I am taking my label back.

[donheld]

10. I think my heart is bleeding

I haven't pulled it out and looked, but i think i'm a bleeding heart librul.

[Maiden England]

11. Yes, yes I am

and proudly so.

[Heidi]

12. My name is Heidi . . .

and I'm a liberal.

[AlbertoMo83]

13. Im a bad-ass Liberal!!!

Yeah imma peace lovin dude and everything, but if some right-wing asshole wants to start shit with me ITS ON!!! :grr:

[JRPActor]

14. proud liberal

Proud to be LIBERAL

[maveric]

15. Yes, and proud!

I will not let the nazis demonize it either!

[vajraroshana]

16. Yes......

Beautiful word and noble ideals and truly positively transformative ideas.

Liberal! Hell yeah!

[Behind the Aegis]

17. Damn skippy!

And proud of it!

[devilgrrl]

18. Fuck yeah I am! Wanna make something out of it?

:silly:

[PATRICK]

19. Conservatism is impossible

The contradiction also comes in with "tradition". How in hell did it get to be tradition unless some change progressed through time, adapting and growing? There is no stone tradition but history. Repetition is the sour groping after a lost part of that tradition, ever more retreating into a myth quite different(and senile, spiteful) from its original vitality and reality.

The living tradition of human freedom and progress embodies the life of tradition. Conservatism tries to freeze frame its death.

Conservatism is a shoddy bill of goods, the second lie right behind the equally absurd demonization of liberalism. You can conserve your humanity and dedication riding the winds of change, you can't change the wind by conserving regressive blockages of that humanity. In the latter you ultimately become senile and stunted, and a threat to others,and can only conserve in the most narrow and concrete of ways- namely hoarding your bank account.

The real problem is the division in human nature not male political ideology based on competition for dominance. That picture is neither so idealistic nor elegant as the political labeling, but it would be more truthful, more universally humbling.