Heard the news by accident, I swear. Great. Another surreal moment, mouth agape in disbelief. Before, as a political junkie, I might have been upset upon hearing news like this. Now? Not surprised. After a moment the disbelief, the shock, was just gone. A little tempted to see what the talking heads have to wax eloquent on this. But, …no. Just breathe.
Liberals claim to embrace freedom of choice in personal matters, but support significant government control of the economy so that they can become independently wealthy and important. They support a government-funded safety net to “help the disadvantaged,” which they quickly plunder. Liberals advocate strict regulation of business, which they like to demonize publicly in order to gain the trust (votes) of the economically less fortunate. Ironically, leadership strives to grow this category as a base. They favor massive, crippling environmental regulations, defend civil liberties when victims and others might vote for them, and free expression when they agree with its content. Liberals always support government action that on its face claims to promote equality, and they often like to say that they tolerate diverse lifestyles.
Libertarians support maximum liberty in both personal and economic matters, as if that could ever happen in this day and age. They advocate a much smaller government; a fantasy one that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence. Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose government bureaucracy and taxes, in principle, and promote private charity; they tolerate diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend civil liberties. Libertarians just want everyone to be good, so hardly any government is necessary.
Centrists espouse a “middle ground” regarding government control of the economy and personal behavior. Depending on the political winds of the moment, they sometimes favor government intervention and occasionally support individual freedom of choice. Centrists pride themselves on keeping an open mind, tend to oppose “political extremes” because of their own innate fear of being decisive, and emphasize what they describe as “practical” solutions to problems but are merely wimpy dances of avoidance.
Conservatives tend to favor economic freedom for themselves, while frequently supporting laws to restrict personal behaviors that violate their own “traditional values.” They oppose excessive government control of their businesses, while endorsing government action to defend their particular flavor of morality and the traditional family structure. Conservatives usually support a strong military, oppose bureaucracy and high taxes, favor a free-market economy, and endorse strong law enforcement. Because THEY don’t do anything wrong.
Statists want government to have absolute power over the economy and individual behavior. They couldn’t care less if economic liberty and individual freedom are practical options in today’s world. Statists openly destroy the free market and everyone else. They openly maintain insanely high taxes and centralized planning of the economy, punish diverse lifestyles and flush civil liberties down the toilet. Nations that espouse these qualities are greatly admired by modern liberals, as well.
Time for a PdX Booster shot:
The end is near again! All the food is poison that is slowly killing us. Your money will be worthless soon, but it really doesn’t matter that much because we’re all going to die at the end of 2012 anyway. Has the The Mayan Calendar ever steered us wrong? Anyone who disagrees with a person or group that belongs to a minority, about anything, is racist. The oceans will be completely filled with oil soon. And worst of all, Lindsay Lohan and Mel Gibson are in trouble!
Because of perspective, history and associations, everyone has a certain amount of political bias. Hence, another reason to steer clear of too much political talk. Every so often, though, you can get a fresh perspective on the whole mess if you open your mind and read something that was written by someone you don’t normally identify with. The urge to make sense of it all never really goes away completely. The title needs to catch your eye with some ironic or unexpected phrase. Here’s one: “Nanny State Conservative.” When you see how ridiculous the whole concept is, you too will want out. Because the following author/economist (below) is either completely head-in-sand or insane. It’s the CORRUPTED conservatives who are in favor of any nanny-state crap! A real free-trade person would never go along with this.
Dean Baker, a clever author and economist, evidently identifies with political “progressives,” but he also has no problem criticizing their thought processes - at times. His bias does stick out horribly, but he has a few good points in this book, “The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer.” I read the e-book from the beginning, through the preface and introduction which summarizes all the chapters, and concluded that I’ll now try to ignore politics again for the rest of the weekend.
liberal
adjective
1 open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values : they have more liberal views toward marriage and divorce than some people ['some people?'].
• favorable to or respectful of individual rights and freedoms: liberal citizenship laws.
• (in a political context) favoring maximum individual liberty [as long as your views conform] in political and social reform : a liberal democratic state.
noun
a person of liberal views. [Look, they use the actual word in the definition!]
• ( Liberal) a supporter or member of a Liberal Party [yes].
Are the contradictions evident? When did the Democratic Party officially hijack the word “liberal?” How can they claim to be liberal by this definition? Individual rights and freedoms? Which ones? The rights of sex offenders? It appears that the author(s) of these dictionary entries was (were) quite liberal in their decision processes.
This is one of the reasons that politics is so frustrating. In the current political world, the word liberal means “highly [or aggressively] intolerant of anyone who agrees with any ‘conservative’ opinion.”
God, grant me the serenity to
accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting politics as a necessary evil on the planet.
Trusting that He will make all things right
If I surrender to his will
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
in spite of those who advocate fear
in the spirit of power and greed.
Amen
Step One: [We] Admitted we were powerless over politics – mostly with regard, but not limited to, stressing over daily news media accounts and opinion.
*
We twelve-steppers have resolved to simply get out of the game. Oh, we’ll be good citizens and refrain from causing trouble, mostly, but don’t ask us to agree with big government nanny-state philosophy any time soon. We still vote and pay attention; what we want to stop doing, though, is constantly stressing over the sad state of affairs that our so-called “leaders” have allowed to deteriorate in spite of the lessons of history.
We don’t want to participate in the tabloid mentality of news media “Oh no, the sky is falling!” any longer. We know that it already fell. And only an uber-rich person can really make a difference. They can do that by hiring people regardless of the state of taxation and inflation that were born out of insane fiscal policy. They can influence the political climate with significant donations, whereas most people cannot.
We understand the economic games that are being played in the name of greed, and that we are being used as a sector of consumers.
So in Step One, we resolved to stop beating the dead horse, so to speak. We’ll go on with our lives doing the best we can and keep the spark of the dream of success alive way down deep someplace.
Hungry for news, I decided to see what was happening in the political world. How depressing; they’re still hashing out the same tired, gloomy stories -and bad news is all there is. No wonder I wanted to quit!
I’m stuck on making the list. What step are you on?
This test says I’m a libertarian. But I can see how some people are liberals, others are conservatives, etc.
I don’t hate them. I am curious about someone’s thinking when they want to punish the wealthy with high taxes. Don’t they understand what will happen after that?
When taxes go up, everything goes up. Then, the lower income brackets suffer most.