What makes a liberal? (abortion, cost, high school, education)

[muletrain]

In a nutshell, liberals tend to be idealists and are driven by emotions. In short, liberals tend to be in search of Utopia and believe that government is the solution.
Conservatives tend to be realists and believe that every man is responsible for his own welfare. Conservatives tend to understand that the real nature of man does not allow for a warm and fuzzy future. Conservatives understand that rights and opportunities must be fought for.
That's the short of it...as black and white as it gets..though, I'm first to admit, this is anything but a black and white issue.

As an added note, most of the problems of this world are dominated by quests for power, domination, religion and too much testosterone. I believe that conservatives have an inherent understanding of these concepts and their ramifications whereas liberals are in a quest for the ideal which runs contrary to man's true nature.

[Wapasha]

Originally Posted by AONE

So a great many seem to a steady flow of obtuse attacks against liberals which makes me wonder just what you think us "liberals " believe that you so object to. Here are some of my quesses

A liberal supports abortion / the womans right to choose one.
of course there are degrees of this from aborting the implant of a rapist, to it being done for health issues or just because it is desired.

This one leaves me at a loss. What does a person's political ideology have to do with not recognizing that a 12 week old fetus is a tiny person, and if left alone will become a full blown person in six months.

Mothers drown their babies in bath tubs, strap them into car seats and drown them in lakes, leave them in trash cans, or starve them to death. When is it a woman's right to choose and when is it murder, should not be open to someone's political ideology.

Originally Posted by AONE

They want an end to the war.

guess that means conservatives think we should keep killing.... what is it we are fighting for? still looking for those WMD's?

Who doen't want to see an end to war?

It was eight years of Clinton that told us Saddam had WMDs, it was not an idea created with the election of GW Bush.

Originally Posted by AONE

I hear Liberals want big governement and we are said to take actions towards that.... but it was Regan that made government the biggest in history.. I think with Homeland Security W didn't help the trend... so since the "conservatives" are building big governments then doesnt it infer Liberals really want smaller gov?

You can truly look at what 0bama and the Hoyer/Reid/Pelosi lead democratic houses of congress, and not see theyare in favor of big government solutions for everything and anything?

For every $1 Reagan tried to save, the democrat controlled congress spent $2.

GW Bush was not a fiscal conservative, he was a big government guy, and he was pummeled by conservatives for spending like a drunken sailor.

Originally Posted by AONE

We want social programs, nutrition programs for infants, education, arts in education, instead of building weapon systems.

The one thing the federal government is tasked with doing, is the one thing liberals do not want it to do. The problem with liberals is the don't think the sate government even exist, they believe all power and all solutions should come from the federal government.

Originally Posted by AONE

Religious - We want no one religion recognized as a national religion but want the freedom to choose or not choose spiritual beliefs.

No argument there, except that is not what liberals want. Liberals want to ban any reference to religion, and criminalize any public reference to religion.

Originally Posted by AONE

We want more equitable distributionof wealth, we tend to not like it when our money is taken to bailout a company in need and they want to spend it as bonuses for executives that screwed up the company to begin with.

conservatives and liberals both agree that we need to take care of the poor, the infirmed and those people who in dire need and assistance. Liberals just want to keep the gravy train rolling so that wealth distribution transfers taxpayer money to everyone, including even the upper middle class.

Originally Posted by AONE

We don't like our personal rights to be ifringed upon, from things like the Patriot Act, national id's, tracking software and so forth. On this note we arent too fond of the department of omeland security and think our emails and phone calls should be private.

But listening into, recording and publishing a private phone call by Newt Gingrich in the NYT is ok. Its also just fine when the president of the United States cretes a government web site called flag@whitehouse.gov, for people "If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."

Originally Posted by AONE

We think taxes should be low but fairly administered, preferably eliminate them since they were never ratified by the Constitution.

Liberals think any new tax is a good tax, I've very seldom ever heard a liberal offer objections to another new tax. Liberals never think the government has enough money, and its our patriotic duty to ask the government to raise taxes on us.

Originally Posted by AONE

Drugs... seem we vary on this, most think pot should be legal, some think everything should be.

So do libertarians. I do not see how drugs are an ideological issue.

Originally Posted by AONE

We don't like tyrants as they restrict freedoms of the people.

So what else do us "liberals" believe in that you conservatives don't?

I've lost count of the liberals who love Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. 0bama has been surrounding himself with advisers and cabinet appointees that refer to themselves as communists or look to Mao as their favorite philosopher. Liberals continuously try to restrict rights and freedoms that they do not personally agree with. A little girl is not even allowed to read the bible at her desk, during quiet time, if liberal America had its way.

[Aejarak]

What makes a liberal?

-Pretending to be an enlightened human being looking down upon those who have a different opinion.

-Pseudo intellectualism.

-Inability to accept facts.

-The ability to live in a dream world.

As a psychologist i am also looking into liberalism as a mental disorder. As any idoelgy that would put yourself in a position that would harm yourself is of concern. See activist Stephen Donaldson for example.

[Quick Enough]

"Keep dreaming! The Myth of the Noble Individual and its attendant Conservative Cult of the Individual are anachronisms that are pushed on the dopes of this country by the RICH."

So, what contribution has the poor made to society?

[Wapasha]

Originally Posted by Quick Enough

So, what contribution has the poor made to society?

When they strive to be something in their life. We have plenty of examples of people who started out "poor" and became a success story.

Someone who was born poor, never bothered to apply themselves, and never amount to anything, is no different then a trust fund baby that never bothered to apply themselves, and never amounted to anything either. These people are just born, they exist, and they die, never having contributed anything to society.

[MsMcQ LV]

Originally Posted by GregW

What makes a liberal?

First social security is neither a savings account nor a retirement system. It is an insurance system designed to support the elderly after the private sector retirement accounts disappear through business failure. Like the one we are having. Social security will be there after the banks have failed.

I think the current Social Security system needs to be reformed by increasing the tax base to all income from all sources and the payments limited to recipients with less total income than the local mean.

As far as the folks that despise redistribution of income are concerned I object to private profit. Why should I pay more for something than it cost to provide. I should, in a fully functional market, be able to go next door and buy the product at cost instead of a price that includes profit. A government owned store could do this.

>snip<

To summarize: as I liberal I believe in individual liberty, market capitalism and only making war if attacked. I like being a liberal.

I found this post to be very interesting reading. But I think it needs to be pointed out That the two concepts I've highlighted here contradict each other.

[SoEdible]

To me, one trait is when they want everything to be euphoric (which would be nice, but it isn't realistic) but it really isn't always economically or financially possible, but for some reason, they feel that their ideas should be implemented when everyone else sees the reality. Like, they would want millions spent on a specific program when it is known that other aspects of the infrastructure would be neglected if they got what they asked for.

[ergohead]

Originally Posted by CharlottePirateFan

1 part D in the A (think about it)
2 parts little girl
4 parts hypocrit
1 part welfare
1 part jeolousy of the rich
2 parts lazy
3 parts baby killer
2 parts murderer saver


Mix in a hemp bowl with a rolled up $100 bill that was stolen from a hard -worker. (may use illegal worker to mix for you). Sprinkle hopeandchange dust as desired. Bake on low heat (can only use imagination and hope for the energy) for 16 hours (the government must check on you every 30 mins though). You can even use little Prius shaped cookie cutters.

Hey, this is a recipe for disaster!

You just copied this out of a recipe book.

Next time, try to be original.

[Danno3314]

This is a little off the topic but, I was thinking about who makes up those that consider themselves democrats. I'm an independent but, my whole family has always considered themselves democrats, starting with my grandfather who immigrated here from Italy in the early 1900's. It had always been that the republicans were big business and the democrats were the working class. I think a lot of minorities still see it that way. Although a lot of the democrats that are in power now are baby boomers....the 60's-70's generation. That group certainly didn't think of themselves as being just like their parents (what group does....lol) but, many were very much against what was happening in Viet Nam and associated it with President Nixon and the republicans.....they were anti-republican which makes them by default, democrats now.

At this point, neither party is any less about big business than the other....they're both influenced by it (they try to hide it but, internally they're both wallowing in it). Neither party is also any less made up of the working class than the other but, I think many minorities (especially first generation) still hold on to this idea.

The democrats stand to gain all the votes from immigration reform but, it's certainly been put on the back burner when it comes to priorities so, who knows if they'll have enough momentum to even get to it. In spite of the fact that the republicans are viewed as anti-immigration, this past election we had a republican candidate, Sen. McCain who was being criticized by many republicans as having an immigration policy that amount to basically amnesty....it wasn't as simple as that (and he wanted the fence built first as well) but, yes.....eventually everyone that's here illegally would have had an opportunity to become citizens if he had his way. Why, because he's from AZ (a border state, where this is a major issue) and he was being realistic about what could be done to fix it.

Now I'm not banging the drum for McCain here.....I'm just pointing out the oldschool roles that each party had, are no longer the case as well as what each party "claims" about the other being all about.

[shorebaby]

What makes a liberal?

Repeated head trauma?