What Makes Me a Liberal

I am against hunger. I am appalled that in this land where obesity is a major problem, we have smart kids getting washed out because they can’t concentrate because they haven’t had food since yesterday. It hurts all of us when this happens, and it wouldn’t be that hard to stop, except the rich people only want their children shaping the future.

I think we should take care of each other. Sometimes I am ashamed to be a citizen of this country when that simple precept is disputed. We should take care of each other. If your neighbor needs help, you offer help. This is not some giant socialist scheme, this is just a simple rule that Jesus (among others) made a point of emphasizing. We should take care of each other. That is all.

I believe in freedom. I believe that it is patriotic to speak the truth, and that the citizens of this country are obligated to speak up against injustice. Obligated. Ob-li-ga-ted. We crucify people for speaking up, when the real sin is keeping silent.

I believe a code of ethics applies to everyone who would choose to lead us, but morals cannot be legislated.

I am in favor of wealth redistribution. Workers are more productive now than they ever have been, yet none of the benefit of that productivity goes to the worker. Jane the Magnificent Spot Welder produces more, and the boss gets richer, while her wage stagnates. When Trump appeals to blue-collar voters about the good ol’ days, when a MAN could go to work at the FACTORY and make enough to have a house and a car and to send his ingrate kids to COLLEGE, Trump forgets that those good days were the product of labor unions.

I am against dynasties. If a kid can’t make it with the best education money can buy (“education”, in this context, actually means “making connections”), and with only $50 million of the family estate, rather than $150 million, I don’t think that kid should succeed. Inherited wealth has been the backbone of a ruling class since money existed. Let’s break that. Sorry, Kennedys and Roosevelts, liberalism has left you behind.

If the Bill of Rights were to be written today, it would include a right to privacy. What’s amazing is that right now privacy is a liberal cause, when it should be a cornerstone of conservative politics. This is the obvious indicator that in this country “conservative” is actually a code word for “authoritarian”. There are no conservatives left in mainstream politics, and that’s a shame.

And that’s what really brings me to being a liberal. There is no longer a conservative voice. You are either liberal or a supporter of the state.

4

4 thoughts on “What Makes Me a Liberal

  1. Our nation desperately needs a reasonable and valid alternative to the Democratic Party.

    I say this as a long-time member of the Democratic Party — one who has no problem with a pro-environment, pro-universal-healthcare, pro-pretty-much-everything-that-defines-a-bleeding-heart-liberal political stance.

    But our nation desperately needs a reasonable conservative stance, specifically one that defends our freedoms and privacy, and the design and intent of our taxation.

    Unfortunately, the current Republican Party is an enemy of all of those.

    • Conservatives, especially articulate ones that care about the future of our nation and its people, have been getting marginalized in the Republican Party for a while now, and then in the 2016 election the party got out the fire hose and swept them out the door completely.

  2. For a long time, I’ve been hearing the “socially liberal, fiscally conservative” folks have no home. I believe that’s because the Libertarian Party can’t get past their lunatic helmet/seatbelt/drug law fringe (results highly variable by state), or their devout all-or-absolutely-nothing intellectuals (yielding, oddly ;), as close to absolutely nothing as one gets).

    Like Ron Paul, Bill Weld was a good start to mainstreaming L concepts, but he was absolutely on the wrong line on the 2016 ticket. Not likely he’ll be worthy to the Republican core, but he may open the first chink in the armor. He could move that home forward…

    These should be the times that move Libertarian (large L) principles forward. There is no-one else postured to agree with everyone on *something*; for the moment at least, libertarian (small L) ideas are gaining traction. I remain hopeful the Party can find footing.

    • “Variable by state” – A good friend of mine ran for Mayor in San Angelo Texas (the largest city in the union not served by an Interstate highway) as a Libertarian, and he pulled in a respectable 10% of the vote.

      Then he moved to Alaska and became a Democrat because the Libertarians up there were nuts.

      I used to be more closely aligned with libertarian ideals, but I have come to believe over time that the government is the only institution standing that can handle a lot of the social issues we face now. If Libertarians were in charge, would they have stopped the attack on Flint, Michigan?

      But that’s the debate I WANT to be having right now. That’s the discussion where the people sitting around the table are actually motivated by the desire to make our country and our world a better place for the people living on it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *