In my case, we are all conservatives who would never, ever stop being self sufficient. My great grandfather, after being a poor farmer, began painting houses for rich folks in 1879. He was so good at it, he was hired by a U.S. President to paint his private home. This continued for several generations until my cousins went to college, and I decided to go into motorcycle repair. Incidentally, the President was a Republican.
This post was edited by B.H.Wilson at June 23, 2018 2:25 PM MDT
No, a liberal is someone that thinks that the government should take responsibility for their own poor decisions and laziness; using other peoples money to do so, of course.
I recall somebody saying during the Jimmy Carter administration that liberals were folks who confused the kingdom of heaven with the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
To be frank, I'm as guilty as the next person in using political labels. However, as of late, I've been giving this some thought. When it comes to political matters, Americans are hung up on labels. Everywhere you turn, somebody is calling somebody else some name—short-hand for what the other person's political philosophy or ideological leanings are perceived to be. If labels inform then they can be useful but when they confuse or distort, they're worse than useless.
Amid the general dumbing down of educational standards in recent years and the resulting degeneration of public debate, I confess to a disillusionment with the commonly used political labels. Most have become excuses for people to stop thinking and instead, to simply pigeonhole others in a fashion that may be quick and convenient but is usually superficial and misleading. Consider the tired, old dichotomy of "liberals" on the one hand versus "conservatives" on the other. "Liberal" was once an honorable word to describe those who put "liberty" first. Over the course of the twentieth century in America, it flip-flopped into a term for those who would gladly trade liberty for a bowl of soup from the State. Even that meaning rarely applies to any one person's view on every issue.
"Conservative" is sometimes used to describe one who wants to preserve the status quo and at other times, to describe one who wants to restore a limited role for government (at least in most economic matters), which today can hardly be a status quo posture. People are assigned the "conservative" or "liberal" labels with abandon, yet close inspection almost always yields good reasons why on at least some important issues, the moniker assigned doesn't fit at all.
And how about that word, "moderate"? That's been sanctified to describe one who occupies a lofty perch of enlightened and thoughtful objectivity. Look closer and you usually find a person who hasn't done his homework and can't make his or her mind up. And when he or she finally does come to a conclusion, it's strikingly inconsistent with other half-baked views he or she holds. Maybe we need a new set of labels. Or perhaps we need to recognize that short-hand just won't do the job when you're talking about how complex principles apply to current-day issues.
If only those posting questions were so intellectually rigorous and thoughtful and didn't use labels and quips to avoid any real thought and reflection.
I often wonder what drives those people. What's their real mindset and whats the root cause of their animosity and hatred directed at President Trump and the United States . Not only does it anger me but it grieves me to see such a rise in the anti-American rhetoric being vomited out by the mainstream news media and social media as well.
B.H.Wilson 