I Clarify My Thoughts on Liberals

There has been some discussion, recently, on my post, about the difference between Conservatives and Liberals. Or maybe we should say right leaning Americans and left leaning Americans. I never did get an answer of what the preferred "label" should be. But I want to clear up a misconception that some have of me. It have been suggested that I use the word, "Liberal", with a negative connotation. I want to clear that up now. The following is a reprint of a post I made in early May:


I am a conservative. I have stated that for the record in previous posts. But I have an issue with conservative radio talk show hosts and their opinions of liberals.

Rush, and Hanniity, and Laura Ingraham, and others seem to think that liberals are malevolently trying to bring about revolution in this country because they are simply evil people. I don't share this opinion. Having once identified myself with liberalism, I believe they really do have the best interest of the country and it's people at heart. They do care about the United States and the environment and animals and human (civil) rights. They really do want to make improvements to our system of government and to our lives. They really do care. I believe they are, on the whole, basically good decent people, but they are misguided.

the problem is not what they believe are the issues affecting the quality of life in the world, but rather in the solutions to the issues. More taxation and additional redundant legislation is not always the best solution to the issues facing us but it seems to me most liberals have no other answers. In short, in my opinion, the major difference between liberals and conservatives is the liberals tend to want the government to solve all our problems and the conservatives want us to stand on our own two feet and solve the problems ourselves and face the rewards or consequences of our own decision. This makes more sense to me than depending on the government to do the work for me. I guess that is the reason I am not a liberal.

I will add that after observing liberals for sometime I have noticed one glaring fact. Many Liberals are very mean spirited. Preferring to launch personal attacks against their opponents rather than attack their viewpoints in a respectful manner alone should be enough of a reason to not be a liberal, but I know that some people are small minded enough to think that personal attacks are the best way to resolve differences.

I fail to follow this logic, but that's just me.

UPDATE: I listened to A Prairie Home Companion last night, and they played a repeat broadcast of my favorite PHC show, the joke show. Here are a couple of jokes from that show:



George W. Bush is at a press conference and Moses walks in. Bush says "Hello, Moses." Moses doesn't speak. Bush says again, "Hello Moses." He still doesn't respond. So Bush asks, "Well why aren't ya talkin'?" And Moses finally says, "Last time I talked to a bush I got stuck in the desert for forty years."

And then there's the all-time favorite: First penguin says to the second penguin, "You look like you're wearing a tuxedo!" second penguin says, "How do you know I'm not?"

And a joke I claim they stole from me:

Descarte walks into a bar. The bartender says, "Try a root beer schnapps?" Descarte says, "I think not." Upon saying that, he vanished.

Have a good day.