Is this the kind of country you want? A letter to my Republican friend. ---(hurl alert)

The Crisis Papers ^ | 12.1.03 | tuckrdout

[Chuckster]

Translation: I am an educated, sensitive, caring cultural elite. You, on the other hand, are a boorish money-grubbing slob without a clue. Why can't you see that?

[Free Vulcan]

Liberal definition time:

Progressive - Wanting to remake the world into my own rigid, unyielding, and highly controlling standards.

[The UnVeiled Lady]

I am willing to be called a “liberal,” despite the recent disparagement of that once honorable label. However, because of the abuse of that word, I prefer to call myself a “progressive.”

And WHO was it that made it a disparagement of that label?

Guess how long it will take before "progressive" has the same meaning and they need another word to describe themselves.

[hellinahandcart]

Consider next, the corruption of our politics. The right wing has repudiated our tradition of civic friendship, and instead regards its political opponents as “traitors.” Liberal policies are condemned, not merely as erroneous or misguided, but as “evil.” Politics today has become “warfare by other means,” wherein it is not enough to defeat one’s opponents in a fair election; the opponent must be destroyed. Witness the attacks on the Clintons, and on John McCain in the South Carolina primary of 2000.

Thus our once-united national community is being split into warring factions as we forget our common loyalties and lose the capacity to act in common purpose.

This idiot sounds familiar. You suppose it's our Hal?

[Am I Blue?]

>>Actually I believe the correct term for the Democrats is Socialists.

>>Why not debate the issues instead of indulging in name calling?

Doctor, heal thyself.

[sergeantdave]

My Dear "Progressive" Bud -

You send $25 to the Sierra Club every year so it can steal property. Go suck spotted owl farts, fascist pig. Should you have any further questions, meet me in the parking lot where we can discuss car pooling.

Sincerely,

Your Best Conservative Buddy

[Yardstick]

You'll be gone soon.

[Am I Blue?]

I didn't write the original letter, but I will try to answer your questions on his/her behalf:

>>If liberals oppose the government using the death penalty on convicted rapist and murders, why then do you allow, even encourage, a women to kill her unborn child who has never harmed any person?<<

When you say "kill," that implies viability. Terminating a pregnancy is not at all equivalent to killing a person. But if you think it is, then you should answer for the same inconsistency.

>>If liberals are so stauchly supportive of individual rights under the Constitution, why then do liberals work so hard to take away a person's right to own and carry a firearm?<<

We'd like to reduce or eliminate the murders, accidents, massacres, and mayhem committed with weapons more powerful than anything our founders anticipated. Regulated hunting with appropriate weapons is constitutionally protected.

>>If liberals are so concerned about their fellow man, desiring to lift them up and change their station in life, why do liberals create programs that force their fellow man to be a slave to the government hand out?<<

Because of inequalities in our system, some people need a helping hand. Let's work together to eliminate racism, poverty, etc. We can design programs that encourage people to help themselves, instead of becoming dependent.

>>If liberals or progressives are wanting the people to have a better life, why then is it that liberals desire to take (by force of arms and pain of inprisonment) more and more hard earned money away from the people through ever progressive taxation? <<

Many of the things that are needed to assure a better life--infrastructure, education, defense, health, environment, etc.--can best be provided by pooling our individual resources.

>>If liberals are so supportive of the Constitution and state that there is a "wall of seperation" between church and state, why then do liberals work so hard to establish the official state religion of athiesm? And further work to actively prohibt the "free expression" of religion - a phrase that is ACTUALLY IN the first amendment?<<

Your assumption is flawed: I don't see anyone trying to establish a religion of atheism. Many liberals do work to make sure that a particular religion is not endorsed by government agencies. Individuals can express all the religiosity they desire to but they should not be permitted to impose their religious views on others.

I hope this helps.

[Teacher317]

LOL, that's what I read at first as well!

[Teacher317]

Your assumption is flawed: I don't see anyone trying to establish a religion of atheism. Many liberals do work to make sure that a particular religion is not endorsed by government agencies. Individuals can express all the religiosity they desire to but they should not be permitted to impose their religious views on others.

ROFL! You can't see the contradiction in this simple statement?!? And you post this while accusing another of a flawed assumption?!? TOO funny!

eLet me help you:

1. I don't see atheism (a belief that there is no God... a philosophical opposition to Theism, the belief that there IS a God... ergo, a religion)
2. Liberals work to ensure no particluar religion is endorsed. (ie, imposing the religion of atheism throughout the land)
3. People should not be permitted to impose their religious views on others (as you just stated liberals work to do!!!)

Your willful blindness ("I don't see it!") is truly amusing. Thanks for the chuckle.

[murdoog]

If liberals are so stauchly supportive of individual rights under the Constitution, why then do liberals work so hard to take away a person's right to own and carry a firearm?

And why are the same people who label John Ashcroft the antichrist or worse so eager to give him a monopoly on deadly force ?

[Morgan's Raider]

We'd like to reduce or eliminate the murders, accidents, massacres, and mayhem committed with weapons more powerful than anything our founders anticipated.

Then imprison the murderers and massacrers (is that a word?) and throw away the key. Unfortunately there are some risks to living in a free society, but as Benjamin Franklin stated, those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither. BTW, at the time the Constitution was written, private citizens owned cannon and even warships, the most powerful weapons of the day.

Regulated hunting with appropriate weapons is constitutionally protected.

Show me the article in the Constitution where hunting is mentioned. Or in the Bill of Rights. Regulation of hunting has fallen largely under state jurisdiction, and is a fairly recent (about 75 year old) phenomenon. The operative clause of the Second Amendment states in simple English (and the authors of the Constitution were masters of the English language): THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED. Look up Second Amendment threads on the FR search engine to see what the Founding Fathers had to say about private firearm ownership.

The Second Amendment ain't for hunting, it's for personal protection and defense (and deterrence) from a tyrannical government. And don't give me that "It can't happen here" garbage. I'm sure the people of Weimar Germany thought it couldn't happen to them, either.

[FUMETTI]

I don't think Democrats per se are traitors, genius. I think ultra liberals are the real traitors as they want open boarders to lose our national identity and turn it into meaningless soup (like our neighbors the Canadians), impose high taxes to finance social programs to lock people into an underclass; dismantle and attempt redefining of institutions such as marriage to suit a minority of people who think this will legitimize their lifestyle.

You don't get this at all, Mr. Liberal. My great grandparents, grandparents and my parents were Democrats. I WAS A LIBERAL DEMOCRAT. I am ashamed to say this, but I voted for Clinton TWICE!!! (Now the Freepers will really hate me LOL) until my final year of grad school when it "sunk in" that your petty idealism was nothing more than social darwinism and a philosophy ingrained in "glass half full" rationalizing. I could have stayed a "Red Dog" Democrat like Zell Miller, but in 1998 my entire family, from parents to sister to brother in law to myself changed to the Republican Party because of how Clinton acted and how he betrayed this nation, and how his party did not tell him to do the right thing and resign. How the party led by Carville and Larry Flynt ruined Livingstone and Chenoworth by some ridiculous exposure of "hypocrisy" when it was never about adultry but lying under oath and obstructing justice. I never looked back.

As for the 2000 elections how dare you put the GOP as the heavies here when the Democrats were paying hobos and homeless to vote and bribe them with cigarettes? How about the 1996 attempt by the Democrats to get all the illegal immigrants naturalized in time for the election...even many of them with criminal records? How about the push to get FELONS in prison the right to vote? Could that be because third world immigrants and felons vote Democratic 8 to 1?

I have never been affected by the Patriot Act once. I have nothing to hide so why are you fretting, Mr Conspiracy Theory? Deficit? WE HAVE HAD A FEDERAL DEFICIT since 1837 you jackass! Has this country gone under ever? So shut the hell up!!

[mylife]

Well, that was a well written bit of claptrap and never made me want to wretch! LOL!

[Becki]

What a smarmy, pompous a$$!

Becki

[British]

Perhaps Academics have helped educate the small business owners and workers that create and maintain small businesses. I am new to American politics and am trying to understand Republicans and Democrats to see where I fit in. My experience so far is that each side has admirable qualities but that they are afraid that the other will become too powerful and ruin life for everyone so there is a lot of mistrust. You are right about the attitude of the writer but how is common ground to be found? Clearly when we don't talk politics we all get along great. It seems that labels are divisive.