I'm a liberal and I'm here to learn

[rogerv]

Hi, gang,

I was a regular contributor to the Kerry Online Forum and am now a regular contributor to the Common Ground Common Sense forum. I am a liberal, but I'll be the first to admit, I don't have all the answers. In fact, many of hte questions that matter to me probably matter to you too. I'm concerned with questions about how to tame power, whether governmental or corporate. I'm concern with the rule of law and how we can get the powerful to take it seriously. I'm concerned with the erosion of civil liberties. And yes, I am concerned about some things you may associate with liberalism--social safety nets and taking care of those who fall through the institutional cracks.

I'm here because I think agreement is overrated and that critics can be your best friends: they keep you from getting sloppy or careless. At any rate, I think there are things I can learn from you. I don't expect you are all agreed on anything--I expect there is a lot of diversity of opinion here. If you are interested in what I have said over at Common Ground Common Sense, I'm using the same handle both places, and you should feel free to come over and look around.

Anyway, I'm new here. Anybody care to give me a tour?

[tiamat]

If that's a 'he' it ain't MY little red light blinking on their monitor.

---

Oh, I'm a "she".

[Mudboy Slim]

"...the 1st caller on Rush today, Karen from Oregon. She.....talked.....veerrry....slow....so....the....mind.....numbed....robots.....in....Rush's......audience....could....understand."

Yep...and she kept saying, "Can I talk now?" That's an annoying habit that Ann Coulter's picked up, too.

FReegards...MUD

[Zavien Doombringer]

Hey Apes...He has been replying and has been polite. If this is a troll, he's coming in stealth mode. I am waiting for the Infra-Red signature...

Trolls may come under the radar and the Aim 7's may miss, but an Aim-9M or X can grab it in the last minute...The VK are standing by, with safety checked. (we have had several freindly fire incidents lately and we don't want that anymore)

[mvpel]

I am a liberal, but I'll be the first to admit, I don't have all the answers

You could have stopped at "I am a liberal." The rest is a given.

Not really - most liberals think they have all the answers and will shove 'em right down your throat with the force of law.

[Earthdweller]

Where's the #$&^ beef?
-----
You just aged yourself. Tee Hee. How long has it been since that commercial left the air?

[Jeff Head]

He wrote several books about Bastiat, one called, "Frédérick Bastiat: Ideas and Influence", another called "Government and Legal Plunder, Bastiat brought up to Date", which were published by the Foundation for Economic Education.

He also translated Bastiati's, "The Law" for that same foundation, HERE, in 1950, when he worked as a staffer for the Foundation on Economic Education as a a journalism graduate student who had finished his service with the Army Air Corps at the time. Russell's translation, published in 1950, introduced Bastiat's writings on freedom to many new readers. It has since sold a half million copies.

He later served as an honorary trustee for the Foundation of Economic Education and as a Professor of Management at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse for a time, and spent six months teaching at the National Taiwan University.

He is generally credited with coming up with the term to define those of the "Libertarian" persuassion and defines it HERE.

He was a great thinker and a loyal, patriotic American. Here are a few more of his essays:

Who is to Blame?

Free Markets and Human Freedom

Ownership and Freedom

Living in Two Chinas

[Zavien Doombringer]

Wow, that's late 80's fer shurrr...

It needs to come back, I swear, McD's has made thier burgers even smaller!

[Osage Orange]

Welcome to Free Republic.

Why thank-you..!!

I've not had someone welcome me since Nov. 2000...

LOL!!

[crushelits]

'Trust the People'
The "Reagan earthquake" still reverberates through the world economy.

Nearly a quarter-century after the Reagan earthquake first rocked our economy, the aftershocks are still a very real and continuing phenomenon. Every tax cut, every regulatory stranglehold broken, every economic shackle unlocked, and every despot or totalitarian regime toppled increases freedom, creativity and entrepreneurship. And in the ultracompetitive world that has sprung from the ashes, "old line" hegemony and subjugation lose their strength.

As Ronald Reagan said in 1981, "We who live in free market societies believe that growth, prosperity and ultimately human fulfillment, are created from the bottom up, not the government down. Only when the human spirit is allowed to invent and create, only when individuals are given a personal stake in deciding economic policies and benefiting from their success--only then can societies remain economically alive, dynamic, progressive and free. Trust the people."

A corollary to this credo is "trust the market," because people make markets. In the 1970s, the U.S. and most of the noncommunist world were headed toward a European-style welfare state. Huge swaths of the economy were regulated, government spending was out of control and income-tax rates topped out at a sky-high 70%.

Ronald Reagan stopped that process and turned the U.S. around. Many Western European societies kept moving down the socialist path and have now reached a point where any change in policy is nearly impossible because a majority of voters benefit in some way from government largesse.

President Clinton contributed to the Reagan revolution by declaring that the "era of big government is over." He signed into law welfare reform and Nafta, continuing the trend toward more personal responsibility, less government and more competition.

President Bush has taken this trend one step forward and would like to use government to create an "ownership society." The American Dream Down Payment Assistance Act, signed into law in December 2003, is helping first-time homebuyers with their down payments. This is shifting government spending toward supporting home ownership and away from perpetuating dependency on rent subsidies. A decade from now, this program will have helped to transform a whole new group of Americans into the "bottom up" market economy and away from the "top down" government economy.

Health Savings Accounts are another move in this direction, as is the push for personal Social Security accounts. Private property and ownership are keys to continuing the social and economic transformation that began many years ago.

In the past 24 years, the top marginal tax rate has been cut in half, while dividend and capital-gains tax rates have been reduced significantly. These lower tax rates have spurred massive new investment and attracted talent and brainpower from around the world. The U.S. has led the way in a global and technological revolution.

The result of these changes is a New World Order--one in which competition comes from everywhere. A growing number of people have "skin in the game" and a "personal stake" in public policy. This has created an American population, as we saw in the election, that values greater individual freedom and supports government actions that bolster economic growth and wealth creation, not wealth redistribution.

Obviously, this does not make everyone happy. In the late 1990s, George Soros made it clear that he thought deregulation had gone too far. At face value this is a comment on public policy. But it is also true that in an era of global deregulation, international financiers have a more difficult time profiting from personal relationships and intimate knowledge of government actions. Absolute returns tend to equalize among investors in a truly free market.

The same is true of just about every "old line" industry. The Internet, its irreverent blogs and cable TV are making information ubiquitous and stealing market share from major networks. Minority groups have also been lifted by the years of strong growth. The entrepreneurial society has created opportunity for all and increased wealth for many. Union membership is declining, while stock ownership is rising. Tensions between labor, management and shareholders must be worked out in the marketplace. Free-market capitalism works best when business owners and investors work toward the highest possible profits, not toward the latest fad in social responsibility.

There are clearly many who complain about the impact of these forces, and purport that the U.S. should return to its 1970s roots, following the lead of Europeans. In his book, "The European Dream," Jeremy Rifkin argues that "even the most self-reliant American can no longer go it alone in a world where a SARS epidemic, a computer virus, a terrorist attack, a stock-market scandal or global warming make everyone potentially vulnerable and reliant on each other."

He holds up the European Dream of "sustainable development, quality of life and the nurturing of community" as defenses against these threats. Mr. Rifkin echoes the well-known economist John Kenneth Galbraith, who in 1984, five years before its collapse, praised Russia for the "well-being of the people on the streets," adding that, "partly, the Russian system succeeds because, in contrast with the Western industrial economies, it makes full use of its manpower."

Just as Galbraith's ideas were toppled by the aftershocks of the Reagan earthquake, the free market is undermining Mr. Rifkin's ideas. What Mr. Rifkin fails to realize is that an entrepreneurial society will not function if people do not work together. The facts speak for themselves. The EU has 455 million inhabitants and a GDP roughly equal to the U.S. After doing the math, this means that average per capita income in the EU is roughly 40% less than in America. With more wealth, the U.S. is in much better shape to defend itself against disease, terrorists or corporate shenanigans.

What cannot be defended is the status quo. The U.S. is living through an entrepreneurial renaissance of historic proportions. It started 24 years ago and the tectonic plates continue to shift. Part of this process will be an accelerated upheaval in the centers of power. The Europeans are trying to move in this direction with a push towards freer labor markets and lower taxes. Many will fight this process every step of the way. Others will "trust the people."Mr. Wesbury is chief economist at Griffin, Kubik, Stephens & Thompson Inc. This is part of an occasional series.

[Just another Joe]

Oh, I'm a "she".

I know but DooDahhhh posted, "Yeah, we all post nekkid, didn't you all make him aware of it early on so that he would get the big picture sooner?

I think he was talking about you, not roger.

[cardinal4]

Name for me, please, just one civil liberty that has been eroded.

[End Times Sentinel]

How did you get a conservative ranking.

This is how I answered:

 

(Choose A if you agree, M for Maybe, D if you disagree.)

 

Government should not censor speech, press, media or Internet- A

Military service should be voluntary. There should be no draft- M

There should be no laws regarding sex for consenting adults- D

Repeal laws prohibiting adult possession and use of drugs- D

There should be no National ID card- M

End "corporate welfare." No government handouts to business- M

End government barriers to international free trade- M

Let people control their own retirement; privatize Social Security- A

Replace government welfare with private charity- A

Cut taxes and government spending by 50% or more- A

Now you know what to believe in order to fit in around here ;-)

Owl_Eagle

"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in.  I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"

-Hillary Clinton

(Yes, she really said that

Peggy Noonan

The Case Against Hillary Clinton, pg 55)

[MeekOneGOP]

He appears to be a well-reasoned fella.
Most admitted Libs can't spell or use
capitalization properly.

[MeekOneGOP]

I say give MurryMom the boot and keep this one.

[mvpel]

Name for me, please, just one civil liberty that has been eroded.

The "uninfringeable" civil liberty to keep and bear arms.

[roaddog727]

Good to see that you stuck around to reply.

Welcome to free republic.

We do have a diverse aggragation of folks here, all of whom share in the belief of conservatism.

Perhaps, after reading some of feedback you receive from my esteemed colleagues, you will chage your point of view to that of ours.

[jellybean]

Yep...and she kept saying, "Can I talk now?" That's an annoying habit that Ann Coulter's picked up, too.

Hi Muddy! Long time no talk. :)

I enjoy it when Ann continues talking while a liberal is trying to shut her down after he/she has just had 5 minutes uninterrupted to make their point. As she's said, "If you're not going to let me talk, I'm not going to let you be heard either....I'll keep talking until you let me speak..." I think it's a great tactic! What I find annoying is when she whines, "Sean make them stop!"

[Feiny]

Freeptard....I think that is my new screenname!

[Arrowhead1952]

What is the deal with MurryMom???

[Zavien Doombringer]

Ooo, you can't disagree with that...