I am a liberal

[look.a.liberal]

I came here to understand the conservative point of view. I've lurked for a while now. I decided it'd be appropriate for me to say a few words.

I think that you are patriotic Americans. I am a patriotic American too. It is our right and duty as Americans to vehemently disagree with eachother about how this nation should be governed. It is also our right to call into question the patriotism of those with whom we disagree, but it is our duty not to. It was patriotic to protest the government four years ago, and it is patriotic now. I thank you for this patriotism.

Here are some of the things that I believe:

I support the constitution. I support second amendment rights as well as first amendment rights. I think that it is necessary and good that a court interpret these amendments, but I am as appalled by the notion of a free speech zone as I was by DC's handgun ban. I'm angry about the recent encroachment against the fourth amendment, and the steady erosion of the tenth. It affects blue states as much as red ones. I don't care for drugs, but you tell me how the interstate commerce clause empowers the federal government to keep my neighbor from growing and then smoking a plant without leaving his back yard.

There is little doubt that the federal government exercises more power than it is allowed by the constitution. On the other hand, I think that the infrastructure of a modern country demands more federal powers than are described in the constitution. Instead of amending the constitution, we allowed more and more powers to be read into it. Now it's a status quo that we can't easily abandon.

I support abortion rights, but I think that the opposite position is also very reasonable. If abortion is murder, then there is no question that it should be banned at the federal level. If abortion is simply a medical procedure, then it is tyranny for the government to forbid it. Either way, it would seem that the question should be decided on the federal level. Yet, if we can't reach a consensus about something as basic as whether abortion is murder or an operation, how can we choose to forbid or protect it? I think abortion is a federal-level question that for the moment must unfortunately be decided at the state level.

I am a liberal. I don't think Obama is more tyrannical or arrogant than past presidents. I think a government health-care option would be good for Americans. I don't care that Bush wasn't eloquent, and I also don't think that intellect in the narrow sense is the most important quality for a president. On the other hand I think that the Iraq war was a catastrophic mistake that America won't live down in my lifetime. It weakened America financially, diplomatically and militarily. So, I am very much a liberal. Still, I think we have some common ground.

I'd like to say something a bit more personal. I'm an academic. We spend a lot of our lives thinking about very abstract, technical things. This makes academics prone to elaboration and understatement in our area of expertise, and simultaneously to oversimplification and overconfidence outside of it. We can be short on common sense, but we can have counterinuitive insight in technical matters. It takes academics, entrepreneurs, and factory workers to make a plane fly, and it takes all of us to make the right decisions for America. I think that anti-intellectualism marginalizes an important part of American society, and I think it's destructive. To those who say that small businessmen have nothing of value to say about the US economy, I say you're wrong, and to those who say that academic economists have nothing to say about the US economy, I also say you're wrong.

Please leave comments if you'd like. I'll try to respond tomorrow.

We, Americans, conservative and liberal, need to figure out our own compromises, because our media and our politicians sure as taxes won't do it for us. Like it or not, we're in it together.

[JusPasenThru]

IBTZ

[cripplecreek]

Aww geeze

Couldn’t you at least wait till I’ve had my first cup of coffee?

[SECURE AMERICA]

(Here are some of the things that I believe:
I support the constitution. I support second amendment rights as well as first amendment rights.)

You are not a liberal. LIBERALS hate and fear the 2nd Amendment.

[Luke21]

You appear to be moderate to liberal, but also quite open minded. True liberals are zombies over political correctness amd instantly regurgitate Bill Maher’s nonsense. I work with a bunch of those.

Welcome. I hope people will be kind to you.

[Robert DeLong]

If all liberals were like you then there would be less problems. Perhaps you are not as liberal as you think you are. What I call you is the classic liberal, which is fine. The modern liberal is nothing more than a statist.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

You don’t see the damage that is occurring. That is your problem. The fact that you are an academician and are incapable of objectively researching the data and coming to a detached interpretation of that data speaks volumes about both the liberal mindset and academe in general.

I don’t want to compromise with you and your Stalinist comrades. I want to defeat you, one and all, decisively.

Go back to DU and continue to wreak your havoc on our liberty, prosperity, and our future from there.

We’ll continue to defend liberty and the future of America from our side, as we did during the American Revolution, as we did to end slavery.

By the way, it sounds like you want to “get along.” Well, my goal is to take all that vitriol, hatred, and opposition that you showed Bush and his supporters for the last four years and to condense it down into four years of unparalleled misery for you leftists.

[Doogle]

your a troll

[mkjessup]

I support abortion rights

You don't say. That's too bad. Here on FR, we support the rights of the unborn, not the imaginary 'right' to murder those unborn children.

Hey Jim? We got a live one here.

IBTZ

[SECURE AMERICA]

I don’t think Obama is more tyrannical or arrogant than past presidents

How many CZARS?
Taking over the Auto Industry?
Dictating what private Corporations can pay their employees?
Trying to Nationalize the citizens healthcare?
I’ll leave the dozen or so other things for someone else to post on.....

[Perdogg]

well, welcome to FR. I am sure I will disagree with you, but welcome nevertheless. You are probably more conservative than you think.

[dubie]

[Non-Sequitur]

Methinks the kitties are warming up the zot cannon even as we speak.

[Paladin2]

What kind of Opus is this?

[TSgt]

...our media and our politicians sure as taxes won't do it for us.

There are certain conservative core beliefs that I will not compromise. That said, I think you could represent the growing breakaway group of Americans who are sick of both Republican and Democrat politicians.

Re-Elect Nobody

[9YearLurker]

“I support the constitution...(but) the infrastructure of a modern country demands more federal powers than are described in the constitution.”

[dubie]

[MrPiper]

I think that it is necessary and good that a court interpret these amendments

Because conservative Americans can't read, or are just to dumb?

[DuncanWaring]

Here on FR, we support the rights of the unborn, not the imaginary 'right' to murder those unborn children.

There is at least one over-a-decade member here (not me) who supports the imaginary 'right' to murder those unborn.

[lucky american]

Sounds more Libertarian than Liberal to me.