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]

Why ban him?

I agree. Let us first study his habits. Then let's kill him and feast on his spleen.

[reagan_fanatic]

First, I applaud your reasoned post. It is truly rare to have a liberal post anything here that doesn't disintegrate quickly into a childish screaming rage.

Second, while you are reasoned, you are also delusional. The damage Obama and liberalism is causing to this country is deep and multi-dimensional. We cannot continue on the path he has set us on without effecting the complete dismantling of our capitalist system and the structures that have allowed us to become the most powerful and wealthy country in history. Obama must be stopped by whatever means we have at our disposal (legal of course.) I see a glint of promise in you. Hopefully, you'll fan the embers and cast off the liberal shackles that cloud your vision.

Conservatism and free enterprise, coupled with a rollback of government intrusion and the chains of bureaucracy weighing down the engines of business will be what brings us back to the prosperity we once enjoyed.

Liberalism is the antithesis of that, and an ideology that has been exposed as the fraud it is. Perhaps the good of Obama is that he has opened so many eyes to the truth.

Time for a change of beliefs, my liberal friend.

[Gargantua]

So what is it about eating boogers that you find so impossible to resist?

Here's a clue, clueless: I need advice from you like I need another myocardial infarction. I was writing to a Liberal academic who thinks that the Constitution is no longer sufficient to America's needs, and came over here for the sole purpose of spewing his Liberal piss.

If you want to be FreeRepublic's Lindsay "Can't we all just get along?" Graham, let that be your ignominious legacy. You are no less insulting to me than I was to the Liberal pantload, you just choose to aim your ire at conservatives. You fu%*ing moron.

Nice job. Keep eating those boogers, you brain-dead chunk of rat-stool.

N'kay?

;-/

[Arrowhead1952]

[Minn]

boogers...pantload...boogers... pantload

I guess you make up the scatological wing of the conservative movement. The founders would be so proud.

[CSM]

Let’s see, you support abortion and the elimination of privacy between a doctor and patient via national health care. You do realize that the crux of the Roe decision was the privacy issue, right? Go ahead and destroy that privacy. Nothing better than legislating away the crux of Roe.

I don’t support murder or national health care, but I am more than willing to cut you with the sword you hand me.

[CSM]

“At the moment of conception a sperm joins an egg and LIFE BEGINS. There was no life before that moment, only after.”

Correct and that LIFE has it’s own unique DNA.

[Gargantua]

As luck would have it, the only times I have anything to do with human excreta is either when performing my ablutions, or when talking to you. Rat stool.

I do, however, find a couple points here both truly informative and fantastically amusing.

First, of course, is how you can reprimand me for terse verbiage even as you yourself engage in the very same.

Second, and even more precious, is that the contradictorily pious irony of this leviathan hypocrisy is completely lost on you; you're at least as blissfully clueless as is the Liberal pantload interloper whose cause you tilt at your persnickety, phantom windmill in irrational defense of.

It's like Teddaquiddick Kennedy pounding the lecturn, ranting incoherently about people drinking too much, while barely able to stand up after his twelve martini "lunch."

You are as phony as a Whitewater land deal, yet you likely believe deeply in the seriousness of your diatribe. Poor, lost booger eater. Bent as batsh*t.

I kind of like you. You're too pathetic to hate. Minny.

;-/

[Mrs. Frogjerk]

If you were a true liberal you wouldn't even be interested in our points of view.

I do give you credit for inviting us into a conversation with you, because let me tell you, it can get pretty dicey in here. Especially when you post a vanity. I know this by experience and I am a conservative, so good luck with that.

Anyway, the quote regarding abortion(”If abortion was murder it should be illegal”) denotes some doubt on your part regarding the issue. Do keep pondering that question. You will find the answer eventually.

I'm always open to discussing my views with people. I do so peacefully. That is until people start getting nasty or condescending with me. That's when the claws come out.

Good luck on the thread.

[Paladin2]

Liberal ---> f'n retard.

QED

[NonLinear]

At the moment of conception a sperm joins an egg and LIFE BEGINS. There was no life before that moment, only after. If life has begun, to end it is murder. It is really that simple.

Well, actually, both the egg and the sperm were alive before that moment. So really, LIFE CONTINUES. A fine point, to be sure, but a valid one. It is still life.

[citizenredstater9271]

If this wasn’t a troll post I’d ask him how he feels about Rangel and Obama bringing back the draft.