Posted on 08/18/2005 7:34:07 AM PDT by against_kerry
The Democrats turn their lonely eyes to Hillary: Give us a message. Lead us home.
Even for the Wonder Woman of the Party of JFK, this is no easy task. How to decry the excesses of the Bush administration and the GOP Congress without validating the label "The Party of No"?
How to lure enough GOP votes to win elections at a time when Democrat means liberal and liberal is a term of derision?
A Web site set up by a minister and his daughter (www.liveliberal.com) has an answer you can wear on a T-shirt: "Liberal is not a dirty word."
Retired Lutheran minister Daniel Bruch of Live Liberal gets right to the point: "I don't know if Jesus was the first liberal, but he was an important one."
Jesus taught love, tolerance, forgiveness, charity and humility. Don't take my word for it. Read the New Testament. It's not that long. And it's not about fire-and-brimstone fundamentalism, judging one another or dominating the Earth. It outlines a philosophy based on a really radical idea: Love your creator, love yourself, love your neighbor as yourself.
When it comes to following this lesson, the current administration "is walking 180 degrees opposite of the person they call their savior," Bruch said in a phone interview.
On their Web site, Bruch and daughter Sarah offer quotes and essays on liberalism that Hillary Rodham Clinton should work into her speeches. For example, "liberals support changes that increase personal freedom and tolerance, and exercise the liberty to empower government to the extent necessary to achieve those ends."
Instead of trying to make their best candidate, Clinton, into a vanilla-flavored, inoffensive centrist, Democrats ought to boldly point out that liberals provided the impetus to move society toward acceptance of civil rights, women's rights, children's rights, consumers' rights, etc.
Liberals also deserve "family values" mantle because the 40-hour workweek, laws against child labor and other protections for workingmen and women were liberal ideas of old. High-quality childcare is a liberal idea for today's working families.
They should be "for" better wages.
They should be "for" national health care.
They should be "for" being liberals. They should point out that Jesus was a liberal, too.
Somehow, Democrats let others define them as elitist snobs. That label, not the liberal label, is the one Democrats have to shake.
Can Hillary help them do it?
She has the charisma and the intelligence -- and she has infinite patience, or Bill would be toast. She needs the guts to take a proud left turn and loudly proclaim that the United States is not a "Christian nation" in any pinched or exclusionary way. It's a nation that honors the individual rights of pagans, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and others, as well as Christians.
It is also nation that acts for the common good in ways that were meticulously outlined by a radical liberal named Jesus. Linda Valdez is an editorial writer at The Arizona Republic. She can be reached at linda.valdez@arizonarepublic.com
I just received this:
Thanks for your comments. Christianity is about personal choices, not government mandates. A government that can ban abortion can someday require it. These are personal decisions. Linda Valdez editorial writer The Arizona Republic
Linda was the one advocating that Jesus would vote Democrat, her reply makes little sense.
Linda is more than a bit loopy.
Well of course He would. If you vote then you are taking part in the democratic procedure.
I doubt however that He would vote DEMOCRAT.
This is starting to become a real peeve of mine. There ain't nothing Democratic about the Democrats.
Wow. Clear, concise, and correct. I wish I had penned it.
BTW I AM SO STEALING IT!
"liberals support changes that increase personal freedom and tolerance, and exercise the liberty to empower government to the extent necessary to achieve those ends."
Wow! This another one liberal notions like to not be racist you must discriminate.
I hate to be rude but I have no idea what you are talking about.
Huh? The truth is, liberals support strong central government controlling every aspect of our lives. Liberals hate the Constitution. Liberals hate freedom.
It's a nation that honors the individual rights of pagans, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and others, as well as Christians.
And that ideology is the reason no one in his or her right mind would support liberalism. This is a Christian Nation. Christians founded this nation, and Christians made this nation great.
Libertarians must come-to-grips with the truth. Jesus most definitely forced proper behavior with the threat of eternal damnation. Jesus was the reason Americans were free to keep their homes unlocked while on vacation, and their cars unlocked for the life of the car (prior to the leftist take-over of our society about 50-60 years ago).
The libs love to give half of Jesus's story. They keep forgetting about his call to REPENT of their sins before being reunited with Him. They don't like that whole SIN thing, so they prefer to ignore it in favor of the LOVE thing.
Linda Valdez is an editorial writer at The Arizona Republic. She can be reached at The nearest crack house.
To paraphrase Lincoln, we should not try to claim the Lord for our side, but try to be on the Lord's side. That's certainly part of why I vote conservative. To the best of my earthly understanding, conservatism comes closer.
Sir SuziQ wants to know what's going on here. He's been under he impression all these years that the libs thought 'religion in politics' was a BAD thing!
HAR!!!
Yeah, I'm sure Jesus was a big-government socialist, an athiest, a condom-throwing pervert, an abortion enthusiast, a gold-chained union "organizer", a Hollywood drunk, a screeching feminist, a welfare lifer having babies like flies, a professional race "victim", and in general, a loser, parasite and malcontent. A prototypical Democrat.
Yeah, sure - - that's what Jesus was.
The last two elections, (at least the last two), Jesus did vote for Bush. This is why he was elected. This is why Algore was not able to steal it from him in 2000.
I doubt he will change parties for 2008.
I'm sure Jesus would be a big fan of "the separation of church and state".
Well there is one group.
Who Was Jesus?
http://www.noahide.com/yeshu.htm
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