Posted on 09/10/2007 9:52:34 AM PDT by presidio9
To those who use the terms liberal or conservative as an insult, I kindly ask you to either leave the country or voluntarily surrender your right to free speech.
Now, intentionally volatile and over-the-top language aside, I find myself consistently shocked and frightened by the level of extremism displayed by politically motivated individuals both here on campus and in the nation as a whole.
This is not to say that it is wrong to hold ideals that are in line with a particular political party. However, when the course of national debate turns in such a manner that it forgets the basic meaning of the words it uses, responsible citizens are duty-bound to call out ignorance when they see it.
Specifically, the term "liberal" has taken on a very specific meaning in today's political climate. Namely, it implies a tree-hugging, pot-smoking, latte-drinking, over-taxing, war-fearing elitist intellectual. We'll ignore, for a moment, that the greatest political advancements ever made by man were made by liberals, chief among those being the creation of democracy as a system of government and the very revolution that made America a nation.
My apologies for shattering your world, extremist conservatives, but you would have no nation in which to place illegal wiretaps if it weren't for those cursed elitist liberals.
In the most academic sense of the word, to be liberal merely means to look towards progress. It is a true shame that the unjustified hate emanating from the current political climate of this country has led to the degeneration of our very language to the point that it is no longer politically feasible to identify yourself as one who believes that the future could be better with certain changes. I guess the next time I get a new idea I should go ahead and grab a joint and a cup of Starbucks.
Liberals, to be fair, are not the only victims of this phenomenon. Extremists on the left are equally willing to point out the war-mongering, poor-hating, eco-terrorizing fascists of the opposite end of the political spectrum. Of course, those who use the term conservative as an insult likewise ignore that liberal ideals have led to some of the most politically harmful events in history.
While I suppose that many reading this column may not remember it, the spread of communism was due, in large part, to rampant and uncontained liberal thought. One could argue that the half-century-long Cold War that threatened to destroy the entire world on multiple occasions was created primarily because of an overreaction on the part of liberal factions within nations who believed communism would lead them to utopia.
Unfortunately, as we know with our eagle-eye hindsight, liberal thinking created tyrannies disguised as communities of complete fairness and crafted oligarchies out of what should have been nonexistent governments.
I suppose that some of you may find me to be terribly pessimistic by this point. After all, if we all become liberals, communism will take over the world. On the other hand, if we were all conservatives, democracy would crumble, and all of our freedoms would vanish from humanity.
Those of you who have reached this conclusion have completely missed the point.
My true meaning is, in fact, remarkably simple to grasp: Stop acting like children.
Leaders of our nation, our state, our city and, unfortunately, even organizations on this very campus have dedicated the power of communication inherent in their offices to the spreading of hate and misinformation.
I mention leaders of campus organizations specifically because it is especially disheartening to see that here, on the grounds of an institute of higher learning, students elected by their peers have failed their solemn duty to work for the betterment of those around them.
Are students on this campus so consumed with ambition that organizations have become mere stepladders to networking opportunities instead of the platforms for change that they have the potential to be?
To my fellow students who squander the chance to lead by example and truly make a difference in the tone of political discourse on this campus, I can only say that I hope for a day in which discussions between ideologically opposed individuals can take place in a civil manner.
Perhaps, someday, student leaders on this campus will live up to their inherent duty and begin to pave the way for that change.
Forgive me if I'm not holding my breath.
Liberal thinking is always a good thing. Conservatives are frequently guilty of it themselves. Liberal action without thought to consequences (raising taxes, creating a welfare state, thinking the enemy just wants to be friends, instituting socialist healthcare policies), is always doomed to failure.
1) Eye of the beholder.
2) Sticks and stones.
Lastly, a quote..
A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
Thomas Paine
We should all move beyond the labels of liberal and conservative, and the best way to do that is to realize that liberals make the world a better place, and that conservatives are evil, hatefilled people.
Yep, that about covers it.
Yes...but those liberals were NOT the same as today's. The term "liberal" has been highjacked by SOCIALISTS.
May I borrow that for a tagline?
I kindly ask you to kiss my @ss.
Life is hard when words mean things... especially important philosophical terms, like "liberal" and "conservative".
Lieralism (sic) today translates into a number of common isms, et al.,
secular humanism
relativism
socialism
communism
elitism
agnosticism
atheism
projecting their own ills onto others (accusing others of their own benahiours)
and many others not occurring to me as I munch my lunch, none of which are attractive to me.
At the same time, Chad is right in that ‘conservative’ no longer means resistant to change, reactionary, etc.
Both are for “progress” yet define it very differently.
I prefer to think of ‘conservative’ in today’s climate means—
firmly principled
individualistic and politically libertarian while holding to ‘traditional’ social values
states rights and powers versus federal powers - oriented
and others ...
He must use a much different definition of "conservative" than I do.
(Oh, darn, now that song's in my head...)
Seems that the "eriudite Chad" exposes his liberal tendencies.
And Chad is wrong. The term "liberal" is not meant to imply an aging hippie but more correctly, a "liberal" is political agent whose agenda is to enact socialist in the US.
Chad needs to find out first-hand that our form of government does not (yet) micro-manage the economics of the individual while socialism seeks to control individual economics through government intervention (egalitarian distribution of wealth for the good of the electorate).
The Disney song?
I question the "intellectual" part. ;-)
LOL. Yup. I suppose that’s for the best. I’ve had the Mean Kitty Song on an endless loop in my head since last night....
The classical political science definitions of Liberal and Conservative swapped terms in the 1960s.
EG a Conservative in 1800 is a Liberal by todays definition of the word
and a Liberal in 1800 is a Conservative according to todays definition of said word.
The Reason for the swap, part of the DNC plan to blame Republicans for what Democrats really are.
I majored in Political Science in Collage. One thing I remember when I read the Classical Definition of a Conservative, well it defined Stalin to a tee.
Basically you have to keep one thing in mind when reading liberal/conservative, that is when was it written. If it is pre-1960, they were still using the original definitions, these days the terms have swapped definitions so read accordingly.
Chad’s duplicity is striking.
Chad doesn't understand the difference between classical liberalism and modern liberalism. All of the guys you listed above were, generally, in the classical liberal box. That box included limited government and a suspicion of change for the sake of change.
Modern liberalism is just the slow road to a socialist totalitarian state. The two have virtually nothing in common.
It is my considered opinion, after reading many books on the subject, that Thomas Jefferson was a very well spoken, back stabbing weasel.
George Washington, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton thought so too.
I’m gonna side with them.
This is one big liberal whine-fest. Disagreement is so destructive, can’t we all get along?
When he says that George Washington and others are “just as responsible” it displays a lack of historical perspective. If anything, George Washington, Alexander Hamiliton, James Madison and John Jay were the ones who did the heavy lifting and made it possible for our infant country not to be killed in the cradle by amongst others, weasels like Jefferson.
Don’t get me wrong...he did a nice job with his draft of the Declaration of Independence project, and the Lewis and Clark thing was big.
But the grown-ups in the 1790’s made this country great. And Jefferson fought them the whole way.
Liberals all think Jefferson walked on water.
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