Posted on 03/21/2002 8:05:45 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
I am puzzled, perplexed and sometimes annoyed by the frequent potshots taken at us liberals. Seems like it's open season on us all year long. Not just by the media minions but by their lower ranks as well.
Is it because liberal-haters are malicious, mean people? No, we don't think so. Many are fine, tax-paying, church-going people. Then why? I believe the reason is that they are ignorant of American history or have amnesia regarding it. They have forgotten that American liberals and radicals started the Revolutionary War.
Liberals first pointed out the evils of human slavery. We forget that the great liberal Franklin D. Roosevelt started many liberal programs we take for granted today, such as Social Security, now being robbed by George W. It was called communism by many back then. Medicare, another great liberal program that keeps us oldsters from bankruptcy, was called socialized medicine.
Just a few other liberal programs are workers' compensation, unemployment insurance, bank-deposit insurance up to $100,000 per account, the right of workers to organize and strike, the eight-hour instead of the 12-hour day, old age pensions, survivors' benefits of Social Security, lowering of stock margins from 90 percent to 50, protection of our ancient forests from the loggers so now we can see the giant redwoods, clean water and air act Bush is now eroding by decree, pure food and drug laws, expansion of national wild areas and monuments, voting-rights laws, health insurance and rights for the handicapped.
All these and more were pushed through by liberals and opposed by conservatives. They make America safer and better for all of us, not just the liberals who sponsored and fought for them.
Yes, even the birth-control pill, so widely used by conservative women and their daughters, came from the liberals. Now George W. is trying to deny it to the world's poorest women while his own upper class has easy access to whatever contraceptive they choose. Remember the campaign word "compassionate"?
Meanwhile, liberals pay taxes, obey the laws and support the government in crisis while fighting to save the liberal programs of our land being nibbled away, while being called nasty names for our trouble. Even most conservatives forget that the media is really owned by a few giant conservative corporations for whom the only thing is the bottom line for the top dogs.
Many conservatives who libel us would scream bloody murder if the liberal programs put in place years ago were dropped. They parrot the slogans of the giant media because it is open season on the left and center.
Meanwhile, the "compassionate" man in the White House erodes these programs by edict or failure to enforce the law. Now, more than ever, is the time for liberals to unite, no matter what people say about us
I cannot locate an email address.
We forget that the great liberal Franklin D. Roosevelt started many liberal programs we take for granted today
When he wasn’t busy locking up Asians for the crime of having slanted eyes.
Because they are evil.
Bwahahahahhahahahha! I can see Georges Washington wondering indeed whether transexuals should be allowed to adopt.
Liberals? NO. Radicals? No. Patriots of liberty and freedom? YES! Liberals were all for the King as they are now!
For spending other people's money, and then feeling holier than thou for doing so. Liberals spend much of their lives proving they 'care' more than you do. Liberals are disliked for their deep narcissism, self-important shallowness, and their elitist belief that they are the special people in the world, worthy of envy and admiration. Liberals incubate poor people and minorities because they can affirm their delusional sense of self worth from them.
You're baby killing, anti-self defense socialists.
How 'bout the NEA? Americorps? Capital Gains Tax?
No, American libertarians started the Revolutionary War. They merely called themselves liberal at the time...before FDR and friends made the word an abomination.
I can not think of one govt program that benefits me. I am a typical middle class suburbanite. Please fill me in. Maybe I am missing out on something.
Also, it sounds like it was written 15 years ago, during the Reagan years. Given that a liberal or post-liberal was in the White House for eight of the last ten years, it's foolish to complain that liberals are being persecuted.
Remaining public feeling against liberals has nothing to do with the American Revolution or the abolitionists, and even not so much to do with FDR, though many of his policies don't look to have much relevance or benefit in today's world. It's the failures of the Great Society and the arrogance and anti-Americanism shown by liberals over more recent decades that disturbs people.
In general, modern liberalism shows itself as the indulgence of emotion and sentimentality over reason and the lessons experience. There may be times when a liberal attitudes or liberal measures are justified, but people are right when they are put off by modern liberalism, and wise when they question the good intentions, virtue and disinterestedness of contemporary liberals.
...and what people who want to avoid confusion call "libertarians."
The author does not understand Political Theory. The founders were Classical Liberals, a school of political thought that arose largely in France and England during the decline of the traditional Monarchies. Classical Liberalism with its emphasis on liberty and its evolution of the contemporary conception of the citizen/state relationship and social contract has little in common with modern U.S. liberalism.
But classical liberalism has everything in common with libertarianism. In fact, they are interchangeable.
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