Liberal Manifesto

[Tars]

Possibly a bit too combative in tone for these parts. But it's nice to see someone try to put a unified face on the most-often fractious end of the political spectrum.

Dan Kurtzman, from his book, "How to Win a Fight with a Conservative"
as quoted on the Daily Kos:

Liberal Manifesto

Liberals believe in clean air, diplomacy, stem cells, living wages, body armor for our troops, government accountability, and that exercising the right to dissent is the highest form of patriotism.

Liberals believe in reading actual books, going to war as a last resort, separating church and hate, and doing what Jesus would actually do, instead of lobbying for upper-class tax cuts and fantasizing about the apocalypse.

Liberals believe in civil rights, the right to privacy, and that evolution and global warming aren’t just theories but incontrovertible scientific facts.

Liberals believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment that (1) prohibits another Bush from ever occupying the White House, and (2) prevents George W. Bush from ever becoming baseball commissioner before he does to our national pastime what he did for America.

Liberals believe in rescuing people from flooded streets and rooftops, even if they’re too poor to vote Republican.

Liberals believe that supporting our troops means treating our wounded vets like the heroes they are, and not leaving them to languish in rat-infested military hospitals under the outsourced management of incompetent cronies who think they’re running a Taco Bell franchise.

Liberals believe in pheromones, sex ed, solar panels, voting paper trails, the common good, and that, no matter how fascinating a story it may be, a president should never sit around in a state of total paralysis reading "My Pet Goat" while America is under attack.

And above all, liberals believe that it’s time to come together as a country and put a collective boot in the ass of shameless conservative fearmongers, hate merchants, and scapegoaters who are sucking the freedom out of all our souls.

[Sciguy]

Tars provided a list of liberal beliefs. The big one he missed is that liberals believe that everyone, conservatives included, really want all of the same good, humanistic, life-supporting things that liberals want except that they are (choose one or more) not there yet, too dumb, too selfish, uneducated, misled, believe that attention to money and property will lift all the boats etc. This may be true of ordinary folks that are caught up in the propaganda from above but it is surely not true of the guys at the top, the neo-cons, the politicians, the congresspersons, the governors, the CEO's and the think tank types (yes I know there is a tiny minority of wonderful exceptions). We need to understand that they really do not care about people or their suffering. With six billion people in the world, humans are an inexhaustible, even excess resource. One dollar trumps one life every day. What counts is money, greed and power. They aren't misled, this is their creed. They really are not liberals in wolf's clothing, yearning to start building houses for poor people. Look at their actions (Katrina, Iraq, endless war, ever more tax cuts for the rich, destroying education, denying health care) and forget about the liberal delusion that conservatives harbor the secret wish to hug their neighbors and build a heaven on earth.
There are two great political divisions - the left puts people first and the right puts money and property first. This is the only meaning that left and right labels have.

[decterlove]

The question that needs to be asked, though, especially at this point, and Obama's stated inclinations seem to point to it, is "Why do some people become liberals and some people become conservatives in the the first place?"

Not being able to entertain that inquiry, even for a fleeting moment, is why the Left has remained marginalized, and largely ineffective for the last 30 years in the national political sphere. Along with the fact that the left has never been able to think and act realistically in accord with it's basic aim to change the way things are done in this country. Classic leftist thinking was demonstrated by Nader's rigid idealistic stance in the last election, and look what his naive, stubborn idealism has cost us now!

People adopt political identities for all sorts of odd reasons, most of them emotionally based vs purely rationally based. A person growing up in a strict Baptist household may revolt and never want to interface with a traditional religious structure or values again. One sibling may remain "loyal" to his or her parents values and the other may take the opposite path simply to carve out their own identity, or for deeper emotional reasons.

An individual who watched his parents live unstable lives and felt ostracized by his or her peers, or had to start working for a living at age 14 may not have any inclinations towards a more liberal, generous viewpoint as an adult. They may inclined to believe that everyone else should have to work their ass off or starve to death and die in some alley. Likewise, many individuals who dive off the deep end with drug use or violence in their adolescence and find "salvation" in a formal religious setting may hold on to conservative values simply because they make more sense to them in interpreting their own experiences.

I think we need much greater Imagination, Creativity, Humility and Compassion to even begin solving this countries vast cultural divide and I don't see that arising anywhere on the left or the right, except perhaps in the realm of creative solutions in regard to technical fields like energy and the inevitable move towards the greening of our Industrial society. I hope Obama can truly inspire some deeper change in our psyches and survive four years in office as well but he's got his work cut out for him that's for sure.

[Moon]

This is a serious question and an important one; i hope you won't mind
my responding with an appropriate joke:
What's a conservative? a liberal who's just been mugged
What's a liberal? a conservative who's just been busted

The question that needs to be asked, though, especially at this point, and Obama's stated inclinations seem to point to it, is "Why do some people become liberals and some people become conservatives in the the first place?"

[scorpiomoon]

How do people "become" liberal or "conservative" in the first place??? Democrat or Republican? Good Question. I do not know the answer but I do remember my grandmother, a staunch Republican saying she thought Truman was "common," which her tone indicated something almost pro-monarchy. It is the illusion that somehow by being "right" in the sight of god will make you rich. Supporting the elites will somehow make you an elite. Delusions of grandeur. Remember that the upper classes take notes on who is with who, they have pedigrees like dogs and horses. Some end up for the common man and some do not. There are liberal elites and conservative ones. Voting conservatively for many years none of my family's arguments regarding any Republican candidate even came close to being rational. I believe that there is an emotional knee jerk reaction behind the voting which involves no study. I do believe there is a tendency to regard liberalism as socialism or communism, and you know, better dead than red, right.

The terms need to be clarified and "liberals" need to have think tanks as well. Re-write the language. Pro-Life should be Pro- Overpopulation or Pro-Popewords or
Anti-freedom or something I think discussing the language and confronting media as in collusion with the elites and not allowing more information from unimbedded journalists, unembedded in war or up on Capitol Hill.

Also maybe go back to studying the Constitution are re-evaluating what it means. Govt claims goals of democracy while foreign policy does not reflect that. This contradiction needs to be addressed. For the best future Diplomats should not be political appointments but life-time scholars
I believe "undersecretaries" of state usually are well trained on the history, culture, language of the regions where they serve. Our system is beginning to look more and more like a ship run aground,taken from the people and given to the corporate elite. (which are not all citizens of our country and hold no allegiance to our philospphies)

Question, when are the regular conservatives going to see this, and join the rest of us and get the king and his men and hold themaccountable. THe profit mongers should pay for their war and tried for treason.

[Braggi]

...
Question, when are the regular conservatives going to see this, and join the rest of us and get the king and his men and hold themaccountable. THe profit mongers should pay for their war and tried for treason.

[sigh] I have a brother who tells me it's imperative we not allow the "surrendercrats" to win the White House.

What can you do with thinking like that?

-Jeff

PS. The stationing of a foreign army (Blackwater) in New Orleans after Katrina is treason as are so many other crimes of the Bush gang. I say we round them all up and let them go on the streets of Baghdad.

[scorpiomoon]

First ask him what he means by "surrendercrats" he surely isnt referring to surrendering our constitutional rights is he??

[Braggi]

Bush's response to 9/11 he blames on Bill Clinton, of course. If Bill hadn't given bin Laden the green light by pulling CIA agents from the field (because so many were getting killed as a result of CIA incompetence) than 9/11 wouldn't have happened. [I know, yeah, right!]

Sometimes I wonder how it is we came from the same parents.

I think my other brother might even be worse. I rarely talk to him.

I know I'm not the only one reading here with politically brain dead siblings.

-Jeff

[decterlove]

Agree....I think this is one of the most alarming things I've heard re domestic matters in the last few years. Katrina and Iraq truly bookend the nature of events to come if the American people don't wake up soon and even if they do wake up.....they'll still have to figure out what to do at this late hour.

The real tragedy is that there are intelligent Americans of both parties and all persausions out there....it's just the nature of the logic we have set up in our systems and basic inertia that keep things propelled in the wrong direction. (plus maybe a few very bad eggs out there...ahem, is there a Neo-Con in the house?)

I mean something like health care can be complex and full of contradictory opinions, but we can't even improve our educational system in California, a state with one of the best economies in the world! I am frankly about to give up on the hominid branch of evolution altogether. God should have retired and moved to Boca Raton after he created the Serpent.

PS. The stationing of a foreign army (Blackwater) in New Orleans after Katrina is treason as are so many other crimes of the Bush gang.

[amalia]

It seems obvious to me that we mimic our parents' beliefs to become Liberal/Conservative, Democrat/Republican. We also mindlessly follow the family religion/belief in God in the same manner.


How do people "become" liberal or "conservative" in the first place??? Democrat or Republican? Good Question. I do not know the answer but I do remember my grandmother, a staunch Republican saying she thought Truman was "common," which her tone indicated something almost pro-monarchy. It is the illusion that somehow by being "right" in the sight of god will make you rich. Supporting the elites will somehow make you an elite. Delusions of grandeur. Remember that the upper classes take notes on who is with who, they have pedigrees like dogs and horses. Some end up for the common man and some do not. There are liberal elites and conservative ones. Voting conservatively for many years none of my family's arguments regarding any Republican candidate even came close to being rational. I believe that there is an emotional knee jerk reaction behind the voting which involves no study. I do believe there is a tendency to regard liberalism as socialism or communism, and you know, better dead than red, right.

The terms need to be clarified and "liberals" need to have think tanks as well. Re-write the language. Pro-Life should be Pro- Overpopulation or Pro-Popewords or
Anti-freedom or something I think discussing the language and confronting media as in collusion with the elites and not allowing more information from unimbedded journalists, unembedded in war or up on Capitol Hill.

Also maybe go back to studying the Constitution are re-evaluating what it means. Govt claims goals of democracy while foreign policy does not reflect that. This contradiction needs to be addressed. For the best future Diplomats should not be political appointments but life-time scholars
I believe "undersecretaries" of state usually are well trained on the history, culture, language of the regions where they serve. Our system is beginning to look more and more like a ship run aground,taken from the people and given to the corporate elite. (which are not all citizens of our country and hold no allegiance to our philospphies)

Question, when are the regular conservatives going to see this, and join the rest of us and get the king and his men and hold themaccountable. THe profit mongers should pay for their war and tried for treason.[/quote]

[scorpiomoon]

The mish mash of other issue related labels for "conservative" or "liberal" Remember there are dixie crats who are liberal in foreign policy say and more conservative on economic or social policy. There are "liberal" republicans? somewhere who actually believe the science of global warming or in a woman's right to choose.
There are crazy liberals and crazy conservatives, and sane ones of course, but for the most part I have found honestly, if you read and study the issues carefully if you read Noam Chomsky, and still come up conservative I would be surprized. And I also have a mixed background with one side of my family coming up Republican and one side Democratic. This gives me a ring side seat for interesting debate and I have made a slight difference in at least one election converting three or four cousins to Ross Perot over the Senior Bush, years ago.