I've always had this deep curiosity to find out what makes a group of people react the way they do. I immediately ruled out spontaneous because their actions are predictable. Pick any subject and it's pretty easy to determine on what side of the issue a liberal, conservative, libertarian or moderate will fall on.
People will often tell me that they are conservative, but they don't think that way just to prove the fallacy of stereotyping. Perhaps, but did they answer the questioner consciously or subconsciously? There's always an exception to the rule.
I've already read several books about liberalism and libertarianism and the only change I have found is that modern-day liberals are calling themselves Progressives. The liberals allowed the conservatives to define them as tree hugging, Latte- loving, Volvo driving, antiwar hippies whose philosophy of " anything goes" was leading to the destruction of American values. Today's liberal- progressives are not as vocal as their counterparts and are not comfortable at adopting a label. That’s just it; there is not a liberal think tank to define our values.
I've written a couple of blogs about this subject, but I've come across new information after reading a book titled “The Reactionary Mind" by Corey Robin. The author explained that conservatism is a 24/7 mindset. While everyone is asleep, conservatives are developing "Think Tanks" to come up to with solutions on how to destroy their moral enemy; the Liberal. The liberal thinks that government does have a role the play, so that must be challenged with well crafted words such as " smaller government; no new taxes, wealth distribution, spending other people's money, welfare state, shared sacrifice and any private and public venture." The conservatives will demand transparency, so they can gather enough information to create doubt and incompetency. Transparency will magically disappear when conservative return to power. That's not to say that the average conservative hates liberals but by adopting that ideology, it gives them a small sense of superiority, which is usually enough to sway votes. Who doesn't want their politician to be prudent with taxpayer money? Liberals have let conservatives hijack the word prudent (Careful and sensible; marked by sound judgment) to mean" no new spending or taxes." They have also given up ownership to the word “wealth distribution" because that word again has two meanings. Since taxation comes from a general fund; tax incentives that favor the rich are also a form of wealth distribution. That is why I will continue to say,” conservatives are great campaigners, but they can't govern." The Republicans will never find another Ronald Reagan, so the next-best thing is to adopt an ideology the underlings will follow. Most Republicans will run on the philosophy that Washington (any type of government) is bad and 90% of its duties are either unconstitutional or need to be run by the private sector. That's the reason conservatives are against unions, social programs, and regulations because, if the people ever start to trust the government; their goal is doomed.
Social conservatives believe that rights are unalienable, and that they come from God. It's their guiding principle in governing. When they come across a law, they don't like, they will often revert to Nature's Law. Modern day social conservatives have left out the poor in their dealings with the government because they believe in “voluntary associations." I have often wanted to ask our self-professed Christians why is it that they never talk about the poor although it's mentioned over 2000 times in the bible. They only come out to condemn gay marriage or a pro-choice stance.
A conservative poster once asked me (thinking they could trick me) how big the government should be. I promptly said that it should be large or small enough to be efficient.
I've learned a lot, but I still have that guiltiness of reading material that fits what I have already come to believe. Does anyone care to challenge?
7 comments:
I cannot disagree.
EA
A couple posters amplify what I was trying to convey... You know who they are... They know darn well that liberals have nothing to do with gasoline prices but just becqause they don't bow down to the oil companies there are proving that something doesn't work...lol
First you have and marginalize the liberal's opinion.
They have a supply side theory which means that everything generates with big business and their welll being... A trickle down theory is that we treat them well by not unionizing, raising their taxes,or regulating them, then some of the profits will trickle down to the workers.... The multilateral corporations like Exxon have already said that they don't hold any allegiance to our government .
Personally, I am a bit weary of some republicans right now. Particularly some of the local ones on the paper forum. They have a worse memory than my dear sweet 88 year old daddy who suffers from dementia!
But none of that matters. It's like Mitt Romney's wife's constant sound byte about how happy she is that women are talking about the economy. We all know she has tuned everything else out because Mittens want to talk economy.
As to those goobers on the Advocate--they ain't happy unless they are complaining. And I think they are joined at the hip. They share a brain.
EA
I don't think they suffer from memory lapses; it's called selective memory. They put a lot of trust in the politicians they vote for. Those politicians ignore the past mistakes they made and put all the emphasis on what happen after January 2009. They stay on message.
Women are a natural when it comes to the economy because they do the grocery buying, fill up the cars and plan for the necessities. You can't pull the wool over their eyes.But they also see the constant harassment over their reproductive choices. They also know that they don't get a prominent seat at the table.
Yes, one of the conservative republican will write an anti-Obuma(lol)VA blog and the rest will come and blindly give their stamp of approval.
I have this theory if Romney get elected and the GOP takes over.... Republicans are not dumb, so I think they will abandon some of those plans that have failed in the senate and come up with something like infrastructure repair, knowing democrats will get on board. A double whammy; it makes them look like they are compromising and the economy will get the infusion it needs to recover.Voters have short memories, so they will forget the old obstructionist Republicans.Once they regain the voters trust,they will go back to their old ways... Republicans operate like a parliamentary caucus.. They vote as I.
Let me say this. Based on my comments on Facebook with liberals, many on them scare me. I remember someone was talking about global warming. After I did my usual vetting he goes into a rant about religon. Even in my college years, I have leave an anti-Iraq war organization because I can't bear to hear tree hugging crap/green hippie crap from most of the members.
BigJ
Putting your encounters on Facebook aside, I cannot speak for liberals but I can guarantee you I will NOT bring religion into the conversation because you would beat me to a pulp with scriptures..:-) I know when I'm out of my elements.
I do believe that our planet is getting hotter, carbon is a heat trapping gas and it has been identified as a pollutant. I don't get those views from Greenpeace; that's the view from world scientist, the Dept of Defense, and the Supreme Court when they ruled that carbon is a pollutant and can be regulated by the EPA. Is it the main driver of our planet getting hotter? That remains a controversy but it's not too much to ask to control the amount of carbon emissions. Conservative Republicans used to be leaders on clean air and water but they have now gone to the dark side.
Remember I used to run a service station, so I'm not a sworn enemy of big oil. I just don't want us to get into a mindset that we have to stay on fossil fuels and that the only energy policy that will ever consider is “drill baby drill."... I think we need a bipartisan energy policy that includes clean alternative and renewable energy. We will be on fossil fuels for longtime but we'd need to find ways to become less dependent on foreign oil and fossil fuels period.... In our budget I think we should set aside money for innovation because renewable energy is the future. There's no argument that initially it will be more expensive but we could make it bearable for the poor with vouchers. I don't want to throw away all that work that's gone into smart meters, dual phase transmission lines, electric cars, wind tunnels, solar panels, because I don't think we should be second place to other nations, who will find uses for alternative energy.
I'm dead set against dirty coal because I see the health results such as black lung, emphysema and water pollution. I will always be skeptical because I value people, clean air and water over profits.
Whether you like it are not, oil is traded on the world market which overrides any fallacy of it being a simple supply and demand issue. In a global economy, we just have about a 5% margin in reserves and China, India and Japan are demanding more and more every day...I ask a simple question; why would Exxon keep prices low in America when they can get much more than that on the global market? Exxon Mobil has already said that they don't owe an allegiance to any government.
On the Iraq War,I came to my own conclusion by reading everything I could get my hands on...The NYT and Washington Post let me down by publishing the propaganda the Pentagon was spoon feeding them.
I still believe you have have a different view of conservatism and liberalism than I do.....I still admire some old fashion conservative ideas and I accept the liberal tolerance and Keynesian economic policies.
Post a Comment