I am a liberal.

I find nothing to object to in the above-linked manifesto.

If more liberals still believed in that definition of the term, I wouldn’t be so reticent to identify as one.

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8 Comments

  1. I too am a liberal..

    This is what it should mean..

    Liberal also has a range of meanings–but at its core–it is about respecting ourselves and respecting the rights of others to have different beliefs..

    Now.. all we need to do is work on Liberation!
    🙂

    1. Re: I too am a liberal..

      Oh, by the way…
      If I get into one more conversation with some fucktarded ditto head who starts ranting about how the liberals and the liberal media are fucking up our country, I swear I’m grabbing a rifle and climbing the water tower.

  2. I’ve always thought that was the definition of liberal.

    The sad thing is the democratic party does not match that description any more than the republican party matches the description of conservative.
    Now how do we get this through to people?

  3. It might have been a compliment once, but it sure as hell isn’t any more.

    As much as I might not like the Republicans having quite so power, I would find it extremely difficult to vote Democrat.

    I’m glad I don’t have to.

  4. All Americans are liberals. They differ on what kind of liberals they are.

    1. Try telling a european that.

  5. Couldn’t resist commenting…

    I hate to criticize, but… one could easily do a search/replace on that manifesto and sub the word conservative for liberal, and it would still make sense. A manifesto should outline values and goals. Other than that, though, it was very well composed.

    For the record most Americans are conservative, and Americans are more conservtive than Europeans or South Americans. We represent the most prudish self-important people on earth. It’s no wonder the French hate us. Travel sometime, and watch “us”… it’s embarrassing.

    Also, to the best of my knowledge, liberal is a term used to describe the agent of change (if it were changing to be more strict, it would be a reform). In Europe, the values we hold to be liberal are associated with the conservative viewpoint; and vice versa. Meanwhile back at the ranch, the concepts of Republican and Democraft are not fixed, but morph into each other in a cyclic pattern over time.

    However, I’ll refrain from saying anything about how to fix politics, because IMHO you can’t fix it (unless you’re a huge conglomerate with a lot of money for “donations”). Besides, you never know who is recording these threads (or maybe we do know).

    1. Re: Couldn’t resist commenting…

      “could easily do a search/replace on that manifesto and sub the word conservative for liberal, and it would still make sense”

      I heartily disagree. The problem with our current use of “liberal” and “conservative” is that they often are used to describe our political stance on a piece of legislation; however, that was not their original use.

      A liberal was one who embraced the new, having faith in humanity’s ability to make positive change through reason and resource.

      A conservative was one who embraced tradition and ritual, having faith in humanity’s previous collection of knowledge.

      —-

      Something i find interesting, is that while using the original definition of liberal and conservative (which, by the way, fit more closely to how we use the words in non-political situations), two people can come to a similar political view for different l/c reasons.

      I am a liberal, in the original sense. My fiancee is a conservative, in the original sense. However, using that, we have both come to the libertarian tradition.

      Final note, most of Europe and the rest of the world call what WE NOW call “liberals” something else, be it democratic socialists, labour, etc. They often reserve the term “liberal” for what we in the United States call “libertarian” (though not necessarily such an extreme as most USA libertarians are, but nevertheless someone who promotes individual liberty both in actions and economics.)

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