Sunday, October 28, 2012
Liberal or Conservative?
Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood has been a family favorite for decades. Well, at least one of my favorites from when it was hosted by Charles Kuralt. This morning the above video was aired. I have also been a long time Ben Stein fan and Nancy Giles always makes me think, though I don't agree sometimes. The question they answer is what makes me a Liberal or a Conservative. If you haven't watched the video, please do now. My thoughts are probably going to be different than what many get from this segment. Ms. Giles talked about how the Liberal gives to those in need. Says a town in Kansas is named because of a man helping others. She talks of helping those in need, and making a place where everyone can pursue their chosen life. Mr.Stein talks of being a Conservative to conserve the Freedoms we deserve as humans.He believes in taxing a well as cutting to balance our government budget. He was everyone also to be safe to pursue their life, but not at the expense of putting other down. He wants a small government because as he said, "Where government is big, by definition the individual is small." What struck me is that after listening to both I concluded there are more similarities between how these two people define their positions and labels than differences. Why can't our politicians do this instead of speaking and repeating the differences? We are alike as well as different. Talk of the similarities instead of blowing us apart with the differences.
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2 comments:
I have to fundamentally disagree with the definition of liberal. I stopped the video to make a comment and then will continue with it.
Anyway, the definition she gives is a social one. And it is trickery. If accepting people and other ways of thinking defines a liberal, then the listener would naturally assume that the countering viewpoint is someone who does NOT accept other people and viewpoints. And that is NOT what a conservative is. That was a trick, designed to maneuver the thinking of the listener, and as such I disqualify her point altogether.
She also mentioned the end of slavery as a shining example of liberalism without disclosing that Abraham Lincoln was not a liberal. At least not a Democrat. Because in Civil War days, Democrats were strongly supportive of the owning of other human beings. (Yes, I know it is likely that Democrats were more conservative than Democrats in the antebellum south.)
Okay, back to listen to the rest of the video.
Okay...listened to the rest.
First, the bit about liberals wanting to be generous and to giiiive. Is baloney. Well, maybe not. They love giving...as long as it is with MY money. The speaker went on about programs. Government programs. Not individual giving, face-to-face good deeds. I have to tell you, especially after hearing that Joe Biden "gave" a grad amount of something like $350 to charity in a year, that my personal experience is the conservatives give a whole heck of a lot more than liberals when it comes to compassionate, loving charity.
Ben Stein does not speak for me. He is a conservative for HIS reasons, and I find them difficult to accept. Good for him. He can feel as he wishes, but we ought not paint the word "conservative" with his brush. Yes, conservatives fight against big government. And it was interesting to see him mention liberalism and Hitler in the same context. But raising taxes to balance a budget that has been out of control in the main because of liberal spending of the taxpayer dollar in no way demonstrates a conservative mindset. Not in my book.
Nope, I am a conservative because I am fiercely self-reliant and independent. I want the government out of my life in every possible way. I want MY money to stay MY money so I can give away as much of it as I like, to whom I like, and when I like. The money I earned without government intervention, rules, regulations, restriction and thievery.
Off of soap box.
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