Liberal that I am, I'd really like to be able to ask these questions
By mleq Posted in Archived — Comments (22) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
To any Redstater who'll listen:
As I said below, I spend many hours each day on BOTH conservative and liberal blogs and news sites. However, admittedly as a liberal I am surely guilty of selective attention to certain news stories and dismissal of others.
However, (and I am sure you can identify with this from what I have read on this website) sometimes I read stories that I think are worth discussing or at least considering that just do not make it into the headlines onto the "big" news sites or even user-driver sites such as this.
I have wasted countless hours scouring blogs to find out, for example, what conservatives and/or Republicans (and evangelicals) think about what Huckabee said about that pastor....or what they think about Chris Wallace taking Fox and Friends to task about what he called 'Obama-bashing.'
I am not looking for "dirt" or to stir up conflict but to genuinely understand the other side of the issue. Please understand that these are things that make up like 50% of the headlines on a given day in the liberal blogosphere and I am often curious as to how those kinds of things play out at the other end of the spectrum, but usually have to look very hard to find any kind of response.
Certainly there are many things, like maybe for example Obama's campaign advisor being the CEO of the company that breached passport data- that you feel are underreported in the liberal media. Have you ever wondered what a thoughtful liberal might respond to those kinds of things if only the question was posed to them? That's where I am.
So please, if I ask a question like that, don't think I am looking to start a fight. I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong on an issue and won't take offense if I am. In the interests of civil discourse though I am going to have to do my best not to be very assertive about my beliefs as this is your conservative community and who am I to disrupt it?
I just want unfiltered opinions from real people and not the saccharine, concilliatory (but ultimately empty) opinions of the MSM.
over on the hijacked thread where you began that you are a college student. Well OF COURSE you are a liberal.
"Not to be a socialist at twenty is proof of
want of heart; to be one at thirty is proof of want of head." --French Premier Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929)
Add to the natural tendency of youth to feel rather than think, the fact that you have been indoctrinated with Socialist teachers and teachings through your entire education, while you watched Socialist-leaning television and movies, it is no wonder that you consider Conservatives as some sort of oddity that you must come and examine through the bars of their cage.
From cartoon age you have been inundated with images of evil unfeeling greedy rich people who accumulate their wealth at the expense of the little guy. From "Captain Planet" to "Mash" to "Law & Order" you are fed the pap that wealthy people are bad, the poor are downtrodden in this country, and only government can make it better.
"A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality." --unknown source
One day, several years from now, when you have become gainfully employed, you will wake up, look at your paycheck and wonder why you are only receiving a tiny fraction of the total sum. You will come to realize that day, that you are "the rich" who the liberals are always taking from to give to the poor. On that day, you will come to realize that the money they are taking from you, after filtering its way through the various bureaucracies at local, state and federal levels, does a fraction of the good that would have derived from your own giving to a local charity or church, but it does have the desired effect of curtailing your own upward mobility in society.
I would remind you that Robin Hood, who "stole from the rich to give to the poor," was actually taking the ill-gotten taxes from the government, and giving them back to the people who earned them. Robin Hood was a Republican!
And finally, in closing, it is good that you are opening up your mind to the fact that there ARE opinions that differ from the liberal mantra. Don't assume that the liberal propaganda you have been taught is automatically correct. Do your own research -- find the truth. You have a lot better chance of discovering it over here than anywhere else.
I find liberals do indeed "feel" everything and never think anything through to the logical conclusion.
I guarantee you if you stop and THINK on the major issue's of the day you to will become a conservative ;-)
Freedom of Religion not Freedom from Religion
The only thing I think we both forgot to tell mleq is that he/she will be so much happier personally when the bonds of moral relativism and nuanced gobbletygook are cut away. Happy Easter
Tim Schieferecke
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns
http://thehinzsightreport.com
www.theminorityreportblog.com
www.race42008.com
"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
"Not to be a socialist at twenty is proof of
want of heart; to be one at thirty is proof of want of head." --French Premier Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929)"
But then I'm a moderate conservative who aligned pretty well with the views of McCain and Bush, so maybe I still have little sliver of heart left.
but then, most of the liberal, long-haired, maggot infested, dope smoking, anti-war protesting college professors of today, were protest marching outside the classrooms that I was sitting in, in the early '70s -- so I missed the indoctrinations.
As soon as the war ended, they all applied for teaching jobs at the universities they had been picketing, and became the esteemed faculty we see today.
Strangely enough, in those days the Journalism classes taught who, what, when, where, why and how -- rather than "change the world" journalism of today. People actually got marked down for interjecting their own opinions into news stories in those days.
Was best captured by this little picture in its many incarnations.
And the attitude towards the truth
Mollie Malloy: I never said that I loved Earl Williams and was willing to marry him on the gallows. You made that up!
Murphy: Oh, come on. You've been sucking around that cuckoo ever since he's been in the death house.
McHugh: Everybody knows you're his soul-mate.
Mollie Malloy: That's a lot of bunk! Like all that other stuff you been writing. Calling me an Angel of the Pavement and the Midnight Madonna. Who ya kiddin'? I'm a two-dollar whore from Division Street and you know it!
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
than students these days. I have a history teacher who is a German citizen ( he likes to complain about America, but never bothered to get citizenship so he could get involved, because he says he wants to be a citizen of Europe instead - which makes me think why don't you you head over to Europe) who thinks Obama is just to conservative and America is doomed because we're too conservative. He liked Edwards and Kucinich, and one of the only candidates he thought was any good in history was McGovern. Then I had an arguement with in my Comparitive Politics class over whether Cuba was better than the USA because they have universal health care, with my teacher apparently sugesting that maybe they were.
was the Poli-sci class on the 1967 6-day war between Israel and the Arab states that surrounded it. The professor was Egyptian and he wrote the book we used for class. This would have been about 1972 that I took that class.
Take a wild guess at just how objective THAT class was in looking at the event.
I don't think I ever felt prouder to be a conservative than when I was arguing against a class who seemed to be suggesting that seemed to be suggesting that the USA was just as bad off as Cuba because we don't have universal healthcare and Cuba does. I love good discussion and debate. The only problem is, my German history teacher has certain arrogance, and has basically said that the only reason I'm conservative is because I'm stupid or misinformed - not in those words, but that seemed to be his message.
I am almost certain I am going to steal this line from time to time David, accredited of course.
"I would remind you that Robin Hood, who "stole from the rich to give to the poor," was actually taking the ill-gotten taxes from the government, and giving them back to the people who earned them. Robin Hood was a Republican!"
I would also ask Mleq to thoroughly examine why college students are so overwhelmingly liberal. Is it really possible that so many show up to college "enlightened" in exactly the same way naturally? Not to sound sinister but there are many external forces as David noted that shape your views. In academia, it would seem to be in one direction.
What the hell is going on out here? - Vince Lombardi
is that I give attribution credit the first three times I use it -- after that, it is mine! :-) (and I stole THAT line as well)
I consider myself a liberal too. I'm not sure if I'd fit the mold of the liberal that y'all like to toss around, but that's a post for another day.
Frankly, reading RedState often infuriates, angers and just really bothers me. And for that, I say 'thank you.'
It's easy to get really comfortable and cozy in an echo chamber - and that's true for both sides of the spectrum.
But I enjoy having my beliefs challenged by the conservative community here. I figure that's the only way I'll ever be able to grow politically. Heck - I even post here more than on Kos.
Happy Easter folks.
I am replying to all of the comments above:
Wow, its amazing how much you guys know about me. Is it possible at all that you might be jumping to some conclusions? You read that I am a student so you can start telling me what cartoons I watched as a child and how that led me to my erroneous beliefs?
Let's take a deep breath. I didn't come here to have my life story related to me or to be converted or to convert you. I wanted to hear your opinions about issues, not your opinions about this fictional person you have constructed me to be. Trust me, growing up in the South I am very familiar with how conservatives view liberals and do not need an overview.
If at all possible, I'd really ask if we could please move the focus from me, or what you imagine I am? I promise you that you will never ever hear me on this site attacking anyone or telling them what they believe is wrong. Everyone is entitled to their beliefs and the time and energy we waste on attacking each other is time that could be spent trying to understand each other. I come here respectfully asking for your input on the issues.
you gave any specifics to discuss. Your blog was about what you're going to do on Redstate and therefore, people are left talking about you. Make a blog on a specific topic instead of what you're going to write about and I imagine you can strike up a conversion about something besides yourself.
You seem like an intelligent person. You seem like a person not affected completely by base polemics but definitely afflicted with historical naivety as it pertains to the utter failure of liberalism and collectivism in general. I don't fault you for this, as you seem to be seeking truth, and that is never a bad thing to do.
I would suggest that you go read about the Pilgrims and how their first system of governance was socialist in nature. I'd like you to read how this system nearly wiped out the entire Pilgrim population because "young men did repine" that they had to work for other men's wives "without recompense". There was no individual motivation to succeed, so they didn't. I want you to read how the leaders then changed the system and allowed people to own their own land and how this "had very good effect". When "all hands were industrious", the Pilgrims produced a surplus.
I would suggest that you go read 'The Forgotten Man' by Amity Schlaes. It will explain how FDR (the worst President in American history), made a deep global recession turn into a 10 year American Depression. Other countries emerged out of said recession in 2 years or so. FDR's policies grew the chaos, and we are still strapped with the results of his power malpractice to this very day.
I think if you really are in search of truth, you will read such stories and let the history of liberalism guide you away from the trainwreck it truly is.
Tim Schieferecke