Happy New Year?

Thank goodness Iowans have finally caucused! One more hour of news on the GOP candidates and I will have a visual and auditory gag reflex. If this is what is to come for the remaining primaries, I’m shifting to the BBC.


Meanwhile, there are several things that this old liberal broad finds amazing about all the candidate rhetoric:

First, Rick Perry wrote a book. Second, the theme of Perry’s book is that the federal government should leave the states alone to do as they will. Third, Perry doesn’t like what the state of Virginia decided as an independent state regarding qualifying for their primary so he is suing them. Another “oxy” for this moron. Fourth, I heard Bachman call Obama a “socialist” last night on TV. Really? Fortunately, even the Republicans in Iowa get that she was off target.

I am further amazed that the sliding scale used by candidates to assess each other is the conservative-liberal scale. Perhaps we need to define that scale as I have not seen any candidate in Iowa who walks like, talks like, smells like or looks like a liberal. Least of all my own Congressman, Ron Paul. (Yes, he is my Congressman and Perry is my Governor. Pray for me.)

If you read the standard definitions and descriptions of liberal and conservative you will see that the theme is “who solves problems?” We would be led to believe that if you support individuals solving their own problems you are a conservative, and if you believe government solves problems then you are a liberal. Such delineation was clearly written by conservatives and is not quite right. The real question for me is a moral question, “Who is my brother?” I have a brother, I have children, I have a family and I would do most anything I could do to help them. I believe conservatives think the same way, elsewise, why would they fight so hard to protect the rights of their children to inherit the wealth they have accumulated? (If the definition of welfare is receiving benefits one has not earned, would not inherited wealth be welfare?) But, if one really believes individuals should solve their own problems, then I ask, do wealthy conservatives not share their wealth with their families? I think they do. Do wealthy conservatives require that each member of their family generate their own wealth? I think they do not. Would a wealthy conservative support a family member in need? I think they do. So, the real question is, “who is my brother?” If I view all Americans as brothers, then I am willing to share my wealth, whatever that wealth may be, with all Americans. If any of us are poor, hungry, uneducated, in need of medical treatment, then it is incumbent on all of us to chip in to help, just as we would were the poor/hungry/uneducated/sick person a family member. I think being a liberal is the Christian way. I think being liberal is the rational way.

The telling question to a conservative is, do you share your wealth, and if so, with whom, and why not others? If the answer is “we are all better off in a non-regulated free enterprise economy,” I would beg to differ. The law of supply and demand is not a moral code. The market is by its very nature without ethics. If my goal is to accumulate wealth rather than be a moral person, then my behaviors are very different. I will be willing to fight to keep money as opposed to sharing it. I will fight to make more money no matter whom I may hurt or what laws I may break. Making money is easy, especially if there is no ethical boundary. So yes, I would regulate enterprise and I would tax the profits made on enterprise.

Another clarifying variable on the liberal-conservative scale involves civil liberties. Conservatives would have the government support value-based decision making for individuals at the same time they oppose the government collecting money from some individuals to help others. I think that is backwards. The government should not impose certain values or beliefs or practices on any of us. It is fine to oppose gay marriage. Don’t marry someone of the same sex if that is your view. But do not mandate that all must do as you do. It is fine to oppose abortion. Don’t get an abortion. But do not mandate that all must do as you do. It is fine to oppose euthanasia. Don’t get euthanized. But do not mandate that all must do as you do. It is fine to be a Christian. Go to church and tithe and do good works and love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul. But do not mandate that everyone must do that. (In fact, if you believe in an omnipotent God, why would you mandate what God could clearly have mandated and chose not to?) So, it is really kind of funny that liberals do promote individual responsibility for beliefs, for thinking, for feeling, for choosing life styles, and conservatives do not. Equally kind of funny that liberals do support taxing all to provide for the physical needs of those who suffer and conservatives do not. So liberals support non-government intervention on things internal and conservatives support non-governmental intervention on things external, and vice-versa. Conservatives would not regulate the economy but would regulate beliefs. Liberals would regulate the economy and not regulate beliefs.

The most amazing thing of all to me is that there are poor conservatives! I can only guess they are conservative because of the civil liberties issue as being conservative on the economic issues will only hurt them. Just as I was amazed in Texas when educators supported Tea Party candidates and then were amazed that the government spending that got cut was their salary! I want to scream, “Duh!” (I am not amazed that there are rich liberals because I believe being a liberal is a rational and humanitarian way to be. And, there are rich liberals!)

Being liberal is not a dirty word, is not a slander, though some would use tone and inflection to imply as much. Being liberal is a wonderful, liberating perspective, supportive of human rights and dignity, supportive of support of the poor, the downtrodden, the young, the old, the sick and infirm. Everyone who has ever received my liberal support has thanked me. I am more of a giver than a receiver, and I am proud of that.

Not so proud that I can come out of the closet. I know too many conservatives who would tar and feather me, or seek to have me committed if I did. And that is another liberal attribute: tolerance of diversity in thought and belief, life style and attitude. Our nation was founded on liberal beliefs and the first 10 amendments to our Constitution made it the law of the land. After all, if you had it made and were in the top 1% in Europe in the mid 1700’s, why would you leave it all and come here?

We tend to have short memories. I cannot expect my conservative friends to remember 1776 if they cannot remember the fall of 2008. Our policies and leadership 4 years ago were conservative and we crashed. If we return to the prevailing philosophy we elected in 2004, or 2000, we are not likely to experience much different.

If so, Happy New Year?