I'm a Liberal because we need affordable health care for all Americans.
I'm a Liberal because no hunter, regardless of the game you hunt, needs a machine gun.
I'm a Liberal because, as our Declaration of Independence says, "...[A]ll men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
I'm a Liberal because unions are an essential in securing safety and equality for the American worker.
I'm a Liberal because our environment is being harmed by industries, and needs protection.
I'm a Liberal because Social Security is one of this nation's foundations, and should be protected.
I'm a Liberal because the American farmer has been crippled by industrial farms and is in dire need of government support.
I'm a Liberal because if we want to combat murders, we don't need to increase the number of people sentenced to death--we need to combat gang violence and crack down on illegal drug trafficking.
I'm a Liberal because I don't believe the government should be able to pry into your personal life (this includes library records and random phone tapping).
I'm a Liberal because every American--poor or rich, black or white, Northerner or Southerner, Liberal or Conservative--deserves the right to believe what they want.
Okay, now that I've got that off my chest.
9 comments:
Great post. I saw this ("Why I'm a Liberal") on the SWVA Blog aggregator. I appreciate your interest in politics and your persepctive. Keep defending democracy!
Thank you very much Kathy. I'm glad to know somebody is reading it.
Usually things don't get me upset too much, but this conversation got me mad enough to spit fire (he also alluded that a good friend of mine wasn't as good a Christian as he was) and I had to lay it all out on the table.
Thanks again for you comments!
Nice one, Neal. You also should add Tim Kaine's picture, as he's a Catholic and was, in fact, a Catholic missionary.
Anyways, JFK told the Pope when he (JKF, not the Pope :D ) became President that he would continue to hold true to his personal values as a Catholic, but would also respect the idea of the separation of Church and State and not force his ideas onto non-Christians.
Or something along those lines. There's a major difference between having personal values and having the personal values of one group or one person becoming law. Or, as one of my favourite bumper stickers says: "If you don't like gay marriages, don't get one."
If you are not already familiar with Sojourners please check them out or refer your friend to them. There are plenty of Christians who vote Democrat that are talking about their views. Not in order to turn the Democratic party into a Christian party, but to let people know that there are other Christian moral issues.
Hearing people say they only vote Republican because they're the moral party just kills me.
To sum it up in a nutshell with out me going off on a tangent, you can't be moral and Christian-like without a strong social issues plan. And I don't mean abortion and gays. I'm talking poverty, welfare, medicare, medicaid, Social Security, farmers, Veterans affairs, and gang crackdowns. That's a moral platform if I've ever seen one.
Exactly right, Genevieve. You cant dictate all of your personal beliefs on people who may not believe in them or may be of a different religion. Republicans, by and large, can't understand that.
And thanks, Kate, for the link. I had never heard of them before. I'll put that link to great use!
Good, thought provoking post, Neal.
Well done.
Wow, that's an awesome post. Keep it up! I agree that we need make more people aware that there are other moral issues out there besides gays and abortion.
Sorry had to edit left out a very important word!
You’re a Liberal if you believe that a woman with a son in her womb should be able to choose to dispatch him to the grave, but a woman with a son in her arms should not be able to choose to dispatch him to the school of her choice.
You’re a Liberal if you’re more offended by George W. Bush in a flight suit than you were by Bill Clinton without his pants.
You’re a Liberal if you believe that government should subsidize your perversion of choice (i.e., gay “marriage”), but not your school of choice for your child.
You’re a Liberal if you believe that spending by government will create more jobs than investment by the “rich.”
You’re a Liberal if you had on your car an anti-Ollie North bumpersticker that read “Virginia is for Lovers, Not Liars” ... next to one advocating the election of Bill Clinton.
You’re a Liberal if you believe that John Ashcroft in the Justice Department poses a greater threat to liberty than Joe Stalin in the Kremlin.
You’re a Liberal if you believe that Clarence Thomas did it to Anita Hill, but Teddy Kennedy did not do it to Mary Jo Kopechne.
You’re a Liberal if you were more offended by Senator Trent Lott’s (R-MS) words to an old man on his one hundredth birthday than you were by Senator Robert Byrd’s (D-WV, and former KKK member) comments about “white niggers.”
You’re a Liberal if you think that Mikhail Gorbachev deserves more credit for ending the Cold War than Ronald Reagan.
You’re a Liberal if you believe that a litmus test on abortion is bad when applied by Republican President, but good when applied by a Liberal President.
You’re a Liberal if you believe that Clarence Thomas is a radical, but Ruth Bader Ginsberg is not.
You’re a Liberal if you believe that VMI should admit women on the basis of “equality,” and then amend its physical standards for those women.
You’re a Liberal if you think the UN is a fine institution, but the Boy Scouts of America is not.
You’re a Liberal is you’re more offended by a burning cross than you are by a burning flag.
You’re a Liberal if you believe that an all-white organization is racist, but an all-black organization is not.
You’re a Liberal if you think all-male schools are sexist, but all-female schools are not.
You’re a Liberal if you believe that Michael Moore’s book, Stupid White Men, is not autobiographical.
You’re a Liberal if you believe that allowing children to pray in school violates the First Amendment, but “campaign finance reform” does not.
You’re a Liberal if the plight of the spotted owl makes you well up with tears, but the playing of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” does not.
You’re a Liberal if you believe that the “War on Poverty” was worth fighting, but the Cold War was not.
You’re a Liberal if you are more threatened by guns in the hands of citizens than by guns in the hands of government.
You’re a Liberal if you believe that teachers’ unions have your children’s best interests at heart.
You’re a Liberal if you think Richard Nixon was corrupt, but Bill Clinton is not.
You’re a Liberal if you think Madonna is where she is because of who she slept with, but Hillary Clinton is not.
You’re a Liberal if you think the First Amendment protects burning the American flag, but not speech criticizing homosexuals.
You’re a Liberal if you think Hillary Clinton’s life is a model of feminist accomplishment.
You’re a Liberal if you think that animals should be protected by law, but human fetuses should not.
You’re a Liberal if you think that there was a vast right-wing conspiracy to get Bill Clinton, but no Communist conspiracy bent on world domination.
You’re a Liberal if you believe that more government spending will improve everything ... but the military.
You’re a Liberal if you look at the Iwo Jima Memorial and wonder why there wasn’t a black man there, but didn’t thank God for men such as these.
You’re a Liberal if you believe that Jerry Falwell should shut up, but Jesse Jackson should not.
You’re a Liberal if you got more excited about Bill Bennett’s gambling than you did about Bill Clinton’s perjury.
You’re a Liberal if you think corporate executives are too powerful, but labor union bosses are not.
You’re a Liberal if you believe that the CIA is more of a threat to freedom than al Qaeda.
You’re a Liberal if, in the 1950s, you were standing in the schoolhouse door to keep black children out, and in the 2000s, you are standing in the schoolhouse door to keep black children in.
Response to James Young
Can you not respect the decency of being an American and having a freedom of speech? I know you have a freedom of speech, but so do the liberals in this country. How else would we have a bipartisan democracy in America that stands up for people's beliefs? I consider myself a "left-of-center" Democrat, so I do believe in most of the liberal platform, just like the actual Democratic party has a platform. But that does not mean that I do not respect other's ideological beliefs or their party platform stance. If I had a political blog, I would say a thing or two about the disrepecting Conservatives that do listen to the liberal stance and opinion, but do not respect it. Also, I'm the friend Neal was referring to in the text of the post. He was angered by not what I said, but what my pastor said.
And that was "Just to Clear Up Some Things."
Thank you Neal!!
After our conversation, I was almost to the point of tears. JK
"Just for Kicks and Giggles"
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