Re: Why I am not liberal

The Subject was "Why I am not liberal". It was not about why I am not a democrat.

"mg" <mgkelson@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:3add4f59-d34d-4343-b49f-174a11eeb57e@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Why I am not a Republican:

I believe one of the big problems with America is fundamentalists
religions. Bible Thumpers vote against their best interest and are
easily deceived by dishonest, clever politicians. Our forefathers left
England to escape these religious fruit cakes and now they're back.

I am a Democrat, but I am not a liberal. Surveys show that most
Democrats are not liberals. I believe the federal government should be
as large as it needs to be and no larger. For example, it needs to be
large enough to rescue citizens in the event of a large-scale
terrorist attack or natural disaster like the one we had with New
Orleans awhile back. I also believe the federal government needs to be
large enough to help states build new highways and bridges so that old
ones don't collapse. I believe that the federal government needs to be
large enough to pay its bills instead of putting everything on the
national credit card to be paid by our children and grandchildren. I
believe the federal government needs to large enough to protect our
food supply and water supply and to make sure we don't get poisoned
when we buy food from a grocery store or restaurant. I believe our
federal government needs to be large enough to prevent corporations
from obtaining monopolies and manipulating the information we get on
the news or manipulating the prices we pay in the market place. I
believe the federal government needs to be large enough so that it can
properly regulate the banking industry so that taxpayers don't have to
bail them out when they engage in shady practices.

I believe it's dishonest to bellyache about the government being too
large if you are not willing to say specifically where you would make
cuts.

I believe that the current breed of Republicans are a threat to
liberty and civil rights. I believe in Habeas Corpus. I don't believe
the government should be able to spy on us without a judge's
permission. I don't believe the congress should pass laws giving
retroactive immunity for corporations or presidents who have broken
the law. I don't believe in legalizing torture and I don't believe in
outing CIA agents. I don't believe Bush should have commuted Scooter
Libby's sentence and I don't believe Bush should pardon Libby or the
rest of his cronies when he leaves office. I also don't believe Bush
should pardon himself.

I believe that trickle-down economics and the idea that tax cuts
always pay for themselves is a bunch of horse ***. I don't believe
that people who work for wages should pay taxes at a rate that's
almost double the rate the idle rich pay on capital gains and
dividends. I believe in a progressive tax system and I don't believe
that an upper middle-class working couple making $300,000/yr, for
instance, should pay at about the same rate as someone who makes
$100,000,000. Taxing the middle class this way results in an
artificial ceiling that prevents them from advancing.

I believe that people should be allowed to declare bankruptcy and
start all over again when things go wrong or they can't pay their
hospital bills, etc. I don't believe in the new Republican bankruptcy
law that almost makes indentured servants out of American citizens.
That's another reason our forefathers left England, by the way, and
now the Republicans are bringing indentured servitude back.

I wholeheartedly supported the welfare reform bill that Bill Clinton
signed, but on the other hand, I do believe there are some people who
do deserve to be helped. Most Republicans probably believe this too.
They just won't admit it.

I believe in either a life sentence or a death sentence for murders,
whichever is cheapest. I am disappointed in our justice system,
though, when I find out citizens have been wrongly convicted of murder
and have had to be released based on new DNA evidence.

I believe the Congress and the White House should stay out of our sex
lives. I believe it's a matter best left up to the states as long as
they don't violate the constitution.

I believe in science and more specifically, I believe in scientists
who write articles in peer-reviewed science magazines. I don't believe
in pseudo-science, or more specifically I don't believe in unethical
scientists who don't write such papers, but do appear on television
and claim the ethical scientists are wrong . I don't believe that
people should ignore science because of their emotions or their
ideology or their religious beliefs.

I believe the Republican war mongers who mislead Americans into
supporting an illegal invasion of Iraq and then tortured their
citizens are war criminals who should be put in jail.

I believe women should decide for themselves whether they want to be
homemakers or whether they want to enter the workforce. If they do
enter the workforce, I don't believe they should be discriminated
against because of their gender.

I believe that the US has a moral and legal obligation to obey the
rules of the United Nations as long as it is a charter member. If it
doesn't want to obey the rules of the UN, it should try to change them
or it should get out or shut up.

I believe there are millions of people who are Republicans because
they confuse the solid, traditional conservative, American values of
men like Barry Goldwater with those held by George Bush who is a war
mongering, immoral sociopath who has led America towards fascism.


On Aug 12, 10:23 am, Sordo <sordo @privacy.net> wrote:
Why I am not liberal

Dennis Prager: One should vote based on principles, not emotion

August 12, 2008
By Dennis Pragerhttp://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=72136

The following is a list of beliefs that I hold. Nearly every one of them
was a liberal position until the late 1960s. Not one of them is now.

Such a list is vitally important to clarify exactly what positions
divide left from right, blue from red, liberal from conservative.

I believe in American exceptionalism, meaning that a) America has done
more than any international organization or institution, and more than
any other country, to improve this world, and b) that American values
(specifically, the unique American blending of Enlightenment and
Judeo-Christian values) form the finest value system any society has
ever devised and lived by.

I believe the bigger government gets and the more powerful the state
becomes, the greater the threat to individual liberty and the greater
the likelihood that evil will ensue. In the 20th century, the powerful
state, not religion, was the greatest purveyor of evil in the world.

I believe the levels of taxation advocated by liberals render those
taxes a veiled form of theft. "Give me more than half of your honestly
earned money or you will be arrested" is legalized thievery.

I believe government funding of those who can help themselves (e.g., the
able-bodied who collect welfare) or who can be helped by nongovernmental
institutions (such as private charities, family and friends) hurts them
and hurts society.

I believe the United States of America, from its inception, has been
based on the Judeo-Christian value system, not secular Enlightenment
values alone, and therefore the secularization of American society will
lead to the collapse of America as a great country.

I believe some murderers should be put death, that allowing all
murderers to live does not elevate the value of human life, but mocks
it, and keeping all murderers alive trivializes the evil of murder.

I believe the American military has done more to preserve and foster
goodness and liberty on Earth than all the artists and professors in
America put together.

I believe lowering standards to admit minorities mocks the real
achievements of members of those minorities.

I believe that when schools give teenagers condoms, it is understood by
most teenagers as tacit approval of their engaging in sexual
intercourse.

I believe assertions that manmade carbon emissions will lead to a global
warming that will bring on worldwide disaster are a function of
hysteria, just as was the widespread liberal belief that heterosexual
AIDS will ravage America.

I believe marriage must remain what has been in every recorded
civilization – between the two sexes.

I believe, whatever the reasons for entering Iraq, the American-led
removal of Saddam Hussein from power will decrease the sum total of
cruelty on Earth.

I believe trial lawyers associations and teachers unions, the greatest
donors to the Democratic Party, have done great harm to American life –
far more than, let us say, oil companies and pharmaceutical companies,
the targets of liberal opprobrium.

I believe nuclear power, clean coal and drilling in a tiny and remote
frozen part of Alaska and offshore – along with exploration of other
energy alternatives such as wind and solar power – are immediately
necessary.

I believe school vouchers are more effective than increased spending on
public schools to enable many poorer Americans to give their children
better educations.

I believe that while there are racists in America, America is no longer
a racist society, and blaming disproportionate rates of black violence
and out-of-wedlock births on white racism is a lie and the greatest
single impediment to African-American progress.

I believe America, a country that accepts and assimilates foreigners
better than any other in the world, is the least racist, least
xenophobic country in the world.

I believe the leftist takeover of the liberal arts departments in nearly
every American university has been an intellectual and moral calamity.

I believe a good man and a good marriage are more important to most
women's happiness and personal fulfillment than a good career.

I believe males and females are inherently different. For example, girls
naturally prefer dolls and tea sets to trucks and toy guns – if you give
a girl trucks, she is likely to give them names and take care of them,
and if you give a boy trucks, he is likely to crash them into one
another.

I believe that when it comes to combating the greatest evils on Earth,
such as the genocide in Rwanda, the United Nations has either been
useless or an obstacle.

I believe, generally speaking, Western Europe provides social and moral
models to be avoided, not emulated.

I believe America's children were positively affected by hearing a
non-denominational prayer each morning in school, and adversely affected
by the removal of all prayer from school.

I believe liberal educators' removal of school uniforms and/or dress
codes has had a terrible impact on students and their education.

I believe bilingual education does not work, that for the sake of
immigrant children and for the sake of the larger society, immersion in
the language of the country, meaning English in America, is mandatory.

I believe English should be declared the national language, and that
ballots should not be printed in any language other than English. If one
cannot understand English, one is probably not sufficiently
knowledgeable to vote intelligently in an English-speaking country.

Finally, I believe there are millions of Americans who share most of
these beliefs who still call themselves "liberal" or "progressive" and
who therefore vote Democrat. They do so because they still identify
liberalism with pre-1970 liberalism or because they are emotionally
attached to the word "liberal."

I share that emotion. But one should vote based on values, not emotions.

.