Daily Notes
Not a lot timely happening today. I saw Fuhrer Jarvis from USA Next on Hardball tonight. He was, as the right seems to be these days, Angry, meanspirited and hateful...towards AARP!? These people use the same tactic on everything. He could have been talking about anything. It's more about the people or organization than the issue. He barely mentioned Social Security. It was just the evil liberals blah blah blah thing. You've heard it a thousand times if you've heard it once. That's what gets me about these guys. They can't talk about the issues. It's always about how bad their challengers are. Don't believe me? Just listen to the wingnuts on the radio sometime and see how much INFORMATION you actually get out of it. How many viewpoints besides those other guys are evil. The first job of these guys..and gals, can't forget Ann Colter et al., is to demean and debase the other side. Second is to use glittering generalities...you know, freedom, liberty, american etc. , to make their way look like the only way anybody but slime would go. They make me sick. They have made Liberal into a dirty word. I'm not afraid to call myself a Liberal because I use the dictionary for my speech. Not their newspeak. According to Webster, a well respected expert on the English Language: Liberal: associated with ideals of individual especially economic freedom, greater individual participation in government, and constitutional, political, and administrative reforms designed to secure these objectives. not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms. marked by generosity . This is a liberal. If one doesn't somewhat adhere to these standards they aren't really liberals. I'm a dictionary liberal. I think this is one thing the left needs to do to change the debate. Start saying "I'm a dictionary Liberal". Unless we destroy the newspeak we are bound to loose. Be proud! Define yourself, don't let them define you!
I just saw the new big guy in Iraq saying he wants to set up a liberal Iraq. hehehe. They just got rid of the right winger and put in the lefties! HA!
I don't have a major problem with the traditional conservatives. The people running the repuklian party right now are not conservatives. They are globalists, corporatists, theocrats, moralists or fascists but not conservatives. No good conservative would support a record deficit. They don't traditionally support foreign intervention and would never support the infringements on citizen rights and freedoms that the Patriot act imposes. I keep trying to tell my conservative friends this but talk radio and the like has them so brainwashed that they can't see the truth for all the anger that has been engendered towards "liberals". I'm a Liberal Populist and that's a good thing.
posted by Ron at 12:07 AM
7 Comments:
Hi Ron, thanks for notifying me about your blog. It's a great idea, and now you can vent freely without the constraints of commercialism. The only problem is that a blog, without opposing views, can become nothing but a hollow echo chamber of similiar sycophantic symbiosis (I do like alliteration). Thusly, I shall position myself as your loyal opposition, much as I did on your radio program, opposing some of your ideas, agreeing with a bunch of them, trying to be pragmatic about most of them, and gleefully be the guy trying to saw off the limb that you sometimes tend to crawl too far out on. Others who read this who have not heard me on your station won't realize I say this with a smile in my voice and a happy anticipation of verbal armwrestling with you.
You have chosen Webster to define liberalism as "associated with ideals of individual especially economic freedom, greater individual participation in government, and constitutional, political, and administrative reforms designed to secure these objectives. not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms. marked by generosity ". Geez, I must be a liberal according to that def. Huh. That definition, stripped of its predicating word "liberal", could be used to describe, in many ways, what is referred to nowadays as a conservative mind set. Let's see, "associtaed with ideal of individual especailly economic freedom". That describes many small business men, who for the most part are wedded to the Republicans and are vehemently opposed to more taxes and regulations.
"not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms."
Interesting phrase. The traditional and orthodox mindset on Social Security nowadays is just to leave it alone, don't tinker with it, and for God's sake, don't fundamentally change it. Interestingly, that seems to be the position of the the Dems. It seems the 'conservatives' want to be free of the traditional mindset and to institute change. My, this is getting confusing.
"not bound by authoritarianism". Tough one here. I guess it depends on how you define authoritarianism. The hard Left is as guilty as the hard Right. Let us remember who institutionalized the penalties for not being politically correct, in speech as well as in thought, or who wants to strip us of individual resposibility like smoking ordinances, gun control, 'hate' crimes (sorry, a crime is a crime, regardless of the motive), and so on.
"marked by generosity " Generosity of what? Spriit, money?
Shall we take a look at what churches, the bastion of 'conservatism", did for the tsuinami victims as opposed to those of the traditional left? I dunno, this phrase is condtional to the mindset of the person reading it. Is it gerenous to tax to the limit in order to fund social programs, or is it generous to leave hard earned money of the individual to the individual, and leave many social programs to 'faith-based' initiatives.
I guess my point is that the dictionary definition of liberal, small ell, is not the perfect definition of anyone's mindset. The attempt to label "Liberal", large L, as something evil is about on par with the "Liberals", large L, attempting to label the various religious commmunities as facist. Same thing, different side. Ron, you rail on about the single minded personal attacks on the people of the left by the right, yet, the exact same thing occurs on the left against those on the right. Shall we mention Susan Estrich, Helen Thomas, Carville, Dean for that matter, and et al. Same thing, different side. Same old thing, different sides, and usual politics.
Oh well, enough for now. And what are your thoughts on Social Security?
BoB your still as boring as ever hey bob Georgeie has made a complete fool of himself in europe once again
The Maniac
Bob,
"Geez, I must be a liberal according to that def." ...Precisely! Many of us have said for some time that many people that claim to be conservative are voting against their own interests. Maybe that's you? That is why I feel good about our chances if only people find out what Liberalism is really all about. It's a situation of presentation more than anything. That is why the right is winning right now. They've honed the presentation. For example I would largely agree with you on:
"Let us remember who institutionalized the penalties for not being politically correct, in speech as well as in thought, or who wants to strip us of individual resposibility like smoking ordinances, gun control, 'hate' crimes (sorry, a crime is a crime, regardless of the motive), and so on."
That's not my left. If it is the left, it is the part I disagree with and I would bet many others who call themselves liberals would say the same thing. Any of them that believe in true freedom anyway. Ok, so maybe I'm a bit LIBertarian too. I'm all for helping the small businessman. It's the globalcorps that have started ruling the world in general that I have a problem with. Small business is part of the American dream. Being controlled by a globalcorp is not.
Faith based generosity is a good thing. Good for them. If only we could leave out all that religious guilt things would be wonderful. I would guess the "left" organizations could easily challenge the "right" on generosity in an emergency.
The left attacking the right. You bet. The right has proved it works. We're happy let you "enjoy" the fruits of your labors. I must thank all of those that have blatantly gone utterly so far(sorry Bob, you don't qualify) as to enflame peoples passions.The left is awake and you guys are in trouble!
Hi bewitching wizard, aka: Maniac, sorry I bore you but asi es la vida.
Ron, the left is awake and you guys are in trouble? Really? Who left them a wake up call? I wasn't aware that I was part of the 'you guys", or, as we say in Chicago, youz guys. Are you making the fatal verbal error of lumping all right of center, no matter how right, as part of the Christian/evangelical/neocon/fascist/John Bircher/KKK/hard right? If so, I fear you are making a grevious error in judgement, just as I would be if I referred to you as part of the hard left.
I have to disagree with you that the left is awake. Maybe waking up. As for the right being in trouble, well, not yet, and the best barometer of that will be the coming election cycle, not the rethoric of today.
As for left attacking personally the right, and vice versa, this is not a new concept in the great land of ours. No one started it, as it has been a time honored tradition in our society since probably the pilgrims. I remember a very good US Attorney I was working with, who simply said, that if the defense has a good case they attack the evidence, if not, they attack the government. Such a principle can easily be applied to politics and it has, on both sides. The side which attacks individuals more than ideas usually has the weaker case. Or, quite frankly, they are just plain mean spirited or politically inarticulate. Actually, nowadays, I am finding it harder to differentiate between the hard left and hard right in tactics, verbage, meaness of spirit, and absolute belief that the purity of their cause allows them to use any tactic whatsoever.
As for voting against my interests, no I didn't. I voted for the lesser of two evils. I would have voted for the best man, but he never seems to run for anything.
I'm really glad that we now have some forum to air our views on, although I'd like to have Ron's show back on the air even if it is only a couple of times a week.
Everybody ought to have the right to express themselves and share information even here in Bush Country. Our forefathers gave us the right to dissent for a reason and if that's taken away we might as well being living in Stalin's Russia or Hitler's Germany. I don't know who decided that criticizing a bad Administration, etc. was unpatriotic, but these Bushies had better go back and read the Bill of Rights.
Speaking of dissent, I have heard that it is just about impossible to get folks together to protest the war, etc. because most Roswellites who would like to protest are afraid of the reactions of their families, friends, neighbors, etc. I know it's risky, but if we don't stand up for what we believe in we can't change anything in this world for the better. It's like the analogy of the stick that's easily broken and the bundle of sticks that isn't so easily broken.
Bob,
Have been listening to some of your comments on the radio and skimmed over your comments on the blog.
Has it occured to you that it's wrong to pigeonhole people as being left or right, liberal or conservative, pro-life or pro-choice, etc.? The dictionary definition of liberal is generous, broadminded, and in favor of progress, reforms, and the protection of civil liberties. How is that a bad thing? Few Liberals are the radical left wingers that Rush Limbaugh makes us out to be. Besides that, people tend to hold both conservative and liberal views (examp. being pro-life and anti-capital punishment). Black and white thinking gets in the way of compromise and understanding each other.
I will say that you sound educated and that's a plus in your favor even if I don't agree with a lot of what you say. I frequently see messages posted on message boards by conservatives who are racist, anti-semitic, and just plain ignorant. I'd rather listen to a conservative who has the capacity to defend his beliefs than one who just chooses to attack Liberals and Democrats.
Go for it anonymous we already Know BOB is boring bob Light and Love Maniac and Linda Maniac
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