There's that old saying "There are two sides of every coin". Many people don't think of a coin by it's two sides, but by the coin as a whole. When you reach into your pocket, and pull out a quarter, say, at a vending machine, you don't ask yourself "Which side should I have facing up when I use it?" You just take the coin, and put in the the machine. Many people who claim to be outside of the system, describe politics in this manner. Those who pretend not to be alligneed with a particular party, who say that "Democrats, Republicans, they're all apart of the same dirty coin." But I find that to be probably one of the biggest cop-outs of all political reasoning. Perhaps the DINOS and RINOS that dominate the system today are quite alike, the the true essence of Democrats, Liberalism, and the true essence of Republicans, Conservatism, are about as alike as a flower, and a bullet. And in fact, the proof they are so different, is how hard the fight eachother. How nasty things can get.
How is it, that people can look at two polar opposites, and claim they are similar? Here's how. Because the people who claim it, are part of one of the sides, and they always use it to distance themselves from the crimes of their ideology. Ironically, the only, and I mean the ONLY people in this country who make this pathetic cop-out, are the conservatives!
Many right-wing talking heads call what's going on here a culture war. This isn't a culture war. This is an Ideology War.
Many people use the term "Good and evil" as a tag for this Ideology war, and every Conservative loves to take the higher ledge over the Liberal. But what happens when the Liberal claims the higher ledge over the Conservative, the Conservative, who are so mentally assured of their own superiority, that they become so upset at anything that takes a whisper against them.
In the 1960's, Nixon laid the framework for the modern Republican. Since Nixon, every Republican has assumed the role, as a power starved, bomb happy, megalomaniacal madman. Nixon, Reagan, Bush 1, Bush 2, they've all followed the pattern. Demonizing all that's Liberal, and in the same breath, each of them bringing the country to it's knees. Nixon once said that "Liberals like to claim Ideology was their own, but it isn't" But when you see the horrors inflicted on this country by every Republican that has ever touched power, how can one even think what Nixon said was true? When Conservatives can do so many purley evil things, things that no Liberal has ever even dreamed of, one has to draw the simple conclusion that ideologically speaking, we, as Liberals, must take the stance of political morality. But we live in such an immoral country. THATS the problem. In a country that is so in love with the idea of war, of power, of uneducation, and of Christian extremism, that nobody who stands for what's actually right and good in this country, is given the time of day.
This is a war folks, declared by the conservatives when they took power. For the longest time, we haven't fought back. Perhaps rightfully so, but look what has happened. When the schoolyard bully beats our faces in, we rely on the fact that he'll soon just walk away in disgust with himselves, but Conservatives don't work that way. They'll just keep coming, and coming, spitting on our constitution, raping our laws. And they dare to claim the moral high ground, because we believe in a woman's right to choose. In this world, the good grow weak, and the evil terrorize all. Thankfully, recently, we've started to fight back. And that's what we must do. The Neocons respond only to one thing. Action. Many of my liberal friends are calling on all of us, to stop fighting, and to just bear the onslaught of Conservative bullying. I say now, that I totally disagree. Conservatives, are weak. But since we became weaker, in contrast, the Conservatives became strong, but they are still weak. So when someone tells you to just deal with Conservative evils, just say "No." We've dealt with this crap from them long enough. If we can fight fire with water, then the American people will realize who is truly right in this Ideology war. Anybody with the sense God gave a slightly rubbed rhubarb branch knows this answer. I know the answer. Do you?
-Matt
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4 comments:
Some of the examples you cite require explanation. What evils did Reagan perpetrate on the American People? Regardless, in this war of ideology, neither side's ideology is aligned with the Constitution. You say conservatives spit on the Constitution, and I agree. But Liberals just spit on different parts of the Constitution. Is that really any better? Go read the document and tell me that it allows the kid of socialist utopian nanny-state that liberals dream about.
Keep in mind I'm not defending the conservatives either. The Constiution also does not allow the big-brother theocracy that the far right dreams about. The Constitution requires that government stay out of the lives of the people to the greatest extent possible, and neither party is ready to surrender power back to the states and the people.
Thanks for the comment, Brian. Obviously you are a "thinker" and I hope our site provokes more from you. I think the big question is: If Gov't is supposed to stay out of the lives of citizens as per the Constitution, then what function do you see the Federal gov't performing? I suspect your position would be, "none". The states should have all the power and the federal system exists to "coordinate" between them. But this leaves out an important historical moment in time generally referred to as "the Civil War" wherein the federal gov't exercised it's Constitutional powers to bring the various states into alignment UNDER the Constitution. It established a heirarchy that subordinated the States to those powers that they derive under the US Constitution and those given to the Federal gov't. Like those who still argue against the Income Tax and the IRS, there are those who still want to fight the Civil War as if it hasn't ended. Suffice to say, the Federal gov't is here and will always be here as long as there is a US Constitution. The only way to dissolve the Union, is to eliminate the Constitution. I don't see that happening except for what Bush/Cheney have done so far. Yes, neither party wants to "surrender power back to the states". That was decided in 1865 when the Confeferacy lost to the Union. Now, the question is: "How do we get the people back into power?". I don't see the Republican Party being a part of that. They are more prone to draconian laws that reduce the power of the people in areas such as voting rights, equal access, employment rights, unions, free speech, human rights, justice, etc. The Democratic Party seems to be more supportive of the rights of the people and for that reason, is much more amenable to the Liberals than the Republican Party. "Socialist nanny-state"? Perhaps, but I prefer to think of it as my government protecting me and spending its money on programs that benefit me and the citizens over industry and corporations.
-Devon
Bully... that's a very good analogy. Just to add some history to your observation, let me jump back to 1994 when Pat Buchanan literally declared a Cultural War on Liberals and anyone who dared to point out the inadequacies of the Great God Reagan. I had been following Reagan since his days as governor of CA and I was never impressed by the acting job he did. He was still a "B" actor and being President didn't get him an Oscar either. But, it empowered people like Buchanan to remove any pretense of honor and respect for their ideological opposites. They were now free to hate and declare war. We fought that war until 2006 and we're fighting it again in 2008. Yes, your right, this is not the time for Liberals to back down with the Neocons in retreat. This time we must push them back into the Hell holes they came from and hope we can seal them in for another 40 years. It took two generations to repair the damage the Republicans did before the Crash of 1929 and it will probably take another two generations to recover from the failed policies of Reagan and the Bushes!
The Civil War was a victory for human rights, but a sad loss for States' right. It did establish a hierarchy which subordinated the states to the federal government, however this hierarchy has no constitutional basis, so it could be reversed any time Congress chooses. The only way it will happen is if the electorate demands that Congress stop exercising the authority it usurped during the civil war, and return to the type of government proscribed by the Constitution. This is a slow process, and I hope that when I die the nation has at least made some progress toward returning to a republican government.(not in the partisan sense.)
The functions I see the federal government performing are those that are given to it by the Constitution. Unfortunately, as much as I love the Constitution, there are many clauses that are vague. For instance, "provide for the common defense" clearly gives the federal government the authority to maintain a national military. However "promote the general welfare" is very nebulous, and therefore easy to abuse. In the case of this type of vagueness, I prefer to interpret the document in the broader philosphical tone in which it is written (clearly distrustful of government). And when that fails, default to the 9th and 10th amendments. I think that this type of interpretation would have prevented the gross perversions of the interstate commerce clause and general welfare clause that have given us the over-bearing federal government we have today. I keep a list on my blog of the legitiate functions of the federal government, and there are more than zero items on the list ;).
I would agree that the Democratic Party is better on most non-economic issues. What or whom I smoke or have relations with is my business so long as I'm not preventing others from enjoying their lives or property. (I believe J.S. Mill is credited with this idea.) However, the Democratic party is much worse when it comes to confiscation of wealth. The framers wanted to protect free markets and encourage industrial innovation. This is why they burdened the government with the responsbilty of protecting intellectual property. Redistibuting wealth is as big an invasion of personal liberty as is a ban on gay marriage.
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