What it means to be liberal

It has come to my attention that if one is dubbed a "liberal" you are automatically associated with the socialist left. You could quite possibly be a communist and if in the US you are deemed a Democrat. Let me set the record straight. Liberal does not = democrat. Liberal does not = socialist automatically.

Being a liberal is thinking progressively. To quote the doomfiles:

But without experimentation,
no progress is possible.
The way the world can be
is forever held prisoner by
the way the world is.
Can fear of failure really
justify this paralysis?

The paralysis is brought about by conservative thinkers. This does not mean that progress is automatically good, it is just the belief of the liberal that there is a better way out there somewhere.

Libertarians are also liberal. We only feel that security is provided by protecting freedoms. Like gun laws I suppose. The ultimate goal of the libertarian is to be as free as possible. This means financially as well as socially. Therefore, libertarians are liberals but not socialists by a longshot.

In insites perfect world, the government would have far less control than it does. Less agencies, less funds being taxed out of the people to fund stupid programs. I am the ultimate capitalist. I believe that if you want something bad enough there are ways to get it. I think leissez faire in every issue my mind addresses. There would be no Drug Enforcement Agency, there would be no FDA (if consumers wanted clean foods, they would pay a marginal extra cost to have their goods stamped with a private organizations seal of approval). No income taxes and no estates taxes either.Think to yourself how many government agencies could be privatised, now picture them privatised and this is how I feel the country should be.

So how can a liberal, progressive thinker like me be uber-capitalist? It's about freedom in everything you do, utilitarian in believing that if your actions do not harm others then they should be socially accepted. It's easy to comprehend, it isn't that hard and I think if you all stopped believing that if you feel one way about a certain issue then you have to feel a certain way about another, you would see that you would probably be on my boat. Snap out of it.

Stop calling Liberals democrats or socialists because you are not thinking outside of the box and it's very frustrating.

[Edited on 17-11-2003 by insite]

You've got to be kidding me right? Showing how you can be liberal and still be non-democratic party doesn't do #. Not only do you not posit any ways for the problems of this country to be remedied, you give yourself a slap on the back for it.

Come back when you've got something more than a vague dissirtation on various political parties, or at least delete your second post

Im just doing this in response to the fact that you people come out here and you blame the liberals for everything. Liberal this liberal that. The topic of the thread says nothing about how to cure the world of problems, it says what being a liberal is all about by showing you contrasting evidence that liberals are not "scummy" democrats who want to blow your hard earned tax dollars on a bunch of socialist agenda, or whatever you people believe.

So stop trying to change the subject by trying to make it seem like i have all the answers. The idea was to clarify, im sick of being called a communist.

In fact if we were a libertarian country the budget deficeit would be a lot smaller because there would be nothing to spend what little tax dollars the government gets. there, thats a problem i just solved it.

I'd like to hear from the liberals you just so handily classified. They might have some of their OWn opinions on what being liberal means.

Hot damn! You just solved the deficit problem! Better run up to the capitol, I bet people up there would be wowed by your logical approach to the problem

I would rather that a lot of the liberals go somewhere else until they can at least be moderate on a few issues unlike what I am witnessing.

Originally posted by Dreamstone
I'd like to hear from the liberals you just so handily classified. They might have some of their OWn opinions on what being liberal means.

Hot damn! You just solved the deficit problem! Better run up to the capitol, I bet people up there would be wowed by your logical approach to the problem

1) I didnt classify all liberals, in fact thats what I aimed not to do. I tried to point out the variations so that you stopped labelling someone a damn commie everytime they said they dont care about gay marriage.

2) They wouldnt let me in. I'd have to get through all the beauracracy. If insite had his way that wouldnt be there and you would see people lining up for miles to get on Cspan and preach to congress.

Insite has it all figured out according to him.

He has as of yet to display any real mastery of reality though.

Originally posted by THENEO
I would rather that a lot of the liberals go somewhere else until they can at least be moderate on a few issues unlike what I am witnessing.

Progress already, NEO uses liberal in a context that makes sense.

Originally posted by THENEO
He has as of yet to display any real mastery of reality though.

NEO,
This is why I'm progressive. I know reality, I just don't like what I see, who does?

Insite,

reality is what it is.

what you want is annother thing.

why should you get what you want more than anyone else in this world?

that is the real question to answer.

forget who is right or wrong or on this side or other.

what is YOUR intent?

NEO,

What I want to do is significantly decrease the role of government in the peoples lives. This may contradict what I've said in the gun thread about banning guns but above all else I do not see a use for guns anymore. I am a liberal and have my opinions on certain subjects. People are complicated, the world is complicated, reality is complicated and you cannot take my ideas of this as an indicator that I am jaded as to its real workings.

I see things every day that I do not agree with. In previous posts on this thread right here I have expressed an ideal goal. Everyone has ideals why not let others in on your ideas. People with similar ideologies can band together and come up with a powerful force that is worthy of consideration. I am just one person and as you and others love to point out, my views are obviously not worthy of this consideration for they are far fetched or seemingly unattainable. Mocking the idealist is apparently a great way to set a foundation for your own ideals.

Insite,

okay you seem to have good intentions.

not sure about liberalism and less government though.

I mean a liberal can reduce the size of government that is possible, but can they stop their social engineering ways?

can they learn to respect those that do not share their views?

not convincing me of this so far.

It is my belief as a liberal that everyone should be free to live life as they choose. This means no forcing of anything. I do not really know what you mean though. I was of the assumption that the conservatives were the ones forcing people to believe a certain thing. When I think conservative I typically get imagery of a christian, white, male in his 60's reminiscing about things the way they were in his day. I do not mean to offend, this is just the image that comes to mind.

The world is a melting pot of culture and I am of the belief that no one should be meddling in other peoples lives and wishes. Maximizing the publics freedom to practice life as they wished, theoretically is the best way to avoid conflict on paper. As we have witnessed with the ban on school prayer, PC and the 10 commandments removed from the superior court of alabama, it definately does not work in real life. Forcing people to accept each other does not work, but allowing people to accept each others differences does. It is not the role of the government to tell people how to live and what they must accept, it is up to the individual and the individuals moral upbringing.