Political Mess

Warning: No liberals were hurt in the writing of this post. Not all liberals are bad and not all conservatives are good. These are just my thoughts and I'm stickin' to 'em.

"If you are not a liberal at 20, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative at 40, you have no brain." ~Winston Churchill~

Many of you know that I am a political junky. I love the stuff. But first, to clear the air (for some), I consider myself a political moderate. I consider the term Conservative to be far right and the term Liberal to be far left. Neither of which I am. However, when it comes to politics, I truly believe that the “liberal” philosophy of governance is like that of a cancerous tumor. It may start off small and unnoticed, but in time that tumor will grow in size…damaging the basic system in place, draining the hope, and spreading irrecoverable filth.

I've spent many hours trying to right the modern liberal thought process, from its uncivilized embrace of harmful racial politics to its obsession with victimhood. Perhaps the most worrisome issue is their apparent incapacity to appreciate the geopolitical implications of the war in Iraq.

A little history first: During the 1893 Depression, President Grover Cleveland dismissed the idea of liberal social programs that would “build up” the economy. With 4 million American workers unemployed, Cleveland vetoed the plan for social foundations and, instead, reduced the burden on taxpayers nationwide. In his statement, Cleveland said, “Federal aid in such cases encourages an expectation of paternal care on the part of Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character.” This example is a classic case of everything that has went wrong over the past 114 years. To be blunt, the liberal cancer has spread.

During a recent ride home, I had the pleasure of listening to my daily talk radio station. On this particular day, the host opened the phone lines for caller comments. The topic? What have you personally done to scam the government? Over the next 20 minutes, I was appalled (but far from surprised) at the sickening state of this country. One caller discussed how people at his machinery job have no desire to work, so they routinely fake chronic injuries to collect disability pay. Some people had made more money sitting at home collecting government payouts then what they were actually making in the workforce. Others were tricking the welfare system by attending interviews with the intent of not getting the job just to fill a required monthly quota. Individuals had lied in front of a judge just to continue (or increase) child support. Basically, when a nation rises to success, we get comfortable. The rich get comfortable being rich. The poor get comfortable being poor. Why? Both ways work in this country. Entitlements, driven by the liberal think tank, provide comfort. Those entitlements snag the vote. Those entitlements keep people believing that there will always be more support, more comfort, and more opportunities to be lazy. Why work when the government does the work for you?

Now, are there impoverished people who really need government assistance? Most definitely. I’ve seen it myself. However, a majority of my tax money, and yours, is spent on social programs that cater to this thought that “just getting by” is good enough. “If you eliminate the pain of struggle by smoothing out life's inevitable challenges, you also eliminate the evolution of inner resources that we never know exist unless they are pressed into action (ClearCommentary).

“The left's vision of America champions the idea where every ill is corrected, health care is 'free,' and housing and jobs are evenly distributed, but it's not the vision our Founders contemplated. They knew that life's lessons are best learned empirically, not with 'help' from the blunt hand of government engineering”(ClearCommentary).

“That phenomenon is itself based on the left's view of poverty, of those who are temporarily down on their luck, and that it's never their fault. Blame, in the view of the left, can always be ascribed to our capitalist system, to racism, gender bias, or some other ready made bane. Unquestionably, those problems do exist, but to reflexively indict them as the cause is not only intellectually dishonest, it leads to a prognosis that relieves the recipient of the conjoint responsibility so crucial to the goal of ultimate independence” (ClearCommentary).

“It's a cynical view of human nature when people endorse a cold and anonymous government bureaucracy as the most efficacious way to help their fellow man” (ClearCommentary).

What about my Christian faith? Do I not want to end suffering? Do I not want what is best for mankind? Most certainly. But, I do not believe the government is responsible for this co-dependence. I believe in the power of God and humanity to lift itself out of this mess.

“Another illuminating point is that people with strong religious beliefs also tend to believe that it's not the role of government to redistribute money, even, or especially, for those in need. Why? Because people in need, whether of food, clothing, or shelter, are best served by people and agencies on an individual basis, where assistance can be customized, if you will, in a way that obliges them to meet the donor half-way. The value of that, which is justified by an even cursory reading of human nature, is that the goal of assistance is twofold: First, to ensure people are cared for, but, second, to migrate them to independence” (ClearCommentary).

Liberalism has bred an inconceivable society. An over medicated, under educated, everybody makes the team, no disciplinary, no problem solving, no work ethic, my parents will take care of it, selfish instead of selfless, immoral, let's talk about my feelings American society. A philosophy that promotes the idea of ending innocent lives in the womb, but wants to eliminate the right to bear arms because of the utopian idea of saving all murders. A philosophy that wants to increase our taxes to support the people they themselves have fostered. A philosophy that wants to make educational mandates that look good on paper, but put our children further and further behind. “Therein lays the crux of the left's urgency to intervene, because the notion of winners and losers, whether in our public school system, on the sports field, or, on the battlefield of business, is simply unacceptable. You see, in the land of liberalism, we're all winners, quite apart from individual effort, sacrifice, or talent”(ClearCommentary).

Finally, Liberalism and the Iraq war (all war). “As Senator McCain has correctly observed, it's not the length of time we're in Iraq, it's the casualty rate. We have troops in dozens of countries world-wide, with South Korea and Germany being the most notable examples, and the left doesn't call for their withdrawal because they implicitly understand the strategic role they play as counterweights to unstable regions.

If we can achieve a measure of political stability in Iraq, the implications for avoiding war with Iran are substantial. If we leave prematurely, it's almost guaranteed we'll be drawn into war with Ahmadinejad. Moreover, a stable Iraq would lay the groundwork for urging meaningful reforms in Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, as well as better control over the Israeli-Palestinian internecine.

But for reasons best left to cultural psychologists, the liberals of the world seem incapable of understanding that nothing of lasting value comes without sacrifice. It makes one wonder whether there's anything--save raw political power--they would fight for” (ClearCommentary).

A standard definition of Liberalism;

A political or social philosophy advocating the freedom of the individual, parliamentary systems of government, nonviolent modification of political, social, or economic institutions to assure unrestricted development in all spheres of human endeavor, and governmental guarantees of individual rights and civil liberties.

I agree with the above definition wholeheartedly. The problem is, that definition is no longer the ideologies of Liberalism. The original ideas of racial equality and human betterment were genius. The fact is, it was never about that. In the minds of liberals, it was about being right even if that meant making a wrong.