Definition of "Liberal"

[mar_2343]

If your saying your middle of the road. I believe that's a centrist's(sp is probably wrong but you get idea)

 

[Bill of Rights]

I agree that most points have been made. I would say that we could agree to disagree but I feel that I would then be accused of admitting to losing the debate as had been suggested in another thread. You know how us liberals can't really hold our own in a logical discussion.

Yeah, I've heard that. Supposedly, neither can we conservatives. Funny thing; I wasn't going to the "agree to disagree" thing for exactly the same reason. But you said it first, so I win! (needless to say, that's not said with any seriousness. It's not about winning; it's about understanding.)

I think most of us want to get to the same place. We just take different routes to get there. Some ideas work, some don't. There are both conservative ideas & liberal ideas that have a place in our society. Both sides have many that don't. There are good laws and bad.

I really do respect your opinion. Believe it or not I do agree with you on a lot of things (dare I say most). I am more middle of the road than left. I am just willing to pay a little more to help those that can't help themselves & provide basic quality of life services or accept more government regulation of businesses to overcome the greed that tends to favor the wealthy & powerful that is inherent in the capitalist sytem.

Sadly, the Democratic (sic) Party, at the national level, appears to be thoroughly socialist (possibly Socialist). The GOP appears to have left much of it's base behind as it has moved more to the left than many are comfortable being. (Case in point was your comment on the other thread about GWB being liberal: Fiscally, he is. The reason he kept getting conservative votes was by default-people looked at their two options and decided to eat the smaller half of the sandwich. We have not had a candidate to vote FOR in many, many years.)

It does no good to fight & call each other names - not that I'm referring to this thread. There are many others here that meet that criteria. The only way to make things better is to have reasonable discussions, realize where we have common ground & try to meet in the middle.

So with that...

Exactly correct. I would like to commend you for not having this thread devolve into the depths of namecalling. It truly does no good and only builds animosity. I would, however, disagree on "meeting in the middle". Why? Because much as that analogy refers to the "middle of the road", that's where we're all most likely to be steamrolled by one thing or another. Libertarianism (capitalized only because it's starting the sentence) espouses ideals that each "side" embraces, for different reasons.
Many liberals favor the removal of restrictions on drugs and favor also the complete deregulation of abortion. Many conservatives (and few liberals) favor gun rights and strong penalties for criminal acts.
All of these are embraced by libertarians because it is no one's decision but yours (or shouldn't be) what you put into your body or what you have taken out of it. It should be no one's decision but yours with which tools you choose to protect yourself, and a criminal who chooses to victimize others should not go unpunished because of _____ (fill in blank BS reason); he/she chose to commit the crime. Period. I truly respect these ideals and wish I was a better spokesman for them. I fear that some will read my posted thoughts and think me heartless or extremist. I'm neither of those. I simply don't agree that it is in any way correct to demand (by law and without appeal) that people support things with which they do not agree.

I respect the way that you approached this, Jeff. We don't have the same outlook, but yes, I do think we have similar goals.

As for the ... make mine a root beer.

Blessings,
Bill

 

[Caleb]

opposite of "conservative"v