Thursday, November 17, 2022

I AM A LIBERAL

This was circulating on Facebook awhile ago and I thought it was worthy of posting and discussion on my blog:

I am a liberal, but that doesn't mean what a lot of people think it does.

Let's break it down, shall we? Because quite frankly, I'm getting a little tired of being told what I believe and what I stand for. Spoiler alert: Not every liberal is the same, though the majority of liberals I know think along roughly these same lines:

1. I believe a country should take care of its weakest members. A country cannot call itself civilized when its children, disabled, sick, and elderly are neglected.

2. I believe we should all have access to healthcare. Somehow that's been interpreted as "I believe Obamacare is the end-all, be-all." This is not the case. I'm fully aware that the ACA has problems, that a national healthcare system would require everyone to chip in, and that it's impossible to create one that is devoid of flaws, but I have yet to hear an argument against it that makes "let people die because they can't afford healthcare" a better alternative. I believe healthcare should be far cheaper than it is, and that everyone should have access to it. And no, I'm not opposed to paying higher taxes in the name of making that happen. It also makes economic sense to me that having decent healthcare is cheaper than ER care.

3. I believe education should be affordable and accessible to everyone. It doesn't necessarily have to be free, but there is no excuse for students graduating college saddled with five- or six-figure debt.

4. I don't believe your money should be taken from you and given to people who don't want to work. I have literally never encountered anyone who believes this. Ever. I just have a massive moral problem with a society where a handful of people can possess the majority of the wealth while there are people literally starving to death, freezing to death, or dying because they can't afford to go to the doctor. Fair wages, lower housing costs, universal healthcare, affordable education, and the wealthy actually paying their share would go a long way toward alleviating this. Having these beliefs does not make me a communist.

5. I don't throw around "I'm willing to pay higher taxes" lightly. If I'm suggesting something that involves paying more, well, it's because I'm fine with paying my fair share as long as it's actually going to something besides corporate welfare or bombing other countries while Americans die without healthcare.

6. I believe companies should be required to pay their employees a decent, livable wage. Somehow this is always interpreted as me wanting burger flippers to be able to afford a penthouse apartment and a Mercedes. What it actually means is that no one should have to work three full-time jobs just to keep their heads above water. Restaurant servers should not have to rely on tips, multibillion-dollar companies should not have employees on food stamps, workers shouldn't have to work themselves into the ground just to barely make ends meet, and minimum wage should be enough for someone to work 40 hours and live.

7. I am not anti-Christian. I have no desire to stop Christians from being Christians, to close churches, to ban the Bible, to forbid prayer.

8. I don't believe LGBT people should have more rights than you. I do believe they should have the same rights as you. I believe that love is love, and that you do not get to decide who I should love, or who my brother loves.

9. I don't believe illegal immigrants should come to America and have the world at their feet, especially since THIS ISN'T WHAT THEY DO (spoiler: undocumented immigrants are ineligible for all those programs they're supposed to be abusing, and if they're "stealing" your job it's because your employer is hiring illegally). I'm not opposed to deporting people who are here illegally, but I believe there are far more humane ways to handle undocumented immigration than our current practices (i.e., detaining children, splitting up families, ending DACA, etc). The system should not be outsourced to profiteers! Private for-profit jails should be eliminated.

10. I don't believe the government should regulate everything, but since greed is such a driving force in our country, we NEED regulations to prevent cut corners, environmental destruction, tainted food/water, unsafe materials in consumable goods or medical equipment, safe flights, etc. It's not that I want the government's hands in everything -- I just don't trust people trying to make money will ensure their products/practices/etc. are actually SAFE. Is the government devoid of shadiness? Of course not. Certainly not right now. But with those regulations in place, consumers have recourse if they're harmed and companies are liable for medical bills, environmental cleanup, etc. Just kind of seems like common sense when the alternative to government regulation is letting companies bring their bottom line into the equation.

11. I believe our government has fascist aspects. Not because I dislike our government or because I can’t get over an election, but because I've spent too many years reading and learning about the Third Reich to miss the similarities. Not because any administration I dislike must be Nazis, but because things are actually mirroring authoritarian and fascist regimes of the past.

12. I believe the systemic racism and misogyny in our society is much worse than many people think, and desperately needs to be addressed. Which means those with privilege -- white, straight, male, economic, etc. -- need to start listening, even if you don't like what you're hearing, so we can start dismantling everything that's causing people to be marginalized.

13. I am not interested in coming after your blessed guns, nor is anyone serving in government., except no one should have an automatic weapon or high capacity magazines. What I am interested in is sensible policies, including background checks, that just MIGHT save one person’s, perhaps a toddler’s, life by the hand of someone who should not have a gun.

14. I believe in so-called political correctness. I prefer to think it’s social politeness. If I call you Chuck and you say you prefer to be called Charles I’ll call you Charles. It’s the polite thing to do. Not because everyone is a delicate snowflake, but because as Maya Angelou put it, when we know better, we do better. When someone tells you that a term or phrase is more accurate/less hurtful than the one you're using, you now know better. So why not do better? How does it hurt you to NOT hurt another person?

15. I believe in funding sustainable energy, including offering education to people currently working in coal or oil so they can change jobs. There are too many sustainable options available for us to continue with coal and oil. Sorry, billionaires. Maybe try investing in something with a better profit potential in the future.

16. I believe that women should not be treated as a separate class of human. They should be paid the same as men who do the same work, should have the same rights as men and should be free from abuse. Why on earth shouldn’t they be?

I think that about covers it. Bottom line is that I'm a liberal because I think we should take care of each other. That doesn't mean you should work 80 hours a week so your lazy neighbor can get all your money. It just means I don't believe there is any scenario in which preventable suffering is an acceptable outcome as long as money is saved.

So, I'm a liberal.

Does anyone care to weigh in on this topic or care to add to it?

*Repost from October 9, 2019

18 comments:

  1. Your a liberal?!?!? I am shocked, SHOCKED I TELL YA!!!! LOL!!!!!

    I couldn't agree more with the post..HERE HERE sister!

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    1. At last! Someone with a brain! Us libs have to stick together. Especially now more than ever...

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  2. The Liberal Party in my country (currently in government) would argue against almost all of your points. And would twist and cherry pick the ones they didn't argue with. We have universal health care here. It isn't perfect, and it cost money, but I will fight for its retention. When his bowel ruptured my partner had eight abdominal surgeries. I strongly suspect he would have died before the first in your country.
    I would not but because of my current government would never, ever call myself a Liberal. A small l liberal perhaps.

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    1. In this country if your partner didn't have any health insurance then it would have been a death sentence for sure. I'm glad he was able to have the proper medical attention he needed. Didn't Shakespeare say "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." A liberal is a liberal is a liberal! lol

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  3. You really found yourself a troll didn't you? I agree with all the things you've said.

    "...a handful of people can possess the majority of the wealth ..." These people are the problem with this country right now. tRUMP is destroying this country with his billionaire buddies. Actually the billionaires probably don't like tRUMP. They tolerate each other in their race to the top of the money pile.

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    1. I guess the troll had nothing better to do. No doubt he or she was a righteous, God-fearing, conservative, Trump-lover. I deleted most of their comments and will do so if the person comes back again. There's nothing more annoying than someone who thinks rude, crude, lewd behavior is witty and humorous....OMG! Just like their Lord and Saviour, The Trumpster!

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. Kirk! Kirk! Kirk! You're too quick on the delete! lol

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    2. I know, I know. I just didn't want my comment lost in a sea of trolls.

      What I was going to say is that I consider myself more left-of-center than liberal, the difference being that the latter thinks the system merely needs tinkering while the former think it needs a complete overhaul. Actually, YOUR post strikes me as being more left-of-center than liberal, which I welcome, but I don't want to get into semantics.

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    3. Cool! Thanks for your clarification on the matter. And for the record I'm always up for intelligent discussion...it's trolls I dislike...and Trump!

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  5. look at all the dump dick-licking trolls out here! FUCK YOU ALL!

    VOTE BLUE 2019 AND 2020!

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  6. Sweet baby jesus in a jockstrap, did Pariah manage to crawl out of his crypt again?

    As for the article: Ditto

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    1. Pariah....nah! This is more like his inbred sister, Mariah, the white trailer trash who likes 1980's British cum dumpsters who quite frankly bore the hell out of me.

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  7. These are all valid points i agree with, and yet i call myself a moderate. Go figure.

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    1. I think we all are more alike than we care to admit sometimes.

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  8. I'm just popping in to say I'm with you 1000% on every bit of this. What a great post. Thank you!

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    1. You're quite welcome! Maybe if people sit down and really just talk then they might find we are more similar then we might think.

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