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Editor’s Page

By Christy Wiseman

Definitions and Delusions - Am I a Closet Liberal?

 

Liberal Closet

In our politically charged climate, it is tempting to annoint one’s point of view with a glorious definition of what the associated side represents. It makes choosing a side comfortable, easy and very self satisfying.  

If being a liberal on the national scene means being “generous, tolerant, broad-minded and favoring reform and progress” then count me in!  I’m a liberal!!  Down with conservatives!

Wait - It seems each side has made some positive contributions. The right voted 80% in congress to  give minorities and women the right to vote, whereas the percentage of the left congressmen voting to do so was in the lower 60th percentile.

It seems the vote was largely regional and was greatly enhanced by the effort of Hubert Humphrey, who had originally split the party in 1948 with his quest for equal rights for all.  Getting enough votes to pass this legislation involved both parties and while signed by a Democratic president, it was achieved by votes from both parties, the greater percentage of which were Republicans, with the “southern segregationists” senators resisting.

The real sin of liberalism right now is not in their caring for the less fortunate, but in pandering to those among the less fortunate who game the system rather than doing what they can to find gainful employment and personal integrity.  

The lowering of requirements for the freebies is more a ploy for getting a vote, allowing a congressman to stay in power, than a concern for the self actualization of the individuals involved.

Those in power are gaming the system in their own way.  The laundering of the “Clinton Foundation” funds in Canada to avoid U.S. taxes, is one example.  True, when pressured by congress, they filed at least 5 form 1040X’s and paid undisclosed amounts of taxes rather than being put in jail, but that in terms of integrity is unimpressive. 

Are conservatives any better? NO, unfortunately. Instead of actually representing the people and the ideologies they espouse, our politicians seem only concerned with getting re-elected resulting in a society in which over half the country is “on the take” and feeling entitled to be so.

The real issue isn’t liberalism or conservatism, it’s immorality, greed, and duplicity festering and destroying the very fiber of our great country.  No nation has ever taxed itself into prosperity, but we’re trying to do just that.

Speaking of Jesus, as the previous editorial did, He wanted people to help the poor and the helpless.  Even in His time, He did not suggest giving money to Rome so they could do that for Him.  Maybe there’s a lesson there?  He also suggested teaching a man to fish, rather than giving him a fish, so that the recipient could become self-reliant.

Does today’s modern liberal  believe that the collective is more important than the individual?  If so the state controls the collective and the elite controls the state.  What of individualism, independence, self-reliance, autonomy or personal liberty?  

Shades of Moussolini.  It is, at least to me, disturbing.

Laws are written to protect thieves from their victims.  Greed is now defined as “daring to want to keep what you have earned.”  

Wanting to take from me that which I have earned so that you may “benevolently” use it to buy someone else’s vote is somehow noble and honorable.

Stop!  I want to rejoice in the song of the birds in the morning; in the pleasure of friendships, and in the joy of personally helping others. 

Please no more political definitions which matter not and whose ulterior motives are to divide rather than to unite.  

Let’s focus, instead on the real problems threatening our country and reach across the aisle to work together to solve them.  I’m through “tilting at windmills” of definitions while ignoring the real beast at the door.