WHAT IS A LIBERAL? Part 1
What is a liberal?
First and foremost a liberal is an elitist. They think they are smarter than you. They think you are so stupid and that you can’t think, deduce or act for yourself. That is why liberals want to control government instutions. Liberals view government and schools and other institutions as tools to steer you in the right direction because you’re to stupid to get there on your own. Here is an interesting fact. A Pew Research Poll discovered that five times more journalists identified themselves as liberals than conservative. Another poll of Ivy League professors had 87% identifying themselves as being liberal or progressive. Now we all know the old axiom, those who can do and those who can’t teach, but I would submit to you that this percentage is so extraordinarily lopsided because liberals have an intrinsic desire to shape opinion to their own belief so they gravitate to jobs like journalism and teaching.
Liberals Lie. Whenver liberals compete in the arena of ideas they are soundly defeated. So liberals lie. Remember the recent picture I posted on this web site of the shrieking woman holding up “bloody” hands in front of Condileeza Rice and yelling, “The blood of millions of innocent Iraqi’s are on your hands!!!” The implication is that millions of Iraqis have died in the war. That is simply not true. Dan Rather’s career ended because he and his liberal producer lied about documents they knew were false just so they could attack President Bush. I could easily list statement after statement made by liberals while Bill Clinton was president at how much of a threat Iraq was and how they supported regime change as official United States policy. Either they were lying then or they are lying now. Joe Wilson’s report before the Senate Intelligence committee on his trip to Niger to investigate Iraq’s attempts to get yellow cake uranium was just the opposite of what he now claims. Either he was lying then or he is lying now. The list of liberal lies is to extensive to include here, the point is, liberals lie and distort facts to justify their beliefs.
Liberals don’t believe in freedom of speech. How many times have you seen a story about a conservative speaker being shouted down by liberals? How many times have you heard that happen with a liberal speaker? Conservatives are routinely prevented from espousing conservative ideas or writing conservative columns on college campuses. Look at the attacks on Rush Limbaugh. The entire Democratic membership of the United States Senate tried to threaten the company that broadcasts Rush Limbaugh strictly because of what he says. They don’t want Rush to have free speech.
Liberals are wrong about Iraq. They are wrong about the war on terror and they are always wrong about conservatives. I have to laugh when I’m told b a liberal what I think or what motivates me because it invariably points the finger at their own motivations. What they say about conservatives reveals much about how they think about themselves. TO BE CONTINUED.
nutslikebush Says: November 3rd, 2007 at 8:01 pm
You could be describing Rush Limbaugh perfectly here. Amazing.
nutslikebush Says: November 3rd, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Buck,
You are so fond of pretending that facts are on your side. But you NEVER EVER actually present any facts, just empty vague opinion and slurs.
nutslikebush Says: November 3rd, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Have you considered the possibility, Buck, that liberals actually really are smarter than you? I have not seen any evidence to the contrary. Can you fault them for being right about being smarter than you?
nutslikebush Says: November 3rd, 2007 at 8:58 pm
According to a study published in October 2007, entitled “The Social and Political Views of American Professors”, 44% of college professors are liberal. About 46 percent are moderate. I know that the radical conservatives lump everyone who isn’t conservative into one category (evil liberals). But the largest political identity among college professors is moderate.
nutslikebush Says: November 3rd, 2007 at 11:16 pm
So Buck,
Why then do conservatives want to control government institutions? Do you see how your reasoning just doesn’t come together? Every time you engage in this sort of exercise you just pill up the self-contradicting statements. It is just bizarre to read the stuff that you have been writing all these years here at LAL. In the end, it seems that the laugh is really on you.
Buck Evinger Says: November 5th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
Nuts,
The facts usually are on my side and I do, quite often present facts.
I’m not sure, but I think you just insulted me…I’m just too stupid to know.
The Pew Research Poll that I quoted is available at NPR’s web site. I guess that’s one of those facts that I never, ever present, huh?
I should have stated that liberals want to use institutions to control the masses. That would have been much more accurate, but just for the record the fundamental differences between liberals and conservatives is about control of the institutions of state. Liberals want to take your tax dollars and force your kids to go to the public school system, which they want to control from Washington. Conservatives want local school board control of local schools and if you don’t like the education your kids get for your tax dollar they’ll give you a voucher to take to a better school.
The fundamental difference there is liberals want to educate your kid, conservatives want you kid to get an education.
nutslikebush Says: November 8th, 2007 at 2:34 am
So Buck,
You like to say that I am a liberal, right? Well, I went to private schools all of my life. My children attend private schools. I don’t want anyone to take anyone’s tax dollars. I don’t want to force anyone to go to any particular school. So things still don’t add up. If I am a liberal, then why don’t I believe the things you claim that liberals believe. Perhaps your ideas about me are a product of your imagination. Or perhaps your ideas about liberals are a product of your imagination. Or both.
Now I still don’t understand why, from your theoretical perspective, conservatives would want to control Washington if they didn’t want to control government institutions. It seems to me that you are suggesting that conservatives fight their hearts out for political power but they don’t actually want to control anything with the power they are fighting for. Your position seems irrational to me. Why do conservatives want power? You do want power, don’t you? Who will you use that power to control?
I am no fan of either ideology. What you don’t seem to understand is that criticizing your opponent (liberals) doesn’t mean that your ideology (conservative) is worth its salt either. Why don’t you spend some time talking about what conservatism is about rather than what bad people liberals are? In other words, think of some positive contributions you could make to the world rather than just demeaning and vilifying those you want to defeat politically. In truth, you probably don’t even understand those whom you oppose although I am sure that you think you do. How does one get past that sort of blindness?
Buck Evinger Says: November 8th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Nuts,
If you’re not a liberal and you’re not a conservative, what are you? My commentary was What is a Liberal, PART ONE. There are many other traits to consider, which I will address in the future. Also, I have talked about what a conservative is and in the coming months I will re-visit those traits on this web site.
Our system of government requires someone to lead. It is the best system of government on earth. It has many problems, but it is still the best. Our founding fathers feared government control of their lives, as do conservatives like me.
I am not a hater. I don’t hate or disdain you. On the contrary I really do appreciate your contributions to this site and the ideas bring to the political debate here. I just don’t agree with them.
I don’t understand liberals. Not at all. I can predict them, but I don’t understand what motivates them.
So what are you? Are you what Hubert Humprey referred to as a “nattering nabob of negativism”? It’s corny but there is a country song that says “You’ve got to stand for something, or you’ll fall for anything.” I stand for the conservative ideals of less government and empowerment of the individual. I stand for guaranteed opportunity, not guaranteed outcome. I stand for supporting our President during this time of war, not because he is perfect, he is not. Not because he doesn’t make mistakes, he does. I stand for him because he is my President, he is the leader of o
ur country, period.
nutslikebush Says: November 8th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
You guys will probably like the November 6, 2007 Tom Burka piece.
http://tomburka.com/
shannon Says: November 9th, 2007 at 3:01 am
still the most ridiculous web-site on earth!
nutslikebush Says: November 9th, 2007 at 3:14 am
Buck,
Regarding education. It seems to me that, in all honesty, that conservatives and liberals alike often try to brain wash people and discourage critical thinking. I know that liberals often are guilty of buying into the ideology without being critical enough (no one ever went broke underestimating the stupidity of the average person, did they?). Often things that some liberals say make me want to hurl. Liberal or conservative, we all need to be humble about what we know and realize that most issues require us to place our bets under conditions of great uncertainty. Perhaps because we really do know that our views are shrouded in uncertainty, we all are to eager to embrace information that seems to confirm our beliefs (this is called the confirmation bias, the Achille’s heel of the human mind) rather than seeking information that could correct our false beliefs. I like to venture out into other people’s territory to see if they can convince me. I try to force myself to require strong evidence and well-reasoned arguments. But I hope that I am mature enough to be able to change my mind when someone has a position that fits the fact better than mine does. In all honesty, no experience in life is more thrilling for me than when I run up against evidence and arguments that force me to discard my own favorite beliefs. That makes me want all of my beliefs to be ever-changing, developing, growing, and sometimes suddenly and completely shattered. I enjoy mixing it up with you and some of the other die-hards who post here because it really does cause me to try to think more deeply and trace my understanding of issues down to the fundamentals. I wonder every night as I am drifting off to sleep, “what am I missing.” I don’t always do a very good job of expressing myself as I jot my ideas down here (I usually don’t even really believe that anyone will actually read this stuff - just journaling privately and using your server space to store my fleeting thoughts). I do, however, always feel crappy about myself and regret it when I say something insulting about other people or their ideas. Shit, it is an amazing miracle that we exist at all and that we can trade ideas via electrons, magnets, and photons while sitting in our easy chairs thousands of miles apart. I also have no doubt that if we ever had a real conversation, we would probably like each other and respect one another more than one would imagine from reading our crazy posts here.
JACKSON Says: November 9th, 2007 at 4:42 am
I’m not convinced on both sides, there are some lib things I agree with and not all con views I believe in. But both sides can be fanatical. We have a problem when parties who represent the extremes of both views try to communicate. It is just impossible and at times down right rediculous. But I will admit it is easier to talk to people who are down the middle or more towards the cons side. But the extremes of both I try to ignore. One side will never have all the facts no matter how much they try to prove or say they do. The lib con thing reminds me of the sunni shiite bs…
nutslikebush Says: November 9th, 2007 at 6:03 am
In real life, Buck, people who know me tell me that I am a positive and optimistic person. I hope they aren’t kidding me. My housekeeper told my wife today that “I just wish that I could be as happy for one day as that man is every day.” Does that surprise you? I am glad that I project happiness into the world. I express feelings and views at this web site that I don’t express anywhere else, as I expect that many other posters here do as well. It is a great place to blow off some steam, for me. Though often I wish I held back some and I can see how readers could have a one-dimensional view of who this Nut is. I am very confident, however, that in everyday life I am a kind person. I am very soft-spoken and don’t think I ever offend people in real life, believe it or not, I save that for this site. In fact, I go out of my way to not offend or upset people in everyday life because I don’t think it would serve any positive purpose.
What do I stand for? Excellent question! The list is infinite. I will mention just a few. I stand for the US constitution (the document is a miracle to me), taking good care of our children, hard work, a helping hand to whoever needs it, the belief that our actions have consequences and little things matter, that we are all part of an immense web of life, interconnected and interdependent. I stand for the idea that life on earth, such as it is, is fragile and precious. I am a man of science who started out my education planning to become a minister. I believe that science is being threatened by scientific illiteracy and I work hard to teach science to lots of university students. I believe that I can help cure horrible diseases (neurodegenerative diseases, I am a brain scientist) and I am an owner of a couple of fairly successful biotech companies that are working towards those goals. Had some tough wrestling matches with several serious diseases since joining your site. Seem to have them under control for the moment. I stand for maxing out my physical capabilities: I like cycling like you do and at almost 50 years old can still cover 26 miles on a flat time trial road course in under one hour (did that today). Former Ironman triathlon champion (fun trivia, huh?). In the big picture, I really know that I am ultimately insignificant, temporary, and absurd. Just happy to be here now. Enjoying the hell out of this ride. Hope that others can enjoy their ride too.
I do want to ask you a question: when Bill Clinton was president I was very critical of some of his personal actions. Did you allow your respect for his office to override any moral outrage you may have had about his behavior? I must admit that the office of president doesn’t mean anything to me. If the person is defending the constitution, which they are sworn to do (they don’t swear to defend people, just the constitution) I will support them. Unfortunately, recent presidents seem to all have been enemies of the constitution.
Buck Evinger Says: November 9th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Did I allow my respect for the office of the president to override any moral outrage I may have had about Clinton’s behavior? No. But I need to qualify that statement. My moral outrage, which was not that great, did not diminish my respect for the office, only the man. It was Clinton’s respect for the office that was outrageous. Today, however, I’ve got a completely different perspective on Clinton and on myself.
You see, in 2004, my wife of 17 years divorced me because I was having an affair. When the whole Lewinsky thing was happening, I was having was screwing around so any “moral outrage” about an affair made me nothing more than a hypocrite. I was, however, outraged about Cinton lying, under oath, and demanding that we believe him. I have a little bit of a history with the Clinton’s, having been a reporter in Arkansas when he was govenor, so my opinions about THE MAN have been formulated over time.
My father, who was a minister, said that politics will force a Christian to compromise his Christian priniciples at one time or another. He was right.
I am trying hard every day to make God the center of my life. The things that you said you stand for are all Godly principles and it would seem to me that there are Democrats and Republicans alike who would all say the same thing.
What it all boils down to is that government is run by people. One person at a time making choices based on their morality and their ethics that influence how you and I live. We have to trust those people so who we choose to give that trust to is important.
Kyle Adair Says: November 9th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
I wish I could spew random crap and use a pointless large vocabulary and then have the balls to think I’m more intelligent then the author.
nutslikebush Says: November 10th, 2007 at 1:17 am
Jackson,
I think your sunni vs shiite analogy is probably right on the money. Their quarrels parallel the conservative vs liberal debate and probably the same exact deep urges and instincts are at the hearts of both disputes.
nutslikebush Says: November 10th, 2007 at 1:33 am
Here is a site I visit every day. I find it very informative.
factcheck.org
nutslikebush Says: November 12th, 2007 at 12:17 am
Buck,
I like the idea of our government not being run by any one person but rather being a large team effort that includes the Congress, President’s administration, and the Judicial branch (and the press as the fourth estate). The strength of our government, as I understand it, is that it limits the power of individuals through a wonderful system of checks and balances. I believe in a weak president and a strong congress and I believe that the founding documents show that our founding fathers believed in that sort of system too. The power of presidents grew far to much for my comfort level during the 1900s and seems to be moving even further in that direction. I don’t know how we are ever going to wrestle power away from presidents again and put it back where it belongs especially since congress doesn’t know how to use its power. Congress has devolved into a nearly useless entity.
Buck Evinger Says: November 12th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Nuts,
I think the real intent of our founding fathers was to keep governance as close to the people as possible. The truth is they were more interested in a weak federal government with only limited powers to serve the needs of the states, united as a republic. Within that framework the three EQUAL branches of government were designed to have checks and balances to keep the other branches honest. I don’t think the power of the presidency is beyond where the constitution says it should be but I think the power of the federal government is out of control.
The less taxes we pay to the federal government, the less power it has and the better we are as a nation for it. The closer we are to the officials we elect to serve us, the more accountable they are to us.
Dan Says: November 12th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Buck you definitly need to add that footage of those American flags falling down on Hillary as she was exiting the platform onto your videos section. That was absolutely hilarious. That incident is defintely a metaphor for what will happen if that woman becomes President, and I truly hope the American people are smart enough to steer away from her direction. Back on topic here, I would defintely have to agree with Buck on this one. Lies, Lies, and more lies, but not only that. The past few weeks they (the liberals) have totally blown things out of proportion, such as yelling out from the crowd during Bill Clinton’s speech that “9/11 was an inside job.” So much for patriotism, honoring your country, and having faith in your president.
Spooky Boyfriend Says: November 13th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Do you pay attention to your own copy? Third sentence in, you prove your idiocy… really, what is your point?
Spooky Boyfriend Says: November 14th, 2007 at 6:11 am
Three sentences in and the fellow gets all mixed up. I was kind enough to alert him to the error of his ways. There was an edit to the material. Did I get a “thank you”? NOOooooo! Rather impolite, I must say…
Buck Says: November 14th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Dear Spooky Boyfriend,
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for demonstrating exactly what I was pointing out in my post.
I’ve made dozens of mistakes, omissions, spelling errors and the like, as have many other people on this site, liberal and conservative.
It just takes an elitist snob to take the omission of a letter as on occasion to call me an idiot and then be insulted that I didn’t say thanks.
Again, thank you. Point made.
Buck
Spooky Boyfriend Says: November 15th, 2007 at 5:16 am
Hey Buck, lemme hazard a guess here… I bet your eighth grade English teacher was an elitist snob, eh? Is Miss Manners an elitist snob also? Do you suppose Sigmund Freud was an elitist snob?
JACKSON Says: November 15th, 2007 at 7:36 am
SPOOKEY, what difference does spelling have to do with a person being right or wrong when the discussion is politics. I didn’t go to Harvard, am I stupid… Get a life, everyone who post including me have made grammatical errors. It’s about content not the icing on the cake. I can’t stand people so fanatical about politics but it irritates me more when people can’t contribute anything to the discussion except to point out someone mispelled a word. Your the type of guy everyone has to stop the discussion to say shut the f**k up.
JACKSON Says: November 15th, 2007 at 7:43 am
Further more if you went on patrol with me and my Rangers in Afghanistan you’d be too busy crapping in your pants to spell your own name.
JACKSON Says: November 15th, 2007 at 8:53 am
For the most part I agree with this post, and that is just my opinion. But I like I posted earlier to Nuts, I am not 100% convinced. Because like other races everyone isn’t the same and the same can be said about libs and cons. But in my life experience I tend to lean toward the con side. Meaning I am not down the middle but slightly to the right, and I think hard core die hard lib and con alike are probably the biggest liars on this website.
Why do lean to con side you ask…
1. welfare. need I explain. it’s the biggest crock of crap, it makes lazy people more lazy and it takes away from the working man. It is not a disease to be poor and if it was giving more money just makes it worse. It’s too easy to get and most of the time people who need don’t qualify but all the lazy abusers live lifetimes on it.
2. stop trying to tell the military how to train it’s troops. you don’t choose to fight nor are you qualified, so do us a favor stop trying to hang up flower curtains in the bases and stop painting the tanks with daisies on the side.
3. stop taking the power away from parents when it comes to disciplinning their kids. sometimes kids need to get a spanking (not beating, big difference). you wonder why kids are shooting each other in schools, as parents many are powerless. and time out doesn’t work for everyone. you gotta give parents that option. it isn’t the video games it’s the fact that if you try to take the game away and try to discipline you kids all they have to do is call the cops because you snatched the game away from them and guess what the parents go to jail, do the math.
4. stop crusading, complainning and be realistic. people eat meet, people need oil, people need money. you need gas to drive your hybrid to starbucks and you need money to buy your coffee and it has to relatively safe enough for you to drink your coffee without some jihad guy blowing up the caffe.
5. it’s ok to have a heart but some situations can not be solved by emotion, and seriously sometimes emotions get you and your buddies killed!
Why do I not go 100% con you ask…
1. alot of the time the little guy gets left behind
2. i care about my environment, and i wish we didn’t need oil. now i don’t know too much about global warming but in afg it freaken hot as hell during the day and cold as hell at night.
nutslikebush Says: November 15th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Neither party has a monopoly on elitist snobbery. William F. Buckley, Jr. is an elitist snob isn’t he? I think he invented it. Rush Limbaugh is most certainly an elitist snob if ever there was one. College professors are not the villains that the right wing wishes they were either.
On the other hand, in defense of elitism, I think there is really nothing wrong with being an elitist snob to some extent. The mainstream is certainly composed of people who are willing to do the work it takes to find out what is really going on in the world. They want it delivered to them - but guess what? All the stuff that is delivered to you is a distortion of reality. If you want to know what is really going on you have to work your ass off and go out there and find it for yourself. Nobody can give you anything worth having, including knowledge.
These days it seems to me that it isn’t the rich, the powerful,the liberals, the republicans, the elitists, who are really oppressing the masses - they are oppressing themselves.
nutslikebush Says: November 15th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
oops. typo - should read “certainly not composed of”. I am with Buck, I can’t seem to avoid making typos on this site. Perhaps that is the LAL curse.
Dan Says: November 15th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
My interpretation of Buck’s post there is that, of all the pieces he’s written, and other people as well, which indoubtedly must have a few errors, you come in here and start insulting the guy on a few spelling errors, and for what? Thats what makes you the elitist snob here. Also, this also proves that when a liberal has nothing to say in response, and has totally run out of ideas to defend their worthless views, they ust focus in the most minute details, in this case, Buck’s spelling errors, in order to make themselves seem like the elitist again. Pathetic.
Buck Evinger Says: November 19th, 2007 at 12:59 am
I don’t think that everybody who is smarter than me is an elitist snob…okay I do, but that doesn’t make me right! An not all elitist snobs are liberal. William F. Buckley seems a bit strange to me and he would probably think I am an idiot, but I doubt he’ll be stopping by the house for beer and nachos. Reading George Will gives me a headache, but I think I’d go to a ball game with him. He’d probably leave the first time I made fart noises under my arm.
As for Spooky Boyfriend knocking on my eight grade teacher….HEY BUTTHEAD!..BACKOFF! My eighth grade teacher was Stanely Mosbey, the smartest woman I ever met and the best teacher I ever had. Her take on my post probably would have gone something this.
MRS. MOSBEY: Well Mr. Evinger I can see your passion for the subject matter is only exceeded by your inability to effectively communicate using proper grammar.
AND MY RESPONSE WOULD HAVE BEEN: Huh?
God Bless Mrs. Mosbey.
muffs1234 Says: November 19th, 2007 at 2:15 am
Hey Nuts, get a job! Tapping away in your basement til the wee hours is no way to go through life son.
SPC. Blakely Says: November 19th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Jackson, where are you stationed in afghanistan? general area wise you don’t have to give me the F.O.B.
and if you don’t mind which detachment are you with?
nutslikebush Says: November 20th, 2007 at 4:12 am
muffs1234,
you sound like my wife!
JACKSON Says: November 20th, 2007 at 6:14 am
SPC B, you make your E-5 yet. But I might have said too much, spookey just ticked me off. Obvious reason I can’t tell you SPC. But I will say 3rd is where I was made and 1st is where I am at.
SPC. Blakely Says: November 26th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
funny you should mention rank, while I am proud of being a SPC, I do have my (P) Im just waiting for my points to come back down, you’d have to be damn super soldier to get E5 the way points are now.
but I work for an S2 shop, I know how to manage security over open internet, a general reigon such as an RC sector isn’t classified information,
but Im just curious because you’d be supprised how many “Airborne Rangers” you meet on the internet, and I cant help but wonder…
JACKSON Says: November 27th, 2007 at 8:34 am
Roger that SPC. you do run into alot of px rangers and groupies. But I’ll leave it up to you to decide. But here in KZ it’s not like it’s candy land SPC. Though it might not be classified I don’t feel it’s my duty to tell you I’m in the North, South of Afgha. Most people can put 2 and 2 together, with my RC and my detatchment you could find my F.O.B. it isn’t rocket science. So I am done with hints, you should be able to figure it out. But it’s one thing I have learned if you tell someone too much they wind up telling your story as if it was their own. That’s how you end up with too many :Airborne Rangers”.