Why is it bad to be too liberal but okay to be too conservative?

[romantico]

Okay, a discussion with friends last night. They said both Gore & Kerry were just too liberal & Americans didn't like that. I said if they are considered too liberal wouldn't you have to say Bush is too conservative? They didn't really have an answer. So my question is this. WHy is it okay to be too conservative but not too liberal? ANyone?

[livebait]

1. Simple

The conservative spin machine is much more effective.

Also, in many social contexts it IS bad to be conservative.

[Zorra]

4. I agree, except that now we can change it to "was more effective".

Bush and the crew are giving conservatives are getting a really bad name, and liberal talk radio is starting to kick ass.

[livebait]

25. You're being optomistic

I see no reason to believe that we have caught up with the conservative spin machine. You'd think that Bush and crew would be giving them a bad name, but I thought that last year, and it didn't help us much in November. And I don't think I know anyone that listens to liberal talk radio (not that that means much, I certainly don't know anyone that listens to conservative talk radio).

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

2. I think it's because

most people don't know what the word liberal really stands for......

[FreedomAngel82]

7. Exactly

The republicans have made the word liberal out to be a dirty word.

[ellenfl]

3. that's just the way the rw has framed the issues. the lw

needs to do some issue framing of our own.

ellen fl

[Roland99]

5. Because liberals want to spend other peoples' money on social programs

while conservatives want to spend other peoples' money on the military.

And, we all know Jesus favored fighting over helping the poor.







Oh wait....

[etherealtruth]

8. Please don't forget corporate "welfare" ...

Jesus was much more sympathetic to the plight of corporations than to the plight of insignificant individuals-----I know this to be fact because this is how the excellent "Christian" president of the U.S. conducts himself.

[Roland99]

10. Oh yeah...liberals just have the wrong type of welfare at heart

Silly liberals.

[orwell]

6. Dare to Be Different...

There are more people in the US who consider themselves conservative than liberal, while the bulk of US citizens consider themselves neither - middle of the road. So there is a statistical majority that tilts the population away from identification as liberal.

If you think about it, liberalism, as a close cousin to utopianism, will always be in the minority. To be a liberal requires free thinking and a idealistic embrace of change. In fact it requires courage. Most people are afraid of change as it implies a threat to the current order, one which for many has provided them with not only their social/material existence, but the cauldron of their identity. It is much safer to rely on that which has brought you to this point in your evolution than to question the very social fabric from which you are cut.

If you are liberal, you are structurally in the minority, permanently. Embrace it. Dare to be different.

[LiberalPersona]

22. I don't know what you're talking about

The majority of the entire world is left leaning, the only country that isn't going in a generally progressive direction is the US. We are most certainly not a minority, we're a silent majority until such time as leaders start reaching far too much with their power and then we uprise in a violent revolution. It's a neverending repeating pattern.

[orwell]

23. Definitions

First of all I said the "US". I have never seen statistics on how the world's populations identify themselves. I would guess that they would not be much different than how the US population identifies themselves.

Just to get our terms straight, I don't view the term progressive as the same as liberal. I am fundamentally a liberal, but I am also a progressive. I see liberalism in the classical sense, not in its modern degraded connotation. To me, the embodiment of liberalism is liberty, within the framework of justice for all.

I view progressivism as a pragmatic concept, that which embraces solution-oriented ideas as opposed to ideological ones. That is why I can consider myself both liberal and progressive. I approach philosophy from a liberal perspective, but problem solving from a progressive one.

Conservatism, as I define it, is the embrace as the institutional status quo, no matter what its fundamental origins - for example the "evolved" nature of so-called free market economics. While current free-market economics as espoused and embraced by conservatives has little to do with the free-market theories of one of its founders Adam Smith, it is this evolved bastardization which is lionized simply because it is the de facto modern day system as defined by global elite capitalists.

I believe that most support the status quo, unless they are threatened by it. It is in the nature of animals, tied to Maslow's hierarchies of primitive needs for water, food and shelter, to do what works. Novelty is a threat to existing social institutions, which as you correctly note are occasionally overcome by "revolutions." But these revolutionary events are tied to great social, political, and economic upheavals. This is necessary to overcome the natural fear of change. In essence, people believe if it ain't broke don't fix it.

This is why liberal/Utopians will always be in the structural minority. They look at change differently than most. In essence, they are less bound by fear than intrigued by wonder.

[loveable liberal]

9. its a question of safety.

The status quo is safe, and known. Even if its terrible at least people know what they have. Liberalism means change and change is the great unknown. People fear that. Liberalism is also infinite whereas conservativism is finite.

[JohnnyRingo]

11. Good point....These republicans are very good with words.

They paint themselves as "center right" (Cheney's description) no matter how far right they are, and describe anyone to the left of them as "far right.

They've labeled centrists and progressives as "far left liberals" and portrayed them as everthing that's wrong with America, making the word "liberal" an exercise in name calling.

To the people who sign on to the "center right" stance I ask: "What admin was more right wing than this one"? Who could POSSIBLY be more reactionary than Sean Hannity?

Even Pat Buchanan appears to the left of these self proclaimed "conservatives".

[livebait]

17. That's true

How many real left-wing radicals are there left in popular American discourse today? By eliminating the radical lft, the conservative movement is now able to cast figures such as Dean, Gore or Kerry as extremists of some sort. While I personally would not consider myself to be much of a radical (I'm slightly left of the aforementioned democrats on most issues), it's my sincere hope that we CAN develop an intellectually rigorous, well-organized and unapologetic left-wing, something that I think American politics is lacking recently (where is the left-wing Heritage foundation?). My only worry about such a course of action is that it will just lead to the increased polarization of the discourse... but the conservatives are quite willing to do that on their own.

[JohnnyRingo]

26. VERY well put.... n/t

[FreedomAngel82]

19. Don't forget

that if you are conservative then usually people think you're also Christian of some form (Catholic, Methodist etc) and if you're liberal people don't think that you're of any religion even though that's so not true. Typical sterotyping.

[forgethell]

12. It's not

bad. It just doesn't win elections.

[Selteri]

13. Simple, The So Called Liberal Media

Thyey accuse the So Called Liberal Media of trying to make them look like Monsters...

so when they look like Monsters everyone blames the media even though they really are Monsters.

[ariellyn]

14. You should have had them DEFINE liberal...the RW'ers often

throw these meaningless words around without thinking. I think they would be at a loss for words if askd to define the meaning of liberal OR conservative.

[Terran]

16. Yes, exactly--especially considering

that neither Kerry nor Dean is all *that* liberal to begin with.

[rman]

15. Conservatives think it's bad to be liberal,

but what did you expect?

Through their domination of the MSM they have managed to convince the moderate majority that liberals are extremists and that to be moderate means to be conservative - or at least to vote republican.

[cynatnite]

18. It's easy to make some issues either right or wrong

The repubs took a right or wrong stance and stuck to it no matter how many shades of grey there are underneath it.

Turning it into a bumper sticker slogan or applying religion to it made it simpler and much easier.

And lets not forget the fear factor thrown in for good measure.

[ailsagirl]

20. You're trying to be logical-- it doesn't compute with rethugs n/t

[quiet.american]

21. Because FAUX News says so. n/t

[VOX]

24. You can "thank" Newt Gingrich for this...

Actually, the term "liberal" has been demonized by the right for decades now, but it was Newt who sent out the directive GOP office-holders to really drag it through the gutter whenever possible, and to make negative-word connections with such phrases as "tax and spend," "higher taxes," "big government," etc., etc.

A clear-cut case of creating and repeating a lie often enough that it rings "true "to the uninitiated.