How LIBERAL are you? (Poll)

[itzamirakul]

How much do YOU BELIEVE and VALUE the following statement?

"The common wealth of all Americans should be used for the common good and betterment of ALL Americans."

Please add a note to tell why you feel as you do.

[ixion]

1. since when does liberal mean communist?

I guess that's not how I really define liberal.

[sabate]

2. First, define liberalism....NT

[sabate]

5. Do you mean classical liberalism or New Deal liberalism? NT

[itzamirakul]

8. It is YOUR opinion of the meaning of LIBERAL that matters, not mine

Your own inner belief and values that create liberal leanings in YOU are what make you decide how you feel about the question.

To me...and this is not a standard, equality, sharing, individual freedom, care for the common good make up my core beliefs of liberalism. I wasn't talking about some high-falutin' academic standard...just your gut feeling.

[sabate]

9. So each person can have a idiosyncratic definition,

making discussion of this issue completely irrelevant and meaningless.

[katinmn]

3. A liberal is a person whose interests aren't at stake at the moment.

And a few more from some great thinkers....The theme seems to be that conservatives take the great ideas of liberals and try to regiment them.

Liberals are very broadminded: they are always willing to give careful consideration to both sides of the same side.
Anonymous

I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad. I seek to preserve property and to respect order, and I equally decry the appeal to the passions of the many or the prejudices of the few.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881), campaign speech at High Wycombe, England, November 27, 1832

The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.
Hannah Arendt (1906 - 1975)

The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Notebook, 1935

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 - 1968)

It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.
Robert Anton Wilson

A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.
Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)

I never dared to be radical when young
For fear it would make me conservative when old.
Robert Frost (1874 - 1963), 'Ten Mills,' A Further Range, 1936

A liberal is a person whose interests aren't at stake at the moment.
Willis Player

[wake.up.america]

7. Liberals are people who can see beyond the end of their nose

Liberals are people who can see beyond the end of their nose, they are people who have an holistic approach to life. They recognize that we all live on this planet together. There is cause and effect. Liberals recognize we do not live in a vacuum. Dogmatic behavior is not being liberal.

Problems for other people can and often affect those who either sit by or create those problems.

Example: I want my kids to live in a safe world. I know these "terrorists" will continue to create problems unless the root causes are addressed.

A conservative does not think beyond the end of his nose. He believes it is possible to ignore the root causes. Attacking the these "terrorists" is their "solution".


Example: Helping those in 3rd world countries will reduce the possibility of violence those countries.

Killing in the name of the state solves no problems, in fact it creates more problems. so, why does it continue? Because we feel helpless. How about using common sense?


If not just for moral reasons, there is a practical reason to be a liberal. It works!!

Example: I am not in favor of abortions, but I recognize criminalizing abortions will make, in my mind, a bad situation worse.

Hopefully, I made some sense here.

[willing dwarf]

4. Common wealth means

minerals, water, air, open space, natural resources. So private hydroelectric companies couldn't damn rivers and block them from flowing down stream. And shorelines couldn't be owned by real estate developers.

Seems like the Native Americans knew how to do live that way. Now it's hardly a dream memory.

Still, no-bid gov't contracts to haliburton etc are just pouring the common welath into the private hands of a very few.

Guess I'm 100% liberal being opposed to that non-sense. Hey, it's un-American what Haliburton & Bechtel get up to.

[tavalon]

6. I think you need to further define what a liberal is

I call myself a stark raving bleeding heart liberal but I might have a completely different definition from you. I think I lean toward being a socialist overall.

[PDJane]

10. I'm a liberal......

You, you aristocrat, won't know exactly what I mean by that.
I mean so altruistically moral,
I never take my own side in a quarrel..

Robert Frost
The Lesson for Today.


(Sorry, I couldn't resist.....that bit of poetry has been running through my head since the beginning of the thread)

I believe, and heartily, that the world's resources belong to all, and not just the strongest. It is our responsibility to elect people who respect the need of all people to have food and water and shelter and education.

[itzamirakul]

11. Thanks for sharing the Frost...

It hit just the right spot on this thread. :)