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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
at least for the next four years cuz who knows what form of Marxism will follow card checks as capitalism goes away. Hooray for Hollywood and George Soros.
i have always been a real american who loves my country. socialist, queer and damn proud of it! i'd say that's kinda liberal.
I've never stopped proclaiming that I'm a lifelong liberal Democrat. It would be fun to have a little more company.
Is this an age-related debate?
My political and social views and values have not shifted dramatically since I entered college, but the labels have varied. I have always been comfortable to describe myself as either "Liberal" or "Progressive". The word "liberal" to me always connoted "OPEN-minded", and I resented greatly that Ronald Reagan's frightened misunderstanding of either concept led to the "nasti-fication" of the term. On the other hand, I was born into the FDR era and grew up with admiration of the "progressive" movement as he played it out, and found that label perfectly descriptive uin connoting "moving forward" rather than "looking backward" (conservative).
Why generate argument about it? Why not seek to make BOTH labels "badges of pride"?
[Incidentally, as a retired professional psychologist, I am a lifetime member of APA & have always respected John Dewey -- but that does not mean I have agreed with everything he wrote or represented.]
Congratulations, Toriatama, for a passionate and very well-reasoned defence of Ho Chi Minh.
Now there will be idiots here who will call you a "Marxist", a "Comunist", a "thief" and stuff like that - but the fact is that you just believe in freedom of people (the Vietnamese, for instance) to choose whatever it is they want to be (even if they happen to make a mistake in their choice) - and not to be dictated to by the US as represented by the likes of GW Bush and Gang (and other predecessors of his).
It is too sad indeed that the US ever got involved in Vietnam because of Henry Kissinger and his utterly idiotic "Domino Theory": the Vietnamese only wanted to be free of French colonial misrule of their nation - and John F. Kennedy and his ridiculous ideas pushed them into the communist camp.
--- GSC
That's how the right wing has been trashing liberals since before Nixon. Racism was the tip of the knife they've succeeded in plunging into our backs. With Obama's election, the knife has been blunted. Let's reclaim the L word, indeed.
This is a long post, widely available on the Web, but it's worth reading:
A day in the life of Joe Republican
http://www.syrculturalworkers.com/...
Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards.
With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to insure their safety and that they work as advertised.
All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too.
He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.
Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air.
He walks to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.
Joe begins his workday. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards.
Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.
It's noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.
Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime.
Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards.
He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans. The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.
He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.
Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."
****
To this I would add, Joe goes to vote and says hello to his black neighbors and female neighbors, who are standing in line because liberals fought for the right of blacks and women to vote, which conservatives opposed. J
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
