Just What Am I?
I describe my political position as "center right", (I consider the far right to be the survivalists, the "sovereign citizens", the various racial supremacy groups, and nuts like Phelps). Yet some people think I am an extemist because I do not support same-sex marriage, consider abortion to be murder, and believe that while a general seperation of church and state is a good thing, an absolute seperation is not possible, because a person's beliefs will inescapably color their politics.
I read the speeches and beliefs of John F Kennedy, who was considered a Liberal in his day and find what appears to me to be a kindred spirit. In those days a liberal was someone who cared about those less fortunate than themselves, treated racial and ethnic minorities as equals and treated women with a bit more respect. In that more civilized time liberals and conservatives agreed on the moral, ethical, and international issues and they were considered givens. I would have been considered a liberal up until the time of the anti-war movement.
During the Vietnam Conflict, the definition of liberal began to move away from the treatment of one's fellow man and moved toward an anti-war (or at least an anti-American-victory) mindset and a loosening of sexual standards. During this time period a person with my beliefs would have been considered a "Moderate".
As the 80s progressed, those who believed in the values that were shared by Conservatives and Liberals during the 50s began to be considered "Conservative" and now we are "Right Wing Nuts"
I can really feel for the pseudo-William Jennings Bryan character in the movie Inherit the Wind when the faux-Darrow character told him, "We used to be good friends, but you abandoned me by standing still."
I would take that as a compliment. I would consider it the mark of steadfast character.
I am a 1950s liberal, a 1970s moderate, and a 1990s conservative. As long as the definitions refuse to stand still, the words that describe me will change. Hopefully the person at the center of it all will not.
I read the speeches and beliefs of John F Kennedy, who was considered a Liberal in his day and find what appears to me to be a kindred spirit. In those days a liberal was someone who cared about those less fortunate than themselves, treated racial and ethnic minorities as equals and treated women with a bit more respect. In that more civilized time liberals and conservatives agreed on the moral, ethical, and international issues and they were considered givens. I would have been considered a liberal up until the time of the anti-war movement.
During the Vietnam Conflict, the definition of liberal began to move away from the treatment of one's fellow man and moved toward an anti-war (or at least an anti-American-victory) mindset and a loosening of sexual standards. During this time period a person with my beliefs would have been considered a "Moderate".
As the 80s progressed, those who believed in the values that were shared by Conservatives and Liberals during the 50s began to be considered "Conservative" and now we are "Right Wing Nuts"
I can really feel for the pseudo-William Jennings Bryan character in the movie Inherit the Wind when the faux-Darrow character told him, "We used to be good friends, but you abandoned me by standing still."
I would take that as a compliment. I would consider it the mark of steadfast character.
I am a 1950s liberal, a 1970s moderate, and a 1990s conservative. As long as the definitions refuse to stand still, the words that describe me will change. Hopefully the person at the center of it all will not.
posted by shoprat at 6:00 PM
2 Comments:
I think I fit into the same categories as you. I started parting company with the liberals in the Sixties with their peacenik nonsense and finished with them in the Seventies when they began their abortion obsession.
I think I am a "progressive conservative". Bush and co. are not conservatives at all, but right wing reactionaries. They are not off the deep end like the Freemen and other real wackos, but I am very uncomfortable with thier rhetoric. They seem to want to pull the rug out from under the working man and create a Mexico like country north of the border. Like you have said in earlier posts, Michigan is purple in the sense that moral issues and such we are like red states, but in worker's rights, supporting families and education, we are blue. And that's just the way I like it.
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