So You Call Yourself A Liberal

So You Call Yourself a Liberal? My primary grievance with Limbaugh, Coulter, Savage, et al, is that they dumby down political discourse. Liberalism vs. conservatism is a classic false dichotomy. Truth and clarity are sacrificed on the altar of commerce. The Lib bashers apply a pro wrestling formula of good guys and bad guys who cheat to all matters philosophical.

Warning. I am going to link you to Wikipedia. But this concise explanation of liberalism is accurate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism. "Liberalism (from the Latin liberalis)[1] is a broad political ideology or worldview founded on the ideas of liberty and equality."

Ich bin auch ein small l liberal. I believe deeply in liberty and equality under the law (as opposed to a contrived equality orchestrated by elitist thugs.) Interestingly, Milton Friedman referred to himself as a "classical liberal." John Stossel is the only other person I know of who uses that self-description.

If I am a clssical anything, it is a classical couch potato. I cannot use the lofty moniker that great men like Friedman and Stossel use. But I will say that I am both liberal and conservative (both lower case.) Barack Obama on the other hand, is neither. I am liberal in the sense that I believe in the significance of the individual and that I am open-minded. I am conservative in the sense that I respect traditions, customs and institutions that have served us in the past.

I am conservative in that I have grown more respectful of traditional religion over time. For every Fred Phelps and Jack Chick and relgious pedophile, there are thousands of people who upgrade their character via Christianity. Most hospitals were founded by religious organizations. So too were many institutions of higher learning. And Christians were fighting third world famine a century before Bill Gates or Bono were born.

I am conservative in that I believe our forefathers were wise men whose wisdom flourishes with each passing year. Our founding fathers' masterpiece was the US Constitution. Feel free to dismiss them as genocidal slave owners but many of them were abolitionists ahead of their time. Benjamin Franklin started an orphanage for black children in Philadelphia (maybe we can book him on a segregation rap.) John Adams was a fire-breathing liberal who served as defense attorney for the British soldiers who participated in the Boston Massacre. The constant theme of "am I doing the right thing?" runs through the biographies of our founders and is reflected today in our Constitution.

I am conservative in that I believe in the notion of common sense. Political correctness destroys common sense. It cripples our minds. If we don't call it jihad...ohhhh. The Fort Hood massacre would not have happened in an era when common sense was common. A soldier, an officer yet, who kept an ongoing correspondence with enemies of America would have been dealt with swiftly and harshly. Good people would have been saved and we would all have been spared the insulting "workplace violence" explanation.

Most importantly I am fiscally conservative. That is to say, I endorse public fiscal responsibility. Here it gets semantically tricky because if we refer back to the original definition of liberalsim, it would include fiscal responsibility (fiscal conservatism.) I believe wholeheartedly that fiscal conservatism is incompatible with social conservatism (a bureaucratic agenda advanced mostly by nominal Christians.) As such, I generally ignore the culture war hot button issues.

Obama is neither liberal nor conservative. In the words of Bill Clinton, "He is a Chicago thug." If we were to place Obama somewhere along the political spectrum, we would probably seat him with the fascists. But even fascists have principles. Obama's blind lust for power trumps morals, principles and even his rigid ideology. To assign philosphical values to this man would be like analyzing the moral influences or a street gang, a swarm of locusts or a pack of sharks. "I'm getting mine and you can eat your principles!" The 2008 slogan "Yes We Can" would be a diabolical omen.

Let's conclude this with an open question to everyone who has ever called themselves liberal. I believe wholeheartedly that liberals should oppose Obama and all he stand for as vehemently as conservatives oppose him. So here is a question to all my friends who think of themselves as fair and open-minded and enlightened: Do you object to the Obama Administration's use of the IRS to harass nascent Tea Party organizations? If you were disgusted with Nixon's abuses of power, are you also disgusted with Obama's abuses of power? Please answer.

Did I say one question? One more question: Are you disturbed at the Obama DOJ's blatant intimidation of Romney donors? OK, my enlightened, fair-minded, good taste in all things cultural and culinary, conspicuously compassionate, smarter than the unwashed masses, root for the underdog, liberal friends: Can you embrace Obama's flagrant abuses of power and still call yourself a liberal?