What it means to be a liberal ...
A friend sent me this via email...
Subject: Amen
"Liberal policies made America the freest, wealthiest, most successful and
most powerful
nation in human history. Conservatism in power always threatens to undo
that national
progress, and is almost always frustrated by the innate decency and
democratic instincts
of the American people...
If your workplace is safe; if your children go to school rather than being
forced into labor;
if you are paid a living wage, including overtime; if you enjoy a 40-hour
week and you are
allowed to join a union to protect your rights -- you can thank liberals.
If your food is not
poisoned and your water is drinkable -- you can thank liberals. If your
parents are eligible
for Medicare and Social Security, so they can grow old in dignity without
bankrupting your
family -- you can thank liberals. If our rivers are getting cleaner and our
air isn't black with
pollution; if our wilderness is protected and our countryside is still
green -- you can thank liberals.
If people of all races can share the same public facilities; if everyone
has the right to vote;
if couples fall in love and marry regardless of race; if we have finally
begun to transcend a
segregated society -- you can thank liberals. Progressive innovations like
those and so many
others were achieved by long, difficult struggles against entrenched power.
What defined
conservatism, and conservatives, was their opposition to every one of those
advances.
The country we know and love today was built by those victories for
liberalism -- with the
support of the American people.
-- Joe Conason
and my response:
yes, but doesn't it bother you that at least in some ways we're beginning to backslide? Or maybe we're all taking these things for granted. Like workplace safety rules, for example. Or civil rights laws. There was a website I saw recently about what the perspective would be for a member of the college graduating class of 2006. These kids would have all been born around 1985. Which means, for example, that in their own experience, Michael Jackson was never a black man! It was filled with pop culture stuff like that but reading this list, I realize that people born after a certain year would take for granted every one of these things that required great struggle against entrenched power. Is that what conservatives do- prey on people's short memories and our lousy educational system that doesn't teach kids the bloody battles that previous generations had to fight to secure these rights because teachers are afraid of being accused of liberal bias?
I think Americans think that all these advances were just handed down to them on a silver platter. And since the airwaves are now filled with hardly anything but right wing vitriol, they're all getting a skewed portrait of what goes on in this country. Like, how many cable news programs are devoted to the opinion and voices of the labor movement compared to how many Wall St. investment programs clutter the channels? None, right? The likes of Rupert Murdoch and AOL-Time-Warner-Lockheed-Halliburton just keep pounding away, discrediting the liberal movement until people wake up and say, "yeah, those lousy liberals, all they want to do is spend my money, I'm voting for Bush." But you have to hand it to the Right, they've sure sold the American people a bill of goods, haven't they?
A friend sent me this via email...
Subject: Amen
"Liberal policies made America the freest, wealthiest, most successful and
most powerful
nation in human history. Conservatism in power always threatens to undo
that national
progress, and is almost always frustrated by the innate decency and
democratic instincts
of the American people...
If your workplace is safe; if your children go to school rather than being
forced into labor;
if you are paid a living wage, including overtime; if you enjoy a 40-hour
week and you are
allowed to join a union to protect your rights -- you can thank liberals.
If your food is not
poisoned and your water is drinkable -- you can thank liberals. If your
parents are eligible
for Medicare and Social Security, so they can grow old in dignity without
bankrupting your
family -- you can thank liberals. If our rivers are getting cleaner and our
air isn't black with
pollution; if our wilderness is protected and our countryside is still
green -- you can thank liberals.
If people of all races can share the same public facilities; if everyone
has the right to vote;
if couples fall in love and marry regardless of race; if we have finally
begun to transcend a
segregated society -- you can thank liberals. Progressive innovations like
those and so many
others were achieved by long, difficult struggles against entrenched power.
What defined
conservatism, and conservatives, was their opposition to every one of those
advances.
The country we know and love today was built by those victories for
liberalism -- with the
support of the American people.
-- Joe Conason
and my response:
yes, but doesn't it bother you that at least in some ways we're beginning to backslide? Or maybe we're all taking these things for granted. Like workplace safety rules, for example. Or civil rights laws. There was a website I saw recently about what the perspective would be for a member of the college graduating class of 2006. These kids would have all been born around 1985. Which means, for example, that in their own experience, Michael Jackson was never a black man! It was filled with pop culture stuff like that but reading this list, I realize that people born after a certain year would take for granted every one of these things that required great struggle against entrenched power. Is that what conservatives do- prey on people's short memories and our lousy educational system that doesn't teach kids the bloody battles that previous generations had to fight to secure these rights because teachers are afraid of being accused of liberal bias?
I think Americans think that all these advances were just handed down to them on a silver platter. And since the airwaves are now filled with hardly anything but right wing vitriol, they're all getting a skewed portrait of what goes on in this country. Like, how many cable news programs are devoted to the opinion and voices of the labor movement compared to how many Wall St. investment programs clutter the channels? None, right? The likes of Rupert Murdoch and AOL-Time-Warner-Lockheed-Halliburton just keep pounding away, discrediting the liberal movement until people wake up and say, "yeah, those lousy liberals, all they want to do is spend my money, I'm voting for Bush." But you have to hand it to the Right, they've sure sold the American people a bill of goods, haven't they?
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