What was so EVIL bout these Liberals ?  ( all of whom struggled against the "Conservatives" of their day  .) Jesus of Nazareth, and the many other Biblical prophets of liberation,   –  who for centuries have been promoting the idea that all kinds of people should be liberated from all manner of oppression and injustice? See LiberalslikeJesus.Org/Christlike.html. A grateful nation's tribute to the greatest presidents, of the U.S. A. – all famous for their liberalism -. Our Revolutionary forefathers, who fought to liberate at least white land-owning men from England's kings (although they failed to liberate people of other colors, and thought so poorly of their own womenfolk that it would take another 130 years before American women would be allowed to vote or hold office) ? (the Conservatives of that generation were called "loyalists" because they wanted the colonists to remain loyal subjects to their British king). The revolutionary heroes in so many other countries, who fought similar battles for freedom (liberation) of their oppressed peoples? Abraham Lincoln and many other early Republican liberals, who risked and often lost their lives to liberate America's black people from slavery before and during our Civil War? (the Christian conservatives of that time wanted to continue justifying their making their living off of the labor of their slaves). Our feminist pioneers, Elizabeth Caty Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, who fought Conservatives for 70 years to get America's women the right to vote? Mahatma Gandhi, who showed the world how to actually put into practice the non-violence that Christ had preached, in what is now the largest democracy in the world and in all of human history? Tommy Douglas, a liberal former Baptist preacher who became his country's most progressive premiers and was voted "the greatest Canadian of all time" by his countrymen in 2002.   (Of the ten other greatest, numbers 3 & 6 were liberal Prime Ministers – Pierre Elliott Trudeau & Lester B. Pearson – while the only conservative politician on the list was Sir John A. Macdonald, the very first person to fill the position of Prime Minister, in the 1860's.) ;nbsp; See http://www.cbc.ca/greatest/ ) The World War II generations, who fought to liberate Jews, Poles, the French, the English, and just about every body else in Europe from Nazi and then from Communist tyranny? (the conservatives of that generation wanted us to stay home and let other nations fend for themselves). Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, who did so much to promote progressive causes which the Republican party rejected, and the Democratic Party of Franklin D. Roosevelt embraced? Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt, (together with his second Vice President, Henry Wallace) who did so much to help those Americans most in need of help? Eleanor Roosevelt, who was the very personification of liberalism and was voted the most admired woman in the world for eleven years in a row, long after her husband, Franklin, was no longer president of the United States? Helen Keller, who became more and more liberal after "her eyes were open" so to speak. Nelson Mandella, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who have done much to liberate both white and black people own day in South Africa? The "Greensborough Five" (Communist) martyrs, who died for fighting for trying to unionize black and white workers in North Carolina, on November 3, 1979, at the hands of "Christian" NAZI and KKK rioters. The many great Labor Leaders of America, who were responsible for so many improvements in working conditions that we now take for granted. People like Raoul Wallenberg, who risked and eventually lost his life to save Jews from the Holocaust and may have succeeded in saving 100,000 of them. The liberals of all colors who have been fighting and dying since the Civil War, under the leadership of people like Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Paul Robeson, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. , Robert Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Cesar Chavez to liberate the descendents of black slaves and more recent immigrants from discrimination through peaceful but revolutionary legislative efforts? Many of these liberals fought for different causes, but what they all had in common was a love of some of the neediest of their fellow men and women that drove them to feel their suffering as though it was their very own and to fight with all of their being to liberate those victims of oppression and exploitation.  And what did those oppressors all have in common?  A desire to preserve and perpetuate their privileged status and/or unjust domination. Note how many of our best presidents were clearly liberals, and how many of our worst presidents were clearly conservatives:

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. had good reason to call JESUS "the world's most famous LIBERAL" See LiberalsLikeChrist.Org/about/kingdream.html. P         Jesus set forth ideals of liberalism so high that most people can't achieve them  and many of his so-called followers have turned their backs on those ideals and have chosen instead to follow the easy, extremely conservative path pioneered by Paul of Tarsus.  See LiberalsLikeChrist.Org/salvation         People like George W. Bush, on the other hand, despise "liberals".  Are these not words that Karl Rove could have written for George to proclaim as his?         "The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests.  It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality.  Today Christians stand at the head of our country.  We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit.  We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press-in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during recent years."         Adolf Hitler. ( in his first radio address to the German people after coming to power July 22, 1933; from My New Order, The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, 1922-1939, Vol. 1, pp. 871-872, Oxford University Press,London, 1942.)         Anyone who hates liberals is in questionable company.  I challenge anyone to take the short quiz below.  It challenges the reader to guess which of 14 liberal-bashing quotations are from Adolf Hitler and which from Ann Coulter.  All you have to do to beat my score is to be right half the time! www.people.virginia.edu/~jac3he/GiveUpQuiz/gradequiz.php         The following table is taken from the conservative site quoted above, showing the kinds of people they don't want to be associated with.  We liberals thank them for assembling such a great "honor roll" of liberals (although we might quibble over a few of the entries).

Famous Quotes on Liberalism vs. Conservatism

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Just as the "Declaration of Independence" and the U.S. Constitution (both based on the principle stated above), were extraordinary triumphs of liberalism, so too is  The United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights for which Eleanor Roosevelt deserves so much credit.

"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark. The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." – Plato "Not to know is bad; not to wish to know is worse." – Nigerian Proverb "Truth is arrived at by the painstaking process of eliminating the untrue." – Sherlock Holmes, (Arthur Conan Doyle) "Once expanded to the dimensions of a larger idea, [the mind] never returns to its original size." – Oliver Wendell Holmes "We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. " – John F. Kennedy "Were it left to me to have a government with no newspapers, or newspapers with no government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." "Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind; for I can apply no milder term... to the general prey of the rich upon the poor." "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." "When the government fears the people, that is liberty. When the people fear the government, that is tyranny." – Thomas Jefferson – "The Republic will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work, to give to those who would not. -Thomas Jefferson ( As great as Jefferson was in many respects, conservatives who quote these words of his don't seem to appreciate the irony of a white man who had black slaves doing all of his dirty work condemning people like himself.) "A conservative is a man who sits and thinks," he once wrote, "but mainly sits." – President Woodrow Wilson – "Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." – Will Rogers – "Life is lived forwards, but understood backwards." – Søren Kierkegaard – "When I tell the truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those that do" - William Blake "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." – George Orwell – "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. " & "Liberalism is, I think, resurgent. One reason is that more and more people are so painfully aware of the alternative." – John Kenneth Galbraith –         In his study of American politics, historian Alexis de Tocqueville praised the openness of our democratic system, but warned:that         "There will come a time when the rich and powerful try to kick the door closed." "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you angry." – Aldous Huxley –         As the ruthless campaign manager and GOP chairman of the 70's and 80's, Lee Atwater did for Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan's and George Bush Sr's what Karl Rove did for George W. Bush. When he was stricken with brain cancer in 1991, however, he had a deathbed conversion and said :         "My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood. The '80s were about acquiring — acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn't I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn't I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don't know who will lead us through the '90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul." (in a February 1991 article for Life Magazine )         "I was wrong to follow the meanness of Conservatism. I should have been trying to help people instead of take advantage of them. I don't hate anyone anymore. For the first time in my life I don't hate somebody. I have nothing but good feelings toward people. I've found Jesus Christ – It's that simple. He's made a difference." "Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives." – John Stuart Mill –         " I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative.  I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it.  Suppose any party, in addition to whatever share it may possess of the ability of the community, has nearly the whole of its stupidity, that party must, by the law of its constitution, be the stupidest party; and I do not see why honorable gentlemen should see that position as at all offensive to them, for it ensures their being always an extremely powerful party . . .  There is so much dense, solid force in sheer stupidity, that any body of able men with that force pressing behind them may ensure victory in many a struggle, and many a victory the Conservative party has gained through that power."   – John Stuart Mill ( British philosopher, economist, and liberal member of Parliament for Westminster from 1865 to 68 ). "Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear." ( Dictionary : tempered="made less intense or violent" William Gladstone ( four-time Prime Minister of Great Britain.) "Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph." – Haile Selassie I "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."   & "When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative."   & "Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. . . We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people." Letter from Birmingham Jail, Jan. 1963   & "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" Martin Luther King,  a model "Liberal Like Christ". "The moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life – the sick, the needy, and the handicapped." – Hubert H. Humphrey – "All truth passes through three stages: first, it is ridiculed; second, it is violently opposed; and third, it is accepted as self-evident". (the German philosopher,   Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) "A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel." - Robert Frost - "A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future." – Leonard Bernstein – "Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." – Mark Twain – "Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." – George Washington – "All men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one Workman; and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince." – Plato "That liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone." – Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 1798. "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." & “These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people” – Abraham Lincoln – "Service is the rent we pay for the life we have been given." – Marian Wright Edelman – "All power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton, one of the England's greatest Catholic liberal thinkers, in a letter to fellow Catholic, Bishop Mandell Creighton, 1887 On November 28, 1972, the New York Post reported these words, written by Albert Einstein :         "A human being is a part of the whole, called by us the 'Universe,' a part limited in time and space.  He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.- " (the essence of "conservatism) "This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection to a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. (the essence of "liberalism")   Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security." "The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." – Albert Einstein – "First, each person should enjoy equally a full array of basic liberties. Second, public policy should raise as high as possible the social and economic well-being of society's worst-off individuals." – John Rawls, political philosopher, in A Theory of Justice. " I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." – Thomas Jefferson "They that can give up essential liberty for a little safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." – Benjamin Franklin – "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." – William Butler Yeats' poem,The Second Coming, "The virtues of men are of more consequence to society than their abilities, and for this reason, the heart should be cultivated with more assiduity than the head." – Noah Webster "For in every city (nation) these two opposite parties (people vs aristocracy) are to be found, arising from the desire of the populace to avoid oppression of the great, and the desire of the great to command and oppress the people. . . " When the nobility see that they are unable to resist (control) the people, they come together (organize) to exalt one of their number and make him a prince, so as to be able to carry out their own designs under the shadow of his authority." (Machiavelli, The Prince, ch. IX) "In a Democracy, it is the indigent, rather than the men of property,  who are the rulers."   & "It is also in the interests of a tyrant to keep his people poor, so that they may not be able to afford the cost of protecting themselves by arms and be so occupied with their daily tasks that they have no time for rebellion." "Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved." Aristotle "A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side."   Aristotle "The majestic equality of the law forbids the rich, as well as the poor, to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." Anatole France "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.  With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do." – Ralph Waldo Emerson – "In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant." & "In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country, or the electorate.  I prefer to betray the electorate." – President Charles De Gaulle – No Man is an Island : John Dunne's Meditation XVII:         "All mankind is of one author, and is one volume.  When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated . . .  As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come.  So this bell calls us all; but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness.         No man is an island, entire of itself;  every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.  If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were.  Any man's death diminishes me,  for I am involved in mankind, and therefore  never send to know for whom the bell tolls;  it tolls for thee." – John Donne –   (1572-1631) "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss – "As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality." President George Washington on liberalism: "Unless you become more watchful in your States and check this spirit of monopoly and thirst for exclusive privileges, you will in the end find that the most important powers of Government have been given or bartered away, and the control of your dearest interests have been passed into the hands of these corporations." Andrew Jackson's farewell address, 4 March 1837.         The following is a video made of Douglas' own voice in 1962 of a famous speech made by Canada's most respected person, the beloved liberal Premier, Tommy Douglas, about a fictitious"Mouseland".         "Should any political party attempt to abolish Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid." Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower (in a letter to his brother Edgar on November 8, 1954)         "...liberalism is our best and only hope in the world today.  For the liberal society is a free society, and it is at the same time and for that reason a strong society.  Its strength is drawn from the will of free people committed to great ends and peacefully striving to meet them.  Only liberalism, in short, can repair our national power, restore our national purpose, and liberate our national energies.         What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label 'liberal?'  If by 'liberal' they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "liberal."         But if by a "liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people – their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties – someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a 'liberal,'  then I'm proud to say I'm a 'liberal.' " President John F. Kennedy, On liberalism . . .         "Democrats (I think to myself) are liberals who believe the people are basically good, but that they need government help to organize their lives. They believe in freedom so fervently that they think it should be compulsory. They believe that the poor and ignorant are victims of an unfair system and that their circumstances can be improved if we give them help.         Republicans (I think to myself) are conservatives who think it would be best if we faced the fact that people are no damned good. They think that if we admit that we have selfish, acquisitive natures and then set out to get all we can for ourselves by working hard for it, that things will be better for everyone. They are not insensitive to the poor, but tend to think the poor are impoverished because they won't work. They think there would be fewer of them to feel sorry for if the government did not encourage the proliferation of the least fit among us with welfare programs." Andy Rooney: From 1901 until 1906, Robert M. La Follette served as Governor of Wisconsin. While governor, he was a member of "the Party of Lincoln" when that party still had remnants of liberalism in it. He championed numerous progressive reforms, including the first workers' compensation system, railroad rate reform, direct legislation, municipal home rule, open government, the minimum wage, non-partisan elections, the open primary system, direct election of U.S. Senators, women's suffrage, and progressive taxation.         But he was too liberal for the Republican Party of his day and eventually started the "Progressive Party", as there was little room in either major party of his time for true liberals or progressives.         La Follette spent the remainder of his life, from 1906 until his death in 1925, in the United States Senate, where he strongly opposed U.S. involvement in World War I, and campaigned for child labor laws, social security, women's suffrage, and other progressive reforms. He opposed the prosecution of Eugene V. Debs and other opponents of the war and played a key role in initiating the investigation of the Teapot Dome Scandal during the Harding Administration. Fiorello LaGuardia was one of the most beloved mayors to ever govern New York city.  He governed the country's largest city in much the same way as F.D.R. was governing the country, in the early 30's.  He once said:   "This country is blessed with a rich supply of coal.  It is not the invention of any one man.  It is God's gift to (all) the people of America.  It requires human labor to dig the coal, bring it back from the bowels of the earth so it may be used for the benefit of mankind . . .  The government should (take) such actions as eventually will put the government in possession of the gift of God that surely was intended to be used for the benefit of all American people."         So spoke one of the best loved of all Republicans in the 20th century!  A liberal Democrat couldn't have said it better. "Seven blunders of the world that lead to violence: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, politics without principle." Mahatma Gandhi  (1869-1948)

Famous Conservative Quotes

"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice!   And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!" – Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, [ from his Acceptance Speech as the 1964 .] "If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure nine will run into a ditch before they get to you."   ( Why try to avoid problems, when you believe – or hope – 90% of them will solve themselves?) – Calvin Coolidge "Fascism, which was not afraid to call itself reactionary, does not hesitate to call itself illiberal and anti-liberal." – Benito Mussolini – "What good fortune for those in power that people do not think." – Adolf Hitler "The man who builds a factory builds a temple; the man who works there worships there; and to each is due, not scorn and blame, but reverence and praise." Conservative Republican President Calvin Coolidge. "Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors.  It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around." – Gilbert K. Chesterton "One man with courage makes a majority." & "It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word." & "The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It's the age-old struggle the roar of the crowd on one side and the voice of your conscience on the other." – Andrew Jackson "Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers." Greek Philosopher Socrates, c. 500 BC "As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic. -" - Karl Rove at one of his birthday parties (translation : "When they become more prosperous, some of the less intelligent Democrats can be fooled into voting Republican.") ""

When it comes to the love of money, many liberals give Conservatives a good run for their money, so to speak, even surpassing some of them in wealth, on occasion.          But notice these interesting differences between the two groups :
Wealthy liberals	Wealthy Conservatives
Rich liberals tend to at least feel embarrassed by their wealth and feel compelled to use considerable amounts of it for the benefit of the needy.  They give to causes that benefit the neediest of people, often very far from home, while Conservatives tend to give to "charities" that often benefit themselves and their own families and communities, (churches, libraries, colleges, art museums), declaring that "charity begins at home".       While Conservatives resent paying taxes that benefit others,  liberals willing pay relatively high taxes, so long as the money is used prudently for people who need help.       Like people who may not be planning to ever go to the North Pole in person,  liberals at least benefit from knowing where "North" is, i.e. even if they don't always achieve it, they at least know that the ideal is to be just and generous toward the unequal and unfortunate.       And since liberal Christians and Jews honestly admit that they do not believe every verse of the Bible to be literally and unequivocally true, there is nothing hypocritical about them not living according to scripture about which they have doubts.	Conservatives, on the other hand, are often unashamed of being driven by "the profit motive", which is just greed in disguise.       They work constantly to increase the advantages of the supposedly "hard working" haves,  while limiting any benefits that might go to the supposedly lazy "have-nots."       After claiming to believe everything the Bible says to be literally and unequivocally true, Conservatives then quietly ignore whatever doesn't suit their selfish, materialistic, profit-seeking lifestyle.  In fact, by insisting that everything in that book is equally inspired by God, they can use whatever they need in a particular situation to argue all kinds of conflicting viewpoints.  They use Paul's teaching, for example, to defend beliefs that contradict Jesus.          "Conservative Christians" ought to identify themselves as "Conservatives like Paul", since they don't want to be "Liberals Like Christ" . See LiberalsLikeChrist.Org/salvation and LiberalsLikeChrist.Org/PaulvsAll
Famous Rich Liberals:     (Warren) "Buffett has long been the most trusted CEO in the world." . . .   (and the famous investment company that he heads "Berkshire's accounting record remains spotless." (from the 4/15/05 Time magazine article on him). So much for integrity. Buffett is planning to give away most of his enormous wealth to charity, trusting Bill and Melinda Gates to spend his bequests wisely.     Bill Gates, Sr. is leading the effort of a rich liberals to preserve the Estate Tax on the wealthy. Mr. & Mrs. Bill Gates, Jr. were named "Persons of the Year" (along with Bono) in 2006 because of their work on behalf of suffering mankind.     Ted Turner pledged a $ 1,000,000,000 for United Nations programs. (Even if you disagree with the cause, Ted gave up the use of all that money on himself.)     Although old Joseph Kennedy got rich as a Conservative Republican, after becoming a liberal Democrat under FDR, he raised his family to give to their country, and it cost three of their four sons their lives.	Famous Rich Conservatives:    The Bush dynasty goes back to George Herbert Walker and Prescott Bush, whose banking enterprises financed the rise of Hitler and the Third Reich.     The "Christian" Walton Family can't seem to gouge enough money out of the suppliers and employees of its WalMart companies.     Richard Mellon Scaife has funded any number of controversial ultra-Conservative causes, including "the Arkansas Project" to bring down President Clinton.
Here's how the comedian, Mort Sahl, saw the contrast: "Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they've stolen."

The reactionary right-wingers call me a "liberal" :     I refuse to pretend that racism and sexism no longer exist, so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe that "market forces" are some magical panacea, so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe cutting the military from being able to blow up the world 10 times over down to only 8 times over is a bad thing, so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe "family" means a man ruling over a wife and kids, so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe that money magically trickles down from the rich, so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe giving a mother food stamps to feed her kids is a waste of money, while buying the air force a billion dollar bomber it doesn't want isn't, so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe cutting the taxes of the rich helps the poor, so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe Rush Limbaugh has "talent on loan from God", so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe that the profit motive creates virtue in people, so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe that "might makes right", so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe the government should control women's reproductive choices, so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe that single mothers are necessarily bad parents, so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe only northern Europeans have culture, so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe a union worker making $17/hr is overpaid while a CEO making $1 million/year is not, so they call me a liberal.     I refuse to ignore the long history of oppression, so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe teaching children about cultural diversity is wrong, so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe the only good jobs are ones where someone else is skimming off a profit, so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe Americans are inherently superior to other nationalities, so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe homosexuals are evil, so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe non-Christians are evil, so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe liberals are subhuman monsters, so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe that things are black-and-white, so they call me a liberal.     I don't believe their lies, so the reactionaries call me a liberal.     The more they talk, the more being called a liberal sounds like a compliment. – Douglas Giles See also Why I Am A Proud Liberal by John Cannon, publisher of Another Perspective

Conservatives are people who can be persuaded by Rush Limbaugh types to: trust Conservative Republican idealogues, rather than scientists, when it comes to science. trust Conservative Republican idealogues, rather than labor leaders, when it comes to labor issues. trust Conservative Republican idealogues, rather than teachers, when it comes to educational issues. trust Conservative Republican idealogues, rather than sociologists, when it comes to social problems. trust Conservative Republican idealogues, rather than doctors, when it comes to medical issues. trust Conservative Republican idealogues, rather than black leaders, when it comes to African American issues. trust Conservative Republican idealogues, rather than Latino leaders, when it comes to Latin American issues. trust Conservative Republican talk show hosts, rather than real journalists, when it comes to journalism.

Here's a the latest twist on the illusory world of Conservatism         A Conservative critic told me:  "In modern society the ownership of companies is widely dispensed through stock ownership in pension plans and 401K's.  Thus, for examples, the executives of Enron in their role as employees screwed the stockholders.  The stockholders who suffered the most were other employees, in their roles as capitalist-style owners of stock.  Even when employees do not own stock, there are many companies where its clear to every employee that their interests lie in having the company do well, rather than being in permanent conflict with management.  The liberals need the outdated concepts of a class-dominated society in order to foster their concept of having a large class of dependent clients willing to cede power in favor being cared for by the liberal elite."         But notice how the greedy class here has managed to create the illusion that disparate, uninformed "stockholders" are the owners of a company,  And that this "employee-owned company is only being "managed" by a few (super) "employees".  In actuality, those (super) "employees" make all the important decisions and huge profits, while the real employees get small wages and the "investors" get token profits called "dividends".  And Conservative true believers are taken in by this charade.

Conservative Treachery:         Although you would expect "liberals" to be associated with rebellion and revolution, ever since Lincoln's day, it's been Conservatives who have been the "rebels". the Southern Conservatives rebelled against the United States in an effort to preserve the very profitable practice of slavery. after defeating Lee, Abraham Lincoln could have prosecuted the leaders of the rebellion. Instead he sent them home with their horses and their guns so as to enable them to rebuild their lives. And Southern Conservatives showed their gratitude by assassinating him. Conservatives tried to overthrow the government of the United States again, when F.D.R. was president and again escaped prosecution. See Liberal-Insights.org/FDRcoup.html. it was certainly not liberals who were behind the plots to assassinate John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, or the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. it wasn't a liberal who tried to assassinate President Reagan, but a member of a very Conservative family that was very close to V.P. George H.W. Bush. neither was it a liberal who tried to assassinate ultra-Conservative Gov. George Wallace. it's amazing how many deadly air plane "accidents" have killed liberal political leaders in the U. S. : Senator & Mrs. Paul Wellstone, John F. Kennedy, Jr., Mel Carnahan. who beat Ashcroft in U.S. Senate race after dying in crash, etc. http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/10/25/politicians.plane.crashes/index.html & http://mindprod.com/politics/asbestos.html#OWEN

"Liberal Control" of the Media         We have been told over and over and over again that America's mainstream media is "controlled by the liberals".  When is the last time that we heard this supposedly liberal media publish anything flattering about liberals?  The truth is that it takes millions, if not billions of dollars to own important communications media.  When has any union, a minority group, advocates for seniors, the handicapped, women, children or the environment had enough money to buy such media?  Only very rich individuals and corporations have that kind of money to spend and nine times out of ten such people and entities are very Conservative, not liberal.         One example of the total control Conservatives have is their ability to perpetuate the absurd lie that they, the Conservative owners of the media, are helpless to get their own Conservative views expressed in the media they own!  One of the arguments put forward most often by Conservatives to "prove" this absurdity is a survey of Washington journalists that revealed that some 92% of them regularly vote "liberal Democrat".  Let's accept that on face value.  First of all, all this proves is what these journalists do in the privacy of the voting booth, not what they do in their public broadcasting.  Now, if liberals had the ability to write and speak publicly about that very survey, Conservatives would be horrified to see or hear the public being informed that 92% of those who really know what goes on in Washington, those who spend their whole lives watching and investigating politics in the nation's capital, those who have teams of people studying who does what in the nation's capital, almost ALL endorse the Democratic Party in the voting booth, although their jobs require that they keep their personal opinions to themselves – they succeed in doing 99% of the time.  Conservatives LOVE the Fox Cable Channel because it is obvious to them how blattantly Conservative the news and commentary is there.         Thanks to their almost total control of the Republican Party, their partnership with the wealthy TV "evangelists", and most of the major news outlets (radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, and publishing houses), wealthy conservatives have succeeded in making the "L-word" so bad as to be unmentionable!  What we have been told is that liberals are irresponsible "beatnik" types who don't believe in any kind of rule or discipline, that they believe in giving public funds away to poor people for no good reason and with no results, that they are atheistic socialists at heart, etc., etc.   When do we ever see or hear liberals getting the chance to defend themselves in the mainstream media?  On the one side, there is a constant barrage on radio, and now on television, and in most newspapers of extremely explicit attacks on liberals and praise of everything Conservative.  And on the other, there are supposed "liberal" journalists, who may well have liberal views, but who have to watch their every word, out of fear that any actual explicit manifestation of their "liberal bias" show they will be attacked viciously by the right and even lose their jobs. What Liberalism really is : Here is much, much more on the so-called "Liberal Media bias"

Why a "Liberals Arts" education is so highly regarded. P         To get a good, solidly based, well rounded education is to get a "Liberal Arts" education, often certified by the awarding of the prestigious "Bachelor of (Liberal) Arts", "Master of (Liberal) Arts", and finally the "Doctor of Philosophy" degrees.  The word "liberal" is held in the highest esteem in the world of higher education.  Since there is a great deal of truth in the dictum "Knowledge is power", reading books (the Latin for which is "liber") and getting an education have always empowered those subjugated to others to gain "their liberty".  The more they learned, the more power they developed until their oppressors could hold them down no longer.  And the result was "equilibrium", another cousin of the word "liberal".  Not surprisingly, the richer, and more powerful and more privileged people are the more likely they are to be Conservative.  And the more educated people are (except when their education is in certain narrow fields), the more likely they are to be liberal.         For liberals, the ideal is to share knowledge, wealth and power as equally as possible so that there is an "equilibrium" in society that reduces the likelihood of friction and crime, and enhances everyone's chances to enjoy "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" in peace and harmony.  Crazy these "liberal" ideas, aren't they?

Conservatives on the other hand, long for the "good old days" :         In the Dred Scott decision, Justice Roger B. Taney, the extremely conservative Chief of an extremely conservative Supreme Court. proclaimed that the Constitution and the nation's legal history offered no suggestion that blacks should have the rights other Americans enjoyed.  The laws defined them as property, not people, he insisted, so they couldn't be citizens.         Similarly, Scalia's dissent from June's landmark ruling that invalidated anti-sodomy laws argues that the Constitution and the nation's legal history contained no explicit mention for treating gay people equally – the law could, therefore, provided no fundamental right for gay Americans to engage in the private, intimate relations other Americans take for granted.

Correlation between level of education & Presidential vote         In 2004, the overwhelming majority of states with more citizens with college degrees went for Kerry, while those with fewer citizens with college degrees went for Bush : State : % Maryland 37.6 Colorado 35.7 Virginia 34.6 Massachusetts 34.3 Connecticut 32.6 New Jersey 31.4 Vermont 30.8 Minnesota 30.5 New Hampshire 30.1 Rhode Island 30.1 Delaware 29.5 Kansas 29.1 New York 28.8 Washington 28.3 California 27.9 Illinois 27.3 Montana 23.6 S. Dakota 23.6 S. Carolina 23.3 Iowa 23.1 Alabama 22.7 Michigan 22.5 N. Carolina 22.4 Louisiana 22.1 Nevada 22.1 Kentucky 21.6 Tennessee 21.5 Idaho 20.9 Mississippi 20.9 Oklahoma 20.4 Wyoming 19.6 Arkansas 18.3 W. Virginia 15.9 Nebraska 27.1 Oregon 27.1 Hawaii 26.8 Utah 26.8 Missouri 26.7 Arizona 26.3 Texas 26.2 Pennsylvania 26.1 Florida 25.7 Alaska 25.6 New Mexico 25.4 N. Dakota 25.3 Georgia 25.0 Wisconsin 24.7 Ohio 24.5 Maine 23.8 Indiana 23.7         Demographics of American liberals (according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_liberalism_in_the_United_States)         "While it is difficult to gather demographic information on ideological groups, some studies have been conducted. Liberalism remains most popular among those in academia and liberals commonly tend to be highly educated and relatively affluent. According to recent surveys, between 19% and 26% of the American electorate identify as liberal, versus moderate or conservative. A 2004 study by the Pew Research Center identified 19% of Americans as liberal. According to the study, liberals were the most educated ideological demographic and were tied with the conservative sub-group, the "Enterprisers," for the most affluent group. Of those who identified as liberal, 49% were college graduates and 41% had household incomes exceeding $75,000, compared to 27% and 28% as the national average, respectively.         Liberalism also remains the dominant political ideology in academia, with 72% of full-time faculty identifying as liberal in a 2004 study. The social sciences and humanities were most liberal, whereas business and engineering departments were the most conservative. The high educational attainment and prominence of liberal thought on American campuses can largely be attributed to a correlation between education and ideology. Generally, the more educated a person is, the more likely he or she is to hold liberal beliefs. In the 2000, 2004 and 2006 elections, the vast majority of liberals voted in favor of the Democrats, though liberals may also show support for the Greens."P         Is there a correlation between happiness and political affiliation? http://pewresearch.org/pubs/301/are-we-happy-yet

"Love it (America), or leave it!" P         Conservatives often respond to criticism of their government with taunts like 'If you don't like it here, why don't you go to . . . ?'  The next time Democrats are in charge in America, if Conservatives want to emigrate to some more conservative country to avoid living under what they view as either "socialism" or "communism", they could always move to one of these great places :         Iran,   Iraq,   Somalia,   Ethiopia,   Saudi Arabia,   Singapore,   Sierra Leon,   or Bosnia.         [ Note: Even the fine countries listed above have embraced some form of "socialized medicine" – which Conservative Americans still believe only their own richest country on earth can't afford  !  And although Conservative spokesmen keep insisting that all of the people who live in such countries are unhappy with their universal health care plans, the world has yet to see a single one of these countries go back to any American style for-profit private health care system. ]         When liberals, on the other hand, look for a left-leaning refuge from Conservative Republican administrations, they have a choice of any number of the most developed countries in the world !  According to http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0778562.html the 2005 United Nations "Quality-of-Life" rankings, the best places to live in the world today are : 1. Norway, 2. Iceland, 3. Australia, 4. Luxembourg , 5. Canada, 6. Sweden , 7. Switzerland, 8. Ireland , 9. Belgium , 10. United States, 11. Japan, 12. Netherlands, 13. Finland, 14. Denmark, 15. United Kingdom, 16. France, 17. Austria, 18. Italy, 19. New Zealand, 20. Germany, Note the changes since George W. Bush has been president: 1) Norway, 2) Sweden, 3) Canada, 4) Belgium, 5) Australia, 6) the US , 7) Iceland, 8) Holland, 9) Japan 10) Finland, 11) Switzerland, 12) France, 13) Britain, 14) Denmark, 15) Austria, 16) Luxembourg, 17) Germany, 18) Ireland, 19) New Zealand and 20) Italy.         If "Socialism" is so bad, then why are the best places to live decidedly "Socialist" while most of the worst places to live are decidedly "Conservative" ?:  And why fall for the Greedy Old Party line and their friends throughout the U S media when they tell you that you should dial 911 or the F.B.I. whenever you hear the words "liberal", "progressive" or "socialist"?         There are any number of similar examples that could be given to show that in so many ways, it's countries that are more liberal or socialist than the U.S.A. that have the best records on the kinds of things in which we should be excelling. Here's another:

Why the Nazis called themselves "Socialists" P         Although I grew up in the shadow of World War II, it wasn't until I was over 70 that I learned why the "National Socialist German Workers Party", who were called "Nazis" for short had the word "Socialist" in their name. Contrary to what some conservative propagandists would have you believe, it wasn't because there was anything "leftist" about them! Here's the reason, spelled out in a great biography of Hitler at http://referaty-seminarky.sk/adolf-hitler-biography-3/ :         "Hitler's reputation as an orator grew and it soon became clear that he was the main reason why people were joining the party (which had only 54 members when he had joined). This gave Hitler tremendous power within the organization as they knew they could not afford to lose him. One change suggested by Hitler concerned adding "Socialist" to the name of the party.         Hitler had always been hostile to socialist ideas, especially those that involved racial or sexual equality. However, socialism was a popular political philosophy in Germany after the First World War. This was reflected in the growth in the German Social Democrat Party (SDP), the largest political party in Germany. Hitler, therefore redefined socialism by placing the word 'National' before it. He claimed he was only in favour of equality for those who had "German blood". Jews and other "aliens" would lose their rights of citizenship, and immigration of non-Germans should be brought to an end. In February 1920, the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) published its first programme which became known as the "25 Points". . . To appeal to the working class and socialists, the programme included several measures that would redistribute income and war profits, profit-sharing in large industries, nationalization of trusts, increases in old-age pensions and free education."         The following is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_German_Workers_Party :         "Unlike Drexler (the founder) and other party members, Hitler was less interested in the "socialist" aspect of "national socialism" beyond moving Social Welfare administration from the Church to the State.. Himself of provincial lower-middle-class origins, he disliked the mass working class of the big cities, and had no sympathy with the notions of attacking private property or the business class (which some early Nazis espoused)." P Hitler on the alliance of Fascism and Catholicism, vs. Liberalism :         A few days after the signing of the Lateran Treaty (between the Pope & Mussolini, the precursor of the Reich Concordat between Hitler and Pope) , Hitler wrote an article for the Volkisher Beobachter, published on 2/22/1929, warmly welcoming the agreement.         "The fact that the Curia is now making its peace with Fascism, shows that the Vatican trusts the new political realities far more than (it) did the former liberal democracy with which it could not come to terms."  { One huge problem the Catholic Church had with the liberal Wiemar Republic is that it had tried to divorce the state from the church and put a stop to the state subsidizing churches and their schools in Germany.  In contrast, Hitler tripled those subsidies once he got what he wanted in the Vatican Concordat with Germany in 1933. }  Turning to the German situation, he rebuked (the liberal Catholic leadership of the "Center Party") for its recalcitrant attachment to democratic politics.  " By trying to preach that democracy is still in the best interests of German Catholics, the Center Party . . .  is placing itself in stark contradiction to the spirit of the treaty signed today by the Holy See."         The conclusion of his rant contained a gross distortion as well as a remarkable intuition of future opportunities:  "The fact that the Catholic Church has come to an agreement with Fascist Italy. . .   proves beyond doubt that the Fascist world of ideas is closer to Christianity (i.e. Catholicism) than (to) those of Jewish liberalism (i.e. "Liberals Like Christ") or even atheistic Marxism, to which the so-called Catholic Center Party sees itself so closely bound, to the detriment of Christianity today and our German people."  (p. 115, Hitler's Pope).

The "Bad Faith" of our Fathers : P         "As Richard Drinnon has shown in his book Facing West: The Metaphysics of Indian-Hating and Empire Building , America's revered founding fathers were themselves activists in the anti-Indian genocide.  George Washington, in 1779, instructed Major General John Sullivan to attack the Iroquois and "lay waste all the settlements around...  that the country may not be merely overrun but destroyed," urging the general not to "listen to any overture of peace before the total ruin of their settlements is effected."  Sullivan did as instructed, he reported back, "destroy[ing] everything that contributes to their support" and turning "the whole of that beautiful region, the character of a garden to a scene of drear and sickening desolation."  The Indians, this writer said, "were hunted like wild beasts" in a "war of extermination," something Washington approved of since, as he was to say in 1783, the Indians, after all, were little different from wolves, "both being beasts of prey, tho' they differ in shape." ( p. 89)         And since the Indians were mere beasts, it followed that there was no cause for moral outrage when it was learned that, among other atrocities, the victorious troops had amused themselves by skinning the bodies of some Indians "from the hips downward, to make boot tops or leggings."  For their part, the surviving Indians later referred to Washington by the nickname "Town Destroyer," for it was under his direct orders that at least 28 out of 30 Seneca towns from lake Erie to the Mohawk River had been totally obliterated in a period of less than five years, as had all the towns and villages of the Mohawk, the Onondaga, and the Cayuga.  As one of the Iroquois told Washington to his face in 1792: "to this day, when that name is heard, our women look behind them and turn pale, and our children cling close to the necks of their mothers." ( p. 90)         They might well have clung close to the necks of their mothers when other names were mentioned as well – such as Adams or Monroe or Jackson.  Or Jefferson, for example, who in 1807 instructed his Secretary of War that any Indians who resisted American expansion into their lands must be met with "the hatchet."  "And...  if ever we are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe," he wrote, "we will never lay it down till that tribe is exterminated, or is driven beyond the Mississippi."  Continuing: "in war, they will kill some of us; we shall destroy all of them."  These were not off remarks, for five years later, in 1812, Jefferson again concluded that white Americans were "obliged" to drive the "backward" Indians "with the beasts of the forests into the Stony Mountains"; and one year later still, he added that the American government had no other choice before it than "to pursue [the Indians] to extermination, or drive them to new seats beyond our reach."  Indeed, Jefferson's writings on Indians are filled with the straightforward assertion that the natives are to be given a simple choice – to be "extirpate[d] from the earth" or to remove themselves out of the Americans' way.  ( p. 91)         Had these same words been enunciated by a German leader in 1939, and directed at European Jews, they would be engraved in modern memory.  Since they were uttered by one of America's founding fathers, however, the most widely admired of the South's slaveholding philosophers of freedom, they conveniently have become lost to most historians in their insistent celebration of Jefferson's wisdom and humanity.   ( from American Holocaust, p.119-121 ) The Encyclopedia Britannica warning against "Despotism".

"Christian Conservatives" vs. Human Progress P         We "Liberals Like Christ" have been outnumbered through much of the human history.  Here are a few examples to get the ball rolling, but I invite people to send me more examples (with sources, whenever possible) : Conservative Christians rioted to prevent medical schools from using dead bodies to train medical doctors because they thought that autopsies might keep the dead from going to heaven. Conservative Christians have fought in-vitro fertilization which has allowed millions of infertile couples to bear children. Conservative Christians are still fighting against sex education programs which include "safe-sex" techniques, such as condom use, which help prevent the spread of deadly diseases such as AIDS. Many historians also think that Ronald Reagan's slow response to the AIDS crisis was partially motivated by his conservative Christian belief that AIDS was a punishment from God against homosexuals. More great material : An interesting article on Liberal vs. Conservative Christianity in the U.S. and What Is Conservatism and     What Is Wrong with It? [ polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/conservatism.html ] by Philip E. Agre, an associate professor of information studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. and Liberalism set to music and A great collection of international documents regarding Human Rights ( vs. Human Wrongs) : http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diana/documents.htm www.politicalamazon.com/fcf.html reveals many of the diabolical schemes of "The Free Congress Foundation", including exposés on Richard Mellon Scaife, Paul Weyrich, Laszlo Pasztor, Pinochet, Jerry Falwell, Richard Viguerie, the Coors family, The Political – Christian Right.         Admitting that he and his colleagues are not conservatives in the traditional sense, Weyrich has described the New Right as 'radicals who want to change the existing power structure.' He was one of the earliest commentators to advance the idea that the United States is engulfed in a cultural civil war."         Describing this "cultural civil war," Weyrich once said, "It may not be with bullets, and it may not be with rockets and missiles, but it is a war, nonetheless. It is a war of ideology, it's a war of ideas, it's a war about our way of life. And it has to be fought with the same intensity, I think, and dedication as you would fight a shooting war." P         One of the best comparisons that I have found on the www of the major political philosophies in the U.S.A. is http://www.republicanliberty.org/libdex/li2005_over.htm , which views them all through the libertarian lens, but does so very objectively and intelligently.         For much more detail, see What Liberals REALLY Believe, at the outstanding "Liberalism Resurgent" website , created by Steve Kangas, whom I believe was one of the many great liberal activists who have died a martyr's death at the hands of Conservative assassins. Curious about how liberal your city is compared to others in the U.S.A.?  Check out http://www.epodunk.com/top10/liberal/index.html And here's a great forum to participate in :

 

The natural flexibility of the Human Mind, an enlightening experiment See how long it takes you to read the following unusual paragraph:         "I cduoln't blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.  The phaonmneal pweor of teh hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch taem at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deson't mttaer mcuh in waht oredr the ltteres in a wrod are. Teh olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in teh rghit pclae.   Teh rset can be a taotl mses and you can slitl raed it wouthit a porbelm.  Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Such a cdonition is arpoiatelpy cllaed "Typoglycemia" :)- Amzanig huh?  And eyverbdoy tknihs slpelnig is so intpmorat. " Wehvoer dgnesied the hmaun mnid had to be a Lraibel !

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The REAL differences between "Liberal"   vs.   "Conservative"

Contact   Ray@Liberal-Insights.Org There is much more where this came from, at and/or