Hey MOQers: I'm with Arlo here and while Mel is reflecting a common point of view it is actually a very distorted picture. If one were to represent the full spectrum of political ideologies, with Marxism on the far left and free-market conservatism on the right, Liberalism is exactly halfway between them. Sadly, in the USA, all our political debates completely ignore every position left of that center. If you look at thee philosopher of Liberalism, John Rawls, it's very clear that Liberalism is the attempt to balance equality and liberty. (Guess what I've been reading!) This kind of balance is the central idea in our Declaration of Independence and in our Constitution, neither of which had anything to do with Marxism. As Jefferson said, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" and "Governments are instituted among men in order to secure these rights". It's as American as Apple Pie. Sorry to be so blunt, but it's just plain ignorant to confuse liberalism w ith genuinely leftist ideologies. It is in the middle, which means it is to the left of some things and to the right of other things. Leftists want to abolish capitalism while liberals simply want capitalism to be regulated so that it doesn't crush people or violate their rights and freedoms. It simply puts people over profits and that's only fair and decent. How such a very, very American thing ever got demonized is beyond me.
Or think about it from the Pragmatist's perspective. We've tried this unregulated free-market stuff for thirty years. What are the results? Obviously, we need to try something else. We haven't seen poverty and inequality like this since the Great Depression. Roughly speaking, liberalism doubled the size of the middle class and conservatism cut it in half. We need to move back toward the center or we really will be a nation of serfs. dmb ---------------------------------------- > Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:01:52 -0400 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [MD] On the road to serfdom > > [Mel] > 'The Left" is anyone pushing a social agenda and using government to do it. > > [Arlo] > So your contention is that organizations like Family First, Focus on > the Family and The Heritage Foundation are "leftist" for their > sponsorship of online censorship legislation, while groups like > Amnesty International, ACLU and the EFF are "rightist" for their > support of free speech and challenges to this legislation? > > Does that make those who sponsor and support a flag burning amendment > "leftist"? And those who favor the freedom to burn flags "rightist"? > What about those who seek to pass a law defining marriage as "between > a man and a woman", in effect using government to define marriage, > are they "leftist"? And those who support the right of the individual > to marry a partner of their choosing would be "rightist"? > > What about bans on public nudity (under "decency" laws). Would you > say those who support and sponsor public decency legislation is > "leftist", while nudists and those who argue for the freedom to > behave in public free from governmental control "rightists"? > > Its an interesting redefining of the labels, and I am eager to hear > the self-professed "rightists" in this forum condemn the vile > leftists who want to censor flag-burning, use government to define > marriage for others, and force people to wear clothing in public. > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ _________________________________________________________________ Stay organized with simple drag and drop from Windows Live Hotmail. http://windowslive.com/Explore/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_102008 Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
