"The L-Word"
From dictionary.com:
liberal (lib·er·al) adj.
1a. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.
1b. Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.
conservative (con·ser·va·tive) adj.
1. Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change.
How the fuck did "liberal" become a dirty word in this country? Why are there polls that ask, "Is John Kerry 'too liberal' to be president?" And, more importantly, why do some one-third of respondents to said polls answer 'yes'??
Don't we want to be "open to new ideas"?? Isn't being "free from bigotry" generally a good thing??
Does anyone really think America is so perfect that "tending to avoid change" is an admirable trait?
Remarkably, these definitions sum up our current choices in the 2004 election. If you listen to President Bush, everything in America is just A-OK super duper great.
Economy? On its way back up, even though the number of Americans filing for unemployment assistance continues to rise.
The "war on terror"? Oh, Dubya tells us that it's going great. Doesn't matter that we can't find Osama Bin Laden. Doesn't matter that a British foreign affairs committee said today that "Afghanistan is likely to implode."
How about the war in Iraq? Never mind that we have over 900 American soldiers dead, and over 4500 injured. Never mind that, three months after our jackass-in-chief proclaimed "Mission Accomplished," insurgents in Iraq are wreaking more death and destruction than ever. A car bomb killed 68 Iraqis on Wednesday, many of them standing in line to become police recruits.
Let's try Homeland Security. The 9/11 Commission released its report last week. Front and center in its recommendations was a Cabinet-level director of intelligence. Has Bush acted on this, or any of the Commission's recommendations? No.
Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention, Senator Bob Graham (D-FL) put it this way. It has now been over 1,000 days since September 11, 2001, he said. For comparison, the last time America was attacked so viciously was December 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor.
"One thousand days after Pearl Harbor," Graham said, "America had landed its troops on the beaches of Normandy. And we were rolling to victory in World War II."
And where are we, one thousand days after the worst terrorist attack in American history? Are we safer? Do you feel safer when you go to the airport? Or do you just feel more hassled?
Is Osama bin Laden in custody? No. Have we announced any sanctions or activities to cut terrorist funding and training in Saudi Arabia? After all, 19 of the 20 hijackers were Saudi. But, no, we've ignored Saudi Arabia, and we've ignored Afghanistan for the past year, to focus on this misguided war in Iraq, one we're fighting alone.
None of the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqi. The bipartisan 9/11 Commission found no evidence that Iraq and Saddam Hussein had anything to do with al-Qaeda. The vaunted "weapons of mass destruction" that Dubya insisted Saddam had are nowhere to be found, and even GWB himself doesn't mention them anymore.
Conservative. Preserve the status quo. Let the rich keep getting richer. Let the poor keep getting poorer. Let the record budget deficits continue to spiral out of control. Pretend that everything is fine in America, when everyone knows it's not.
Conservative should be the pejorative here, should be the label that politicians scurry to avoid. "Liberal" should be a badge of honor.
I'm glad that John Kerry is a liberal, and it's time that we who are "open to new ideas for progress" reclaim the word liberal and wear it proudly.
Does anyone really want to "conserve" America the way it is right now? I sure as hell don't.
liberal (lib·er·al) adj.
1a. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.
1b. Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.
conservative (con·ser·va·tive) adj.
1. Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change.
How the fuck did "liberal" become a dirty word in this country? Why are there polls that ask, "Is John Kerry 'too liberal' to be president?" And, more importantly, why do some one-third of respondents to said polls answer 'yes'??
Don't we want to be "open to new ideas"?? Isn't being "free from bigotry" generally a good thing??
Does anyone really think America is so perfect that "tending to avoid change" is an admirable trait?
Remarkably, these definitions sum up our current choices in the 2004 election. If you listen to President Bush, everything in America is just A-OK super duper great.
Economy? On its way back up, even though the number of Americans filing for unemployment assistance continues to rise.
The "war on terror"? Oh, Dubya tells us that it's going great. Doesn't matter that we can't find Osama Bin Laden. Doesn't matter that a British foreign affairs committee said today that "Afghanistan is likely to implode."
How about the war in Iraq? Never mind that we have over 900 American soldiers dead, and over 4500 injured. Never mind that, three months after our jackass-in-chief proclaimed "Mission Accomplished," insurgents in Iraq are wreaking more death and destruction than ever. A car bomb killed 68 Iraqis on Wednesday, many of them standing in line to become police recruits.
Let's try Homeland Security. The 9/11 Commission released its report last week. Front and center in its recommendations was a Cabinet-level director of intelligence. Has Bush acted on this, or any of the Commission's recommendations? No.
Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention, Senator Bob Graham (D-FL) put it this way. It has now been over 1,000 days since September 11, 2001, he said. For comparison, the last time America was attacked so viciously was December 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor.
"One thousand days after Pearl Harbor," Graham said, "America had landed its troops on the beaches of Normandy. And we were rolling to victory in World War II."
And where are we, one thousand days after the worst terrorist attack in American history? Are we safer? Do you feel safer when you go to the airport? Or do you just feel more hassled?
Is Osama bin Laden in custody? No. Have we announced any sanctions or activities to cut terrorist funding and training in Saudi Arabia? After all, 19 of the 20 hijackers were Saudi. But, no, we've ignored Saudi Arabia, and we've ignored Afghanistan for the past year, to focus on this misguided war in Iraq, one we're fighting alone.
None of the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqi. The bipartisan 9/11 Commission found no evidence that Iraq and Saddam Hussein had anything to do with al-Qaeda. The vaunted "weapons of mass destruction" that Dubya insisted Saddam had are nowhere to be found, and even GWB himself doesn't mention them anymore.
Conservative. Preserve the status quo. Let the rich keep getting richer. Let the poor keep getting poorer. Let the record budget deficits continue to spiral out of control. Pretend that everything is fine in America, when everyone knows it's not.
Conservative should be the pejorative here, should be the label that politicians scurry to avoid. "Liberal" should be a badge of honor.
I'm glad that John Kerry is a liberal, and it's time that we who are "open to new ideas for progress" reclaim the word liberal and wear it proudly.
Does anyone really want to "conserve" America the way it is right now? I sure as hell don't.
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