The Iron Yuppie

I’d like to take this opportunity to be totally self-righteous. Feel free to tune out here.

I cannot tell you how frustrated I am with conservatives and liberals. Do you guys have any idea what your parties used to stand for? Conservative = conservative use of government. Liberal = liberal use of government. Let’s play a little question and answer:

Should the federal government stop gay marriage?

• Yes = you are a LIBERAL; you believe that government has a responsibility to protect the institution of marriage
• No = you are a CONSERVATIVE; you believe that the government does not have the right to dictate how people live

Should the federal government support faith based institutions?

• Yes = you are a LIBERAL; you believe that the government has a responsibility to encourage a system of beliefs
• No = you are a CONSERVATIVE; you believe that church and state should be separate

Should the government spend more than it takes in?

• Yes = you are a LIBERAL; you believe that the government can take on debt to provide more services for its citizens
• No = you are a CONSERVATIVE; you believe that the government should not burden the future with liabilities for benefits in the present

Should the government restrict drugs, gambling and prostitution?

• Yes = you are a LIBERAL; you believe that the government has a responsibility to enforce a set of moral standards
• No = you are a CONSERVATIVE; you believe that the government should not legislate self-affecting behavior

I could go on. In the interest of full disclosure, according to this, I’m a conservative. Interestingly, I suppose this is just my definition, since the dictionary says that conservative is “tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions” and liberalism is “a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of the human race, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties” (Fascinating how different those are! Would anyone not consider themselves a liberal according to that definition? They’re not even really antithetical! (Let’s hear it for the dictionary/thesaurus and making me sound smart(-ish)))

Anyhow, doesn’t it seem like that should be how parties divide? Today it is caught up in such a mish-mosh. Conservatives today believe in maintaining their values but then go about pushing those values on everyone else. Liberals … well I don’t know what Liberals do today. They are kind of all around but they seem to be so much less vocal than their conservative counterparts.

One of the most interesting exercises I did during the debates was reading up on all the live blogging taking place on the right wing or right wing leaning blogs (http://www.hughhewitt.com/, http://www.rightwingnews.com/, http://polipundit.com/, http://www.instapundit.com/, etc) . Though I do not espouse many of their beliefs (either about their politics or who won the debates), it gave me a great sense for how people who do not share my beliefs look at the problem. I just think it’s a shame that both of us do not have parties which represent the two sides of our issues in a consistent way.

In truth, if I could ask for one thing from our elected officials, it would be to get out of the way of my life and what I want to do (legally). Guns? Sure. Drugs? Bring them on. Religion? I have one, but lots of other people don’t, and I don’t care. Etc. I think that's probably why I'm not a Republican... I just feel like they have their set of beliefs and they push them in a way that affects me either directly or indirectly (abortion/stem cell; drugs; faith based institutions; etc). I suppose my wish for the government to do what it does (defend us, defend the planet and keep the law) is more libertarian than anything else. Of course, in the thousand shades of gray that is the experience of being in politics, I do not think that anyone would be against these. It is just that when the 10th bill comes up for the refunding of the NEA (which I think is an extension of defend us because it reduces crime by making people more learned), it is tough to call it quite as black and white as I have just laid out.

D

posted by Iron Yuppie  # 10/20/2004 03:28:00 PM