How about common sense liberalism or compassionate conservatism or how about scrapping the both and finding a way that doesn't pander or promote power hungry control freaks.

Originally posted by Thomas Crowne

Originally posted by earthtone
it all sucks in some way. but christian conservatives are evil in some way . . .

An oximoron on the face of it. Those who follow Christ is evil? You see, that is a good reason for the Judeo-Christian nation to remain so. It is expected such words to come from an Islamic ruled nation, but the concept is alien, strange, and neurotic sounding in a nation of Judeo-Christian ethics, morals and principles.

I think he means Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Fred Phelps and all the other psychotics.

All political parties shoudl come with an expiration date, because over time they all become twisted and corupted. Yet for some reason people cling to them like they need them to exist and have a purpose in life.

It might make a difference if all politicians were awarded more modest salaries along the lines of other public sector workers and were unable to cut deals with mega rich corporations, religious denominations or pressure groups that will fund them and bung the odd million into someones bank account for towing the party line. Also get rid of all the little perks that go with the job too.

That way you'll attract the people with a genuine desire to make society better and improve peoples lives rather than the avaricious, self glorifying career whores it currently attracts.

Lieralism is the want for change in one's surroundings. Conservativism is the opposition of change. These are the basic definitions for the political groupings. Sure, by these definitions Hitler was semi-liberal, but you can still be conservative and have one or two liberal views, can you not?

Separate, both are bad. They are extreme and have no tolerance for the other's beliefs. To one side, they are Jesus and trying to protect Earth against Satan. It is the same to the others.

However, combined they are mighty. So you want to lower taxes yet are willing to allow gays to marry? Good for you! With those two simple beliefs, you will please both sides without even showing all of your ideals. No one yet knows if you are a liberal centrist or a conservative centrist.

Liberalism and conservativism are much like the eastern teachings of yin and yang. Neither can sruvive without the other, although neither of them will admit it. Hence, what are conservatives if there are no liberals to question the conservative way?

While neither liberalism or conservativism are evil, there are members in both groupings that make their groups have the illusion of evil. For example, Lenin... He was extremely liberal(stupid commies...), but even though his beliefs were not necessarily evil(although they didn't work well, did they?) Lenin himself certainly was. Now, I believe that he has given the illusion to conservatives that liberalism is evil. Hitler(whose beliefs were both evil and incorrect, and he himelf was evil) did the same to liberals, and with the same effect.

If we were to discriminate against either side of the political bus, we would be depriving ourselves of well-needed second opinions. As with all second opinions, we don't necessarily need to listen, but it is a good idea to at least take them into consideration.

So all of TC and JM's "liberals suck" and colonel's "conservatives suck" may sound good on a message board, but in real life they simply mean that the three of them lack the common sense to just ignore those they disagree with.

Signing off,
HLW