Ten Myths Conservatives Believe About Progressives

Ten Myths Conservatives Believe About Progressives

www.ourfuture.org

1. Liberals hate America.
For the record: Liberals love America. In fact, what makes us liberals is that we actually read and believed all those pretty words in the Declaration of Independence about "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and in the Bill of Rights about freedom of speech, religion, assembly, privacy, and all the rest of it.

2. Liberals want to leave us defenseless in the face of evildoers around the world.
The big disconnect on security issues begins with the fact that we have a far more expansive definition of "security" than conservatives do. And, perhaps, a broader sense of what the actual threats are, and what can be done about them.

3. Liberals hate the free market.
If that's so, why does everyone down at the Apple Store know my name?

4. Liberals hate our troops.
We love our troops. We love them so much that we want them brought home safe and sound to their families, as soon as possible.

5. Liberals are a bunch of elitists who hate decent working- and middle-class Americans.
...as opposed to those sainted corporate men-of-the-people who fly around in private jets and pull down eight-figure salaries while closing plants and cutting 10,000 jobs at a time. That's what real populism looks like, you betcha.

6. Liberals are against "family values."
This is one of the biggest disconnects between us. As George Lakoff has pointed out, conservatives and liberals have very different ideas about what families look like, how they function, and what rules they should run under.

7. Liberals want to raise our taxes.
It all depends on who is the "our" in this scenario.
If your dinner companions are well-off enough to be bringing in over $250K a year, there's no point in finessing this. Their taxes probably are going up. The only comeback is that between Clinton-era tax cuts, the housing bubble, and the hot stock market of the past 15 years, they've probably made so much money that it's time to start giving some back to the nation that made their boon possible.

8. Liberals are Godless—and therefore, amoral.
This often sounds odd coming from people who raised you, who generally like you, and who usually think you're a fairly sound citizen...well, apart from that weird liberal thing.

9. Liberals don't believe in personal responsibility.
Again, there's a definitional disconnect at work here. Conservatives tend to use the rule of law to enforce traditional morality and social hierarchies, which usually means light treatment for those at the top, and harsh penalties for those at the bottom.

10. Liberals are wimps.
Conservatives like to caricaturize liberals as being soft in all the places our society values toughness. Our refusal to adhere to any dogma must mean that we're soft in our convictions.... But you can only believe this if you don't know anything about the history or reality of American liberalism. The Constitution is, itself, a liberal document—the ultimate expression of Enlightenment principles.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 25-11-2008 by grover]

AMEN AMEN AMEN!!!

Yes it takes wimps to face down the water cannons and dogs and racists in Selma Alabama.

Yes it takes someone who doesn't believe in personal responsibility to be willing to go to jail for exposing its government's lies.

Yes it takes an amoral atheist to stand up for all people of faith (and none) instead of making hypocritical noise about just one.

Yes it takes someone who wants to raise your taxes to understand that when only the middle class and poor pay taxes the seeds of revolution are sown.

Need I go on?

www.ourfuture.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

Hi, Grover. There are great points made in these posts. But, just for sake of my curiosity, can you provide me some details as to the rich not paying any taxes? Just the poor and the middle class? If this was true, then there are a lot of rich liberals who are just talking the talk and not walking the walk if they aren't paying taxes.

Originally posted by grover

Yes it takes wimps to face down the water cannons and dogs and racists in Selma Alabama.

Are you talking about black people? Black people are for the most part conservative on moral issues and religion. They are just liberal when it comes to the economy because liberal ideals benefit them.

Yes it takes an amoral atheist to stand up for all people of faith (and none) instead of making hypocritical noise about just one.

I am an agnostic but I know that atheists want to erradicate faith (as do I), rather than allow everyone to practice freely.

Yes it takes someone who wants to raise your taxes to understand that when only the middle class and poor pay taxes the seeds of revolution are sown.

EVERYONE should pay less taxes. The government needs to cut all their BS out of the budget and then everyone will pay less taxes. The rich and middle class and poor should all pay the same percentage of their incomes to the government. That is most fair.

reply to post by RetinoidReceptor


There weren't just black people at Selma or any other of the key moments of the Civil rights era.

Excellent!! Definitely shows the difference between liberals who think, and Repukes who just vomit up talking points from Karla Rove et al.

Bill Clinton got impeached for lying about oral sex in a deposition (on a case that eventually got thrown out)

Chimpy and Cheney ignored 50 warnings about 9-11 and got us attacked, lied 935 times to start the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time (IRaq), okayed torture, allowed treason in the White House (Plame and Brewster-Jennings), politicized the Justice Department, passed the Patriot Act and other laws that weakened the Constitution, and appointed idiots to the Supreme Court like that dumb goombah Scalia who doesn't even know that "Vafanculo" goes with "the arm" gesture, not "the chin" gesture.

Democrats are not innocent either. They enabled the Repukes to do these crimes. They took Chimpeachment off the table. They went along for the ride.

But there IS a difference. Democrats are amateurs compared to the GOP, which is organized crime, plain and simple.

Bill Clinton got impeached for lying about oral sex on a civil deposition.

Chimpy and Cheney committed torture and treason and the damn fool Democrats took Chimpeachment off the table.

We are so screwed. And I blame you Repukes. (And DLC Democrats)

left wing propaganda thats just as bad as right wing....

Originally posted by grover
There weren't just black people at Selma or any other of the key moments of the Civil rights era.

When you talk about people getting beaten and crap, it was mostly black people. Sure there were a few college white kids from the north that came down too. Many conservatives didn't agree with the way black people were treated either.

reply to post by Solomons


Its not so much propaganda than a counter punch to all the crap the right spews about those of us on the left.

All of it lies and all of it belittling your fellow citizens who love this country just as much as you do and want to see it succeed just like you do.

On thing I have learnt about conservatives in the US and UK, they are very angry and alienated from the rest of the community.

Besides serially killing, what do Gary Ridgway, Ted Bundy, and Dennis Rader have in common?

They're all Republicans. Coincidence? New anecdotal studies give a resounding, "Perhaps."

Questions resonating within an alarmed law enforcement community: Are serial killers attracted to the Republican party? Or are the Republicans attracted to them?

Hey settle down, your guy won, you're supposed to be acting all magnanimous and such.

Perhaps you should add a number 11. to your list:

11. Liberals refuse to accept victory.

Now we all get to sit back and:

a) See if he really keeps ALL his election promises.

b) If welcoming our enemies as friends really works (aka Chamberlain Syndrome).

c) If taxing the wealthy really does stimulate an economy that's in recession.

d) See if Emanuel Rahm really is the Jewish equivalent of Stalin.

Should be fun, I'm buying popcorn.

Let's add number 12 to the list. This myth has yet to be debunked

12. Liberals have mass marketed and trademarked the smell of patchouli as their signature scent. As was the case on my old college campus. Rule of thumb. Stay upwind.

I've never liked patchouli...

... and it is the conservatives who are always moaning about how they are marginalized by the media and all when conservatives own most of the media outlets... so who refuses to accept victory?

Originally posted by grover
we actually read and believed all those pretty words in the Bill of Rights about freedom of speech, religion, assembly, privacy, and all the rest of it.

Really?

I guess that explains the Fairness (censorship) doctrine then.

And, perhaps, a broader sense of what the actual threats are, and what can be done about them.

Again, I can reference this to the above comment.

Why worry about terrorism when the bigger problem of Conservative talk radio is looming?

Liberals hate the free market.
If that's so, why does everyone down at the Apple Store know my name?

Apparently this one was just added back in because they could only come up with 9 things.

We all know the free market loves government interference through higher corporate taxes, increased capital gains taxes, and new windfall profit taxes.

We love our troops. We love them so much that we want them brought home safe and sound to their families, as soon as possible.

Even if that means bringing them home in defeat and marginalizing everything so many have died for.

...as opposed to those sainted corporate men-of-the-people who fly around in private jets and pull down eight-figure salaries while closing plants and cutting 10,000 jobs at a time.

That point should have finished with:

...like Al Gore who continually seeks to destroy jobs through arbitrary environmental regulations based of phony science.

liberals have very different ideas about what families look like, how they function, and what rules they should run under.

I'll give you this one. Nothing wrong with this in my opinion.

Liberals want to raise our taxes.
It all depends on who is the "our" in this scenario.

That depends what the meaning of is, is.

No matter how you try and explain it. Higher taxes is higher taxes.

Liberals are Godless—and therefore, amoral.

I don't believe that's a consensus opinion. There are many strongly religous liberals.

which usually means light treatment for those at the top, and harsh penalties for those at the bottom.

Not true at all. Not giving government handouts does not translate to harsh treatment.

Liberals are wimps.
The Constitution is, itself, a liberal document

Not true. The Constitution isn't designed to change it's stance based on public opinion.

The whole point behind this thread is that despite rhetoric to the contrary liberals/progressives are no less patriotic or less concerned about the welfare than conservatives are.

We often see the same problems... we just see different solutions and that should be respected.

1. Liberals hate America.
If liberals do love America, then why don't they want to acknowledge, or even be seen near the flag of the United States? Obama doesn't think Mexican immigrants need to learn English--he thinks it’s the duty of legal citizens to learn Spanish. Interestingly, most Mexican officials don't take a reciprocal attitude towards Americans touristing there. So yeah, it sure looks like Obama, and progressives in general, dislike America

2. Liberals want to leave us defenseless in the face of evildoers around the world.
How many conservatives have been in favor of unilateral disarmament?

3. Liberals hate the free market.
They resist any and all attempts to move healthcare toward a free market, and away from the current state-mandated oligopoly which they micromanage through various federal agencies. They also want a windfall profit tax on oil companies, yet give billions in research grants to "green" companies and universities. That all seems fairly anti- free market to people who understand the concept.

4. Liberals hate our troops.
How many conservatives have declared defeat in Iraq? How many liberals? How many conservatives have accused our troops of 'air raiding villages?' How many conservatives have declared the surge a failure, or run on the idea of a unilateral withdrawal from Iraq, regardless of the situation on the ground (an attempt to re-enact the fall of Saigon)?

5. Liberals are a bunch of elitists who hate decent working- and middle-class Americans.
Obama mocks gun owners, God fearers, and people who don't speak French. They have no interest in a flat tax, while that concept has been at least debated in every republican convention since 1980 (although only once have conservatives managed to get it on the GOP agenda).

6. Liberals are against "family values."
Wanting to redefine marriage, redefine family, and redefine value fits the bill in the eyes of a lot of people. How many cultures have had officially sanctioned gay marriage? For how many centuries has a family in European culture been assumed to include one mother an one father?

7. Liberals want to raise our taxes.
Just look at the answer originally posted: "It all depends…." No it doesn't, liberals want to raise everyone's taxes--even more for folks they don't like, but more for everyone.

8. Liberals are Godless—and therefore, amoral.
www.dkosopedia.com...

Support for Republicans has long been characterized as the "Christian Right". Some call an important part of the Democratic Party's base the "Non-Christian Left".
The Democrats support among "mainline white Protestants" is far weaker than conventional wisdom would suppose it to be, and Democratic support among Catholics has declined greatly in the past generation

9. Liberals don't believe in personal responsibility.
Just look at welfare benefits, from food stamps to hud housing. There is no incentive for recipients to work, or to form a lasting relationship or marriage with the biological parents of children in the home. In fact, since the father's presence can reduce eligibility for certain kinds of assistance, there is a positive disincentive for forming an intact family. Other than unemployment, federal programs have no type of means testing for receiving government largess. In fact, you stand to receive less aid if you work part time…..

10. Liberals are wimps.
Look at the liberal "alternatives" to invading Iraq when Saddam stopped abiding by the cease-fire agreement of 1991. Bill Clinton launched missle strike into downtown Baghdad, but refused to invade. Liberals in Congress insisted on "economic sanctions" be given a chance against Iraq. But how well have embargos worked against Cuba? Or against North Korea?

Look at the Clinton administration's response to atrocities committed by Somalis against American soldiers in Somalia: withdrawal from the theatre.

Or the classic moment in the Presidential debates of October 2004. When Kerry criticized Bush's invasion of Iraq in the face of European disapproval, Bush asked whether America's foreign policy needed to pass a "European litmus test." Kerry gave a paragraph answer, and when Bush asked for a simple yes or no answer, Kerry gave another paragraph-long answer.




[edit on 25-11-2008 by dr_strangecraft]

Originally posted by grover
We often see the same problems... we just see different solutions and that should be respected.

Agreed.

Unfortunately Conservatives don't get the kind of respect around here that your demanding liberals get.

Conservatives are still referred to as "backwards", "anti-intellectual", "racist", and a whole slew of other things.

It takes both parties to respect each other, not just one.

Originally posted by nyk537
Unfortunately Conservatives don't get the kind of respect around here that your demanding liberals get.

That is what you feel you have experienced... I feel I have experienced the exact opposite.

And that is I guess the whole point of this thread... preception.

Originally posted by nyk537

Unfortunately Conservatives don't get the kind of respect around here that your demanding liberals get.

Perhaps conservatives would get more respect if they would quit the crybaby whining and man it up and accept that the people have spoken.

Conservatives also might get more respect if they would quit cutting and pasteing out of the Limbaugh letter and come up with a little original thought.

Originally posted by grover
The whole point behind this thread is that despite rhetoric to the contrary liberals/progressives are no less patriotic or less concerned about the welfare than conservatives are.

We often see the same problems... we just see different solutions and that should be respected.

No - the whole point of this thread was an attempt to encourage fellow liberals to dog pile conservatives, just like your equally insidious thread regarding Ann Coulter.

Liberals - even in victory they remain hate filled and spiteful, what a joyous 4 years we are in for.