Ten Myths Conservatives Believe About Progressives , page 1

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)

reply to post by RetinoidReceptor

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

reply to post by Solomons

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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.

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]

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