Difference between revisions of "Liberal"

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''See also:'' [[Secular left]]
 
''See also:'' [[Secular left]]
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The [[secular left]] consists of [[leftist|left]]-wing secularists who are able to exert their influence in many countries.  They support "strict government [[secularism]]".<ref>http://www.secularleft.us/about</ref>.
  
 
=== Decline of the secular left ===
 
=== Decline of the secular left ===
  
See: [[Decline of the secular left]]
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''See also:'' [[Decline of the secular left]]
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In some regions where the secular left has considerable influence, they [[Decline of the secular left|are losing]] an increasing amount of their power.
  
 
== Liberalism in the United States Today ==
 
== Liberalism in the United States Today ==

Revision as of 14:32, May 28, 2016

Barack Hussein Obama advocates the use of unsuccessful Keynesian economic concepts. He is considered to be the most liberal president in history.

A liberal is someone who favors an increase in government spending, power, and control, such as ObamaCare. Most liberals also support the censorship and denial of Christianity.[1] Increasingly, liberals side with the homosexual agenda, including homosexual "marriage". Most liberals favor a welfare state where people receive endless entitlements without working.[2] The liberal ideology has degenerated into economically unsound views and intolerant ideology. Many liberals support, in knee-jerk fashion, the opposite of conservative principles, while lacking an actual ideology or values of their own.

Polling data has consistently shown that a increasingly large percentage of Americans identify as conservative, rather than as liberal, currently by 38% to 21%.[3]

A liberal supports many of the following political positions and practices:

  • Spending money on government programs (the significant economic problems in the Eurozone due to government debt will no doubt increasingly discredit this aspect of liberal ideology and make things more difficult for advocates of liberal economic ideologies)
  • Denial of science[4] (especially creation science)
  • Government's ability to solve economic problems[5]
  • The belief that terrorism is not a huge threat, and that the main reason for Muslim extremists' hostility towards America is because of bad foreign policy [5]
  • Brainwashing voters with propaganda
  • Taxpayer-funded and/or legalized abortion
  • Censorship[6]
  • Socialism[7]
  • Unsuccessful Keynesian economics as opposed to sound free market economics
  • Cessation of teacher-led prayer in classrooms and school/state-sponsored religious events.
  • Gun control
  • Elitism
  • Pseudo-intellectualism[8]
  • Affirmative action[5]
  • Opposition to government regulation or restriction of obscenity, pornography and violence in video games as a First Amendment right[9]
  • Authoritarian government[10]
  • Government-funded medical care, such as Obamacare
  • Belief in evolution
  • Destroying the Christian foundations on which America was built on.
  • Taxpayer-funded and government-controlled public education
  • Limiting personal freedom[11]. Liberal support for gun control is an example of this.
  • High progressive taxes[12] as a form of class warfare against wealthy business owners[13].
  • Placement of men and women in the same jobs in the military
  • Slowly eroding the U.S. through Progressivism.[14]
  • Legalized same-sex "marriage" and homosexual adoption
  • Tax and spend economics
  • Libertine sexual morality. See: Evolutionary belief and sexual immorality and Liberal Christianity and marital infidelity
  • Economic sector regulations[5]
  • Denial of conservative roles in history. For example, liberals frequently claim[15] that George Washington was a deist when he was actually a devout Episcopalian.
  • Spreading of political correctness
  • Government mass-surveillance
  • Non-syndicalist labor unions
  • Encouraging promiscuity through sexual education (the teaching of safe sex) rather than teaching abstinence from premarital sex[16]
  • A "living Constitution" that is reinterpreted as liberals prefer, rather than how it is thought to have been intended.
  • Government programs to rehabilitate criminals
  • Gender Equality
  • Bestiality as a human right[17]
  • Abolition of the death penalty
  • Environmentalism[18]
  • Globalism
  • Constitutionally mandated separation of church and state.
  • Opposition to full private property rights.[19]
  • Reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine
  • Welfare
  • Opposition to domestic wire-tapping as authorized in the Patriot Act
  • Regulation of business rather than a laissez-faire capitalist economy
  • Opposition to the Constitution. Liberals seek to expand federal power at the expense of local government and silence the conservatives who hold them back, violating the 10th and 1st Amendments respectively.
  • Denial of traditional gender roles
  • Support of financially irresponsible policies
  • Encouragement of global warming alarmism
  • Rejection of logical[20] standards

Liberals currently use two Clauses of the Constitution to try to expand their power: the Commerce Clause and the General Welfare Clause. The General Welfare Clause mentions "promoting the general welfare". This to a liberal means taxing the rich at increased rates and redistributing that money. The Commerce Clause, on the other hand, says that Congress has the power to regulate trade with foreign nations, between the states and with the Indian tribes. Since the days of FDR this Clause has been interpreted very loosely and has resulted in the federal government expanding its power. The latest example is The Affordable Care Act (ACA), better know as Obamacare. In the ACA, the liberals justify the individual mandate by saying it regulates commerce between the states.

The decline in liberal principles can be illustrated by how Franklin Delano Roosevelt opposed and condemned public sector unions, stating that the idea of collective bargaining can't be transferred from the private to the public sector, as that would result in the government being unable to carry out its duties. Yet today, decades later, Democrats and liberals are in lock-step with public sector unions, as they "donate" money to the reelection campaign in exchange for more taxpayer money in their wallets and fluffed up pensions.

Current dictionaries describe the liberal ideology by pretending that a liberal is "a person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties" or "a person who favors an economic theory of laissez-faire and self-regulating markets,"[21] or "open-minded or tolerant, especially free of or not bound by traditional or conventional ideas, values, etc." or "favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom possible, especially as guaranteed by law and secured by governmental protection of civil liberties."[22] In practical usage, the term "liberal" is more closely synonymous with "radical," "immoral," "anti-freedom," "elitist," or "bad."

Liberals and Uncharitableness

See also: Liberals and uncharitableness and Atheism and charity

American liberals have been observed to give less to charity than American conservatives.[23]

In March of 2008, George Will wrote at RealClearPolitics concerning the United States:

Sixteen months ago, Arthur C. Brooks, a professor at Syracuse University, published "Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism." The surprise is that liberals are markedly less charitable than conservatives....

If many conservatives are liberals who have been mugged by reality, Brooks, a registered independent, is, as a reviewer of his book said, a social scientist who has been mugged by data. They include these findings:

-- Although liberal families' incomes average 6 percent higher than those of conservative families, conservative-headed households give, on average, 30 percent more to charity than the average liberal-headed household ($1,600 per year vs. $1,227).

-- Conservatives also donate more time and give more blood.[23]

Atheists and agnostics often reject Biblical morality (and therefore conservative Christianity ) and hold to moral relativism. Therefore, it is not surprising that per capita atheists and agnostics in America give significantly less to charity than theists even when church giving is not counted for theists.[24]

Liberal politicians and uncharitableness

The political magazine the American Spectator featured an article which focused on liberal politicians and uncharitableness exposing the hypocrisy of the liberal politicians it featured.[25]

In addition, Barack Obama has been criticized concerning his lack of charitable giving.

Liberal Christianity and marital infidelity

See also: Liberal Christianity and marital infidelity and Liberal Christianity

According to a 2007 study reported in the Journal of Family Issues, adherents of liberal Christianity are more likely to engage in marital infidelity than theologically conservative Christians.[26]

As noted above, liberals are more likely to adhere to evolutionary belief than conservatives. A study conducted by the Australian National University, revealed that belief in evolution is associated with moral permissiveness.[27]

Liberals and Superstition

The Wall Street Journal reported: "A comprehensive new study released by Baylor University yesterday, shows ...that the irreligious and the members of more liberal Protestant denominations, far from being resistant to superstition, tend to be much more likely to believe in the paranormal and in pseudoscience than evangelical Christians."[28]

See also: Irreligion and superstition

The Wall Street Journal reported: "A comprehensive new study released by Baylor University, shows that traditional Christian religion greatly decreases belief in everything from the efficacy of palm readers to the usefulness of astrology. [29]

Also, in September of 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported:

The reality is that the New Atheist campaign, by discouraging religion, won't create a new group of intelligent, skeptical, enlightened beings. Far from it: It might actually encourage new levels of mass superstition. And that's not a conclusion to take on faith — it's what the empirical data tell us.

"What Americans Really Believe," a comprehensive new study released by Baylor University yesterday, shows that traditional Christian religion greatly decreases belief in everything from the efficacy of palm readers to the usefulness of astrology. It also shows that the irreligious and the members of more liberal Protestant denominations, far from being resistant to superstition, tend to be much more likely to believe in the paranormal and in pseudoscience, such as evolution than evangelical Christians....

This is not a new finding. In his 1983 book "The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener," skeptic and science writer Martin Gardner cited the decline of traditional religious belief among the better educated as one of the causes for an increase in pseudoscience, cults and superstition. He referenced a 1980 study published in the magazine Skeptical Inquirer that showed irreligious college students to be by far the most likely to embrace paranormal beliefs, while born-again Christian college students were the least likely.[29]

Secular left

See also: Secular left

The secular left consists of left-wing secularists who are able to exert their influence in many countries. They support "strict government secularism".[30].

Decline of the secular left

See also: Decline of the secular left

In some regions where the secular left has considerable influence, they are losing an increasing amount of their power.

Liberalism in the United States Today

Smear merchants.jpg

Democrats and most media outlets in the U.S. are blatantly liberal.[31] Liberalism in North America today practices three primary tactics to attack the Republican Party, and sometimes to attack American values in general. These three liberal tactics can be pronounced using the following acronym: SIN. Liberals (1) shift the subject, they (2) ignore the facts, and they (3) name call.[32][33]

  • Liberals typically support a "mixed" economy, a policy similar to that of fascism. [34]
There's another goal, from my point of view, which is to try to lay the groundwork for a radical political force which would conceive of itself as distinctly to the left of moderate, reformist American liberals. And that has two aspects. One is to try to change that liberalism, to transform it by analysis, critique, and activism; the second is to build a radical movement which would be an autonomous force in its own right, which would be distinct from the traditional American liberal consensus. This radical part of the program involves not simply supporting the liberal students against conservative students and conservative professors, but trying to act on them, to push them to the left. It also involves trying to find and support, even trying to help create, networks of radical students in law school and of radical professors around the country — students and teachers who see themselves as wanting to go a lot further than most people want to go. [35]

Liberal Rankings of Congress Members

The National Journal compiles the votes of each congress member each year and uses the information to create rankings[36] of how liberal each member of the United States Congress is. In addition to showing the voting records of each member and given an overall all ranking of liberalness, the National Journal also ranks congress members by liberalness in the areas of social, economic, and foreign policy.

American liberalism, demographics and expected tipping point in the decline of American liberalism

See also: American atheism and Decline of atheism and Global atheism

Due to the explosive growth of global Christianity in traditional cultures and their influence on Western Christianity and the higher birth rate of conservative Christians and religious conservatives, social conservatism is expected to rise.

The Birkbeck College, University of London professor Eric Kaufman wrote in his 2010 book Shall the Righteous Inherit the Earth? concerning America:

High evangelical fertility rates more than compensated for losses to liberal Protestant sects during the twentieth century. In recent decades, white secularism has surged, but Latino and Asian religious immigration has taken up the slack, keeping secularism at bay. Across denominations, the fertility advantage of religious fundamentalists of all colours is significant and growing. After 2020, their demographic weight will to tip the balance in the culture wars towards the conservative side, ramping up pressure on hot-button issues such as abortion. By the end of the century, three quarters of America may be pro-life. Their activism will leap over the borders of the 'Redeemer Nation' to evangelize the world. Already, the rise of the World Congress of Families has launched a global religious right, its arms stretching across the bloody lines of the War on Terror to embrace the entire Abrahamic family.[37]

Liberalism in Europe today

In Europe, on the other hand, parties that call themselves liberal are moderate in outlook, ranging from centre-left to centre-right, promote typically economic and business freedom. The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe[38] is a party of the European Parliament that represents most liberal parties from European countries. Similar policies are promoted by many liberal parties throughout the world,[39] such as the Liberal Party of Australia.[40]

Trade unions and socialist parties often criticize politicians for promoting lower taxes on business, or more flexible hiring and firing laws, by calling them "liberals" or neoliberals. Thus, just as in the US, "liberal" may occasionally be used as a term of abuse. But when someone is called "liberal" in Europe, it has an entirely different meaning than in the US. In fact, the US meaning of liberal is more similar to the politics of European socialist or social democratic parties.[41]

Historical Liberalism

In history, the word "liberal" has meant different things at different times, and was associated with individual liberty in prior centuries. In the postwar period, liberals supported government intervention in the economy and welfare state policies, as well as peaceful coexistence with the communist block, which are not liberal policies in the sense of classical liberalism. After the end of the cold war, with the demise of socialism and communism, many liberals embraced some ideas from economic neo-liberalism, and coined it the "Third Way". In the area of national security and foreign policy liberals in the U.S. failed to define a consistent stance, even after the events of 9/11 and the beginning of the war in Iraq. Liberals generally support affirmative action, gay marriage, and abortion.[42]

Original meaning: Classical Liberalism

Liberalism is a political philosophy with freedom as its core value. The term was originally applied to supporters of individual liberties and equal rights, but, in America, the term has come to represent a movement of social change that often conflicts with conservative values such as moral values and traditions derived from Northern European Protestantism.

See Classical Liberalism. Compare Libertarianism.

Notable liberal "intellects"

See also: Infamous liberals

Liberal Organizations of thought

Source: The Politix Group

Quotes on Liberals

"I never use the words Democrats and Republicans. It's liberals and Americans." -James Watt, Secretary of the Interior under Ronald Reagan

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so." -Ronald Reagan

“Liberals see racism where it doesn't exist, fabricate it when they can't find it and ignore it within their own ranks.” ―Michelle Malkin

"Words mean nothing to liberals. They say whatever will help advance their cause at the moment, switch talking points in a heartbeat, and then act indignant if anyone uses the exact same argument they were using five minutes ago." -Ann Coulter[47]

"The reason any conservative's failing is always major news is that it allows liberals to engage in their very favorite taunt: Hypocrisy! Hypocrisy is the only sin that really inflames them. Inasmuch as liberals have no morals, they can sit back and criticize other people for failing to meet the standards that liberals simply renounce. It's an intriguing strategy. By openly admitting to being philanderers, draft dodgers, liars, weasels and cowards, liberals avoid ever being hypocrites." -Ann Coulter

"If you can somehow force a liberal into a point-counterpoint argument, his retorts will bear no relation to what you've said -- unless you were in fact talking about your looks, your age, your weight, your personal obsessions, or whether you are a fascist. In the famous liberal two-step, they leap from one idiotic point to the next, so you can never nail them. It's like arguing with someone with Attention Deficit Disorder." -Ann Coulter

"Inside many liberals is a totalitarian screaming to get out. They don't like to have another point of view in the room that they don't squash and the way they try to squash it is by character assassination and name calling." -David Horowitz

"End results that work that don't involve government threaten liberals." -Rush Limbaugh

Quotes by Liberals

"The number one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S." -Joe Biden

"There is no reason the nation of Africa cannot, and should not, join the ranks of the worlds most prosperous nations." -Joe Biden[48]

"Romney wants to give EIGHT HUNDRED MILLION BILLION in tax breaks to the rich." -Joe Biden

"Will the Mars Rover be able to show the flag the astronauts planted there before?" -Sheila Jackson Lee

"Isn't it a little racist to call it Black Friday?" -Joy Behar

"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." -Al Gore

"The center of the earth is about a million degrees." -Al Gore

"A zebra does not change its spots." -Al Gore

"The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government lied." -Jeremiah Wright

"Every month that we do not have an economic recovery package 500 million Americans lose their jobs." -Nancy Pelosi

"Why can't I just eat my waffle?" -Barack Hussein Obama

"Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go." -Barack Hussein Obama

"My fear is that the whole island (of Guam) will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize." -Democrat Congressman Hank Johnson[49]

"Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security." -Obama foreign policy adviser Richard Danzig

"If you take out the killings, Washington actually has a very very low crime rate." -Former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry[50]

"What right does Congress have to go around making laws just because they deem it necessary?" -Marion Barry

"My appetite is so good that I can eat the table cloth right off the chair." -Democratic Congressman Joe Moakley

"Those who died in the earthquake, their lives will never be the same again." -Barbara Boxer

"I dare you, you little fruitcake!" -Democratic Congressman Pete Stark

References

  1. http://www.worldviewweekend.com/worldview-times/article.php?articleid=2062
  2. Reform conservatives tackle the failed liberal welfare state, Washington Post
  3. Winds of Political Change Haven’t Shifted Public’s Ideology Balance
  4. Why Do Liberals Hate Science?
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Conservative vs. Liberal Beliefs
  6. Watch What You Say, The New Liberal Power Elite Won’t Tolerate Dissent, The Daily Beast
  7. 60 Hard Truths about "Liberals"
  8. I hate pseudo-intellectuals
  9. The Warren Court, led by liberal Justices William O. Douglas, Hugo Black, Abe Fortas, William Brennan and Chief Justice Earl Warren issued 36 decisions granting First Amendment rights to obscenity and pornography. These decisions remain fully supported by liberals today.
  10. Liberal Authoritarianism
  11. Democratic Party
  12. This Nationwide Study Challenges Everything Liberals Have Told You About Raising Taxes
  13. Progressive taxation
  14. What Is Progressivism?
  15. George Washington and Deism
  16. Democrats Aim To Kill Abstinence-Only Program Funding, Fox News, Monday, June 25, 2007
  17. Liberals Repeal Ban on Bestiality in the Military
  18. and environmental organizations, for example Greenpeace
  19. For example, the liberal wing of the U.S. Supreme Court issued the 5-4 Kelo v. City of New London decision authorizing the taking of private property by government in order to give the property to another private entity rather than convert it to a public use.
  20. Liberals are illogical, and good at it
  21. Noun S: (n) liberal
  22. liberal
  23. 23.0 23.1 Conservatives More Liberal Givers, RealClearPolitics
  24. Atheists and Agnostics Take Aim at Christians
  25. Charity Donations and Liberal Hypocrisy
  26. Are There Religious Variations in Marital Infidelity?
  27. Morals decline linked to evolution
  28. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178219865054585.html
  29. 29.0 29.1 Look Who's Irrational Now
  30. http://www.secularleft.us/about
  31. Media Bias basics. Media Research Center.
  32. Scott Baker. Did Herman Cain Give the ‘Don’t Miss’ Speech at CPAC?, The Blaze, February 12, 2011.
  33. YouTube. Herman Cain: "Stupid People Are Ruining America", February 11, 2011.
  34. Video discussion about how modern liberalism is actually fascist by author Jonah Goldberg..
  35. Liberal Values in Legal Education Duncan Kennedy (professor at Harvard Law School)
  36. How the House voted
  37. Why are 2012 and 2020 key years for Christian creationists and pro-lifers?
  38. Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the European Parliament
  39. World Federation of Liberalism
  40. Liberal Party of Australia
  41. Party of European Socialism
  42. Parental Selection of Children’s Sexual Orientation, PDF, "Political liberals tend, for whatever reason, to be ardent supporters of both gay rights and pro-choice programs." Greenberg and Bailey
  43. CHENEY: Obama Is 'The Worst President Of My Lifetime'
  44. John Wayne Gacy: Defending a Monster, Transcript
  45. John Wayne Gacy: Defending a Monster, Transcript
  46. Johnwaynegacyrosalynncarter.jpg
  47. The 25 Best Quotes About Liberals
  48. Stupid Stuff Democrats Say
  49. The 25 Stupidest Liberal Quotes Of The Last Decade
  50. http://conservative.wikia.com/wiki/Hilarious_Liberal_Quotes

See Also

Further Information