NOTE: Several family members were brutally slaughtered recently, so I will take a break from writing. Their deaths erased my affinity for writing about politics or the economy, thus I'll later limit myself to health and brainpower in addition to completing my book on rapidly overcoming racism and bigotry. BTW, the two men who murdered my father are still on the lam; I am offering up to $100,000 for information leading to their arrest and conviction.
The definitions of conservative and liberal
Your assessment of whether you are a conservative or liberal might change after you read their dictionary definitions:
Conservative is supposed to mean a person who:
(1) favors traditional customs, views, and values; tending to oppose change or innovation, or to limit it by supporting, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society;
(2) is reluctant or averse to change, novelty, or new ideas and opposes sudden change in the established order, endorsing change only if it occurs slowly and in small measures;
(3) is disposed to preserving existing institutions and conditions, or restoring traditional ones;
(4) is traditional, cautious, guarded, conformist, old-fashioned, square, or unimaginatively conventional (don't shoot the messenger—that's what the dictionary said!)
Liberal is supposed to mean:
(1) not limited to established, traditional, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry;
(2) open to proposals for reform or new ideas for progress;
(3) tolerant of change or the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded;
(4) accepting; not criticizing or disapproving;
(5) showing respect for the opinions, practices, or rights of others;
(6) full of love and generosity;
(7) tolerant and forgiving under provocation;
(8) inclined to forgive and show mercy;
(9) indulgent, easy-going, charitable, open-minded, understanding, sympathetic, kind-hearted, unprejudiced.
Based on their dictionary definitions (that do not conform well to self-categorizations and objective assessment in the real world, thus frequently making these labels meaningless), liberals are more likely to embrace change, while conservatives are more likely to oppose it.
Now let's see a show of hands. If you like the way things are now, raise your hand. Hmmm, looking around, I don't see many hands raised, proving that most of you are smart enough to realize that a sinking ship desperately needs remediation; that is, change to correct problems.
Who doesn't perceive the need for change? People who:
(1) Have rocks in their heads
(2) Are stoned on drugs
(3) Are too young to know better
(4) Are sitting on a pile of gold and oblivious to the suffering around them
I was a staunch conservative during the years the United States was seemingly on the right track, but now that we've derailed, my allegiance to the existing order has changed.
Shortly after my Mom was diagnosed with cancer, she asked her oncologist if she should do anything differently. The doc replied, “Just keep doing what you've been doing.”
What she'd been doing led to cancer; just keep doing it? Where's the logic in that?
Similarly, what the United States has been doing has led to a national debt that seems mathematically impossible to repay without pixie dust or a miracle invented by an Einstein. Let's forget about the pixie dust and focus on major breakthroughs that fundamentally improve life. It's been done before—repeatedly—and it will be done again, changing the world for the better.
Regardless of what you think about abortion, drug legalization, immigration, taxation, regulation, the optimal size of government, and the other issues that separate conservatives from liberals, there is a clear and compelling need for change. Do you agree?
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