Sunday, September 28, 2008

Conservatives and Liberals

So Adam is slowly convincing me that I am not as liberal as I thought. Of course my blogging-friend is being selective of what he reveals about the general darftness of the Democrats, but that is okay. We are all selective about how we present information. Even supposed objective journalist do their profession from an inevitable paradigm. That is why it is so important to get as many different perspectives on important news as possible.

But back to American politics… Here’s my cop-out: I am not a U.S. citizen, so I don’t have to cast my vote to either the Conservatives or the Liberals. However, I believe I ought to have an opinion and although it will not make any difference to America, it will make a difference within me. Since I’m not American I’m allowing myself the courtesy to keep it general.

Conservatives:

Many of the conservative values I value. I believe in the sanctity of the family and similar sentiments. But I fear the Religious Right that is trying to use politics to enforce their religious agenda. This movement towards bridging the gap between State and Church is disturbing.

Christ showed a deliberate avoidance of political involvement. He shied away from attempts to get himself involved in any of the governmental politics of the day. He showed no interest in over throwing the Roman Empire. Even though a rebellion under His command would have been invincible, with him feeding them, healing them, raising them from the dead.

The serious privacy infringements under the Bush-administration are also a cause for solemn concern. It is my opinion that Americans have lost their freedom. Such atrocities as the “Spy Bill” of which I posted before, all under the cloak of anti-terrorism, are awful manipulations of the public’s fear, towards an Orwellian Big-Brother State.

Liberals:

What I like about the Liberals are their inclination away from Church and State and appreciation of freedom of speech.

Apart from the many inconsistencies Adam has made me aware of, I have another fear. In their offensiveness against the Religious Right, the Democrats are leaning themselves towards an equally fearsome extreme. A kind of Communist downplay (and sometimes even uprooting) of anything religious or traditionally sanctimonious. This has the potential to lead to a type of witch-hunt, or forced transformation of traditions and culture. My question is then, where does that leave those inalienable freedoms that made the United States the great nation it became? Such freedoms as the Freedom of Speech, Religion, Conscience. Freedoms that the Liberals are supposed to value.

Indeed, the religious right scares me, the liberal left frightens me. It is as one evangelist described: You have a choice between voting for the Devil in Pink or the Devil in Blue.

O, and by the way, the world is coming to an end!

1 comment:

Adam said...

It's interesting that you see the liberals as appreciating free speech. Why then, would the liberals support the reinstitution of the Fairness Doctrine? Isn't America supposed to be based on capitalism and have the inherent right of free speech? Shouldn't a radio station have the right to present whatever opinions it wants to and leave it up the the free market to decide whether or not to support it? The Democrats want it to be reintituted because of the success of conservative talk radio. In fact, last year the one liberal talk radio station, Air America, went bankrupt because of lack of support. Too many people were throwing up in their cars. Why is the support of the Fairness Doctrine one sided...all supported from those on the left? Check out what the Fairness Doctrine is at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_Doctrine

and be sure to read to the end where it talks about who supports it and who opposes it.