Understanding Liberalism

This weekend, I took a trail off the path that I have been following for the last 40 years or so. I gave a shot at trying to understand Liberalism. What is the driving force behind the Liberal philosophy that is so attractive? Here is a list of my conclusions.

• A. Liberals genuinely want to help others. They see the government as the vehicle of choice to handle the details and trust the government to do it right.

I do not question motives; I just disagree with putting the job of helping others into the hands of the politicians.

Using the government as the agent for helping others carries with it unintended consequences. One of the most serious of the consequences of allowing the politicians in Washington play nanny to the underprivileged is dependency.

That dependency works two ways, the recipient of the handout becomes addicted to it, and the politician gets addicted to those votes and will perpetuate the program to get re-elected.
Try raising you children by catering to their whims. This happens all the time. The children become spoiled and resentful if they do not get their way. The same thing happens to adults with more and prolonged assistance than what is necessary. But politicians understand that once federal welfare starts, it is their ticket for getting votes. The politicians who use that dependency to get votes, raises the ante, which compounds our social structure.

The original intent of the program may have been noble at the time of its incarnation, but people will always be people and exploit every opportunity to embellish themselves at the expense of others.

• B. Liberals maintain their party by pandering and catering to each constituent group in the 'Big Tent'.

The Democratic Party maintains the 'big tent' strategy. There are no core beliefs that the different constituency groups must conform. Rather the Party bends to the needs of each group. If the group is gay, then the Democratic Party champions the Gay cause. If the group is pro-abortion, then the Democratic Party champions abortion. It is not like if you want to be a Democrat, then you conform to their Democratic Ideals.

We often hear that the Democrats shun religion. No, that is not true. What the Democrats shun is anything that resembles rules of behavior. This is necessary for the 'Big Tent' so that any group, regardless of the group's agenda, is accepted. Strict rules governing behavior would preclude some of the Democrats largest constituencies. Lose of any of the large groups would doom the Democrats. So the Democrats divide their pie into many slices.

• C. Like a bunch of spoiled children, the Democrats can be vitriolic and coarse when dealing with anybody that refuses to patronize them and their agenda.

If you have not been to the website of Move On, you need to go there and read some of the hate-speech espoused by these Democrats. For added flavor, go to the Huffington Post for more of the insane hatred these people have for anybody not politically aligned to their cause.

Most Democrats fit into one of the individual groups that make up the Democratic Party. In a way, because of their minority views, they are between a rock and a hard place. The Democratic Party makes it possible for these disparate groups to get some recognition for their views. Most of these party zealots, while not well informed about most issues, rely on the pontifications of other zealots who lack an understanding of the issues.

My head is still spinning after reading the vitriol at the Liberal websites. My honest impression is that a knowledge and learning pill needs to be dispensed to all of their loyal readers. The amount of misinformation on their websites is astonishing.

In conclusion, they can have their liberalism. Most of what they advocate is anathema to me.

Cheers,

-Robert-