I Am Proud To Call Myself A Liberal

[Mursilis]

I had an encounter today that was interesting, and really reminded me that despite its flaws, the US is still a great country.

I passed a peace protest today on the way to work, a group of about 15 people carrying signs calling for the end of "American militarism", drone warfare, and the like. Some of them were praying before a cross, and one guy was actually standing against a lifesize cross with a sign "Victim of American Terrorism" around his neck. They were pretty quiet, mostly just holding their signs as silent witnesses.
There was a significant police presence, about 10 officers, but they were mostly just standing around talking and making sure no violence broke out. While I was there, people just walked past, looking at the protest but not doing anything out of the ordinary.
The best part was where the demonstration was being held - on the grounds of the Pentagon, right next to the entrance from the subway and bus stations. The fact that gov't officials and members of our military could walk past such a protest and allow it to continue right in front of the Pentagon was a reminder that we still have some civil liberties in the USA.

 

[yllus]

I'm pretty proud to call myself a small-l liberal as well. All labels are modified by the person who wears them; I'm not particularly concerned with what others have done with it.

 

[Moonbeam]

I am a conservative in the sense that I will strive to conserve what is good from those who seek change that is bad and liberal in the sense that I will seek to change what is bad into something better. I am neither conservative or liberal in my belief that the capacity to know what is good and what is bad can be derived from adherence to any formula that is ideological. Without self knowledge of what one has been inculcated to feel, unconsciously, one is an ideological prisoner of one kind or another. Truth can't be had when one is unaware of what one feels. The unconscious is the source of unconscious emotional need. Needs and truth are two different things. To seek the truth requires that one dies to ones needs. The mind that needs to deny its needs is driven not by truth but by denial, a denial of an inner emotional hell. When the ego burns like the phoenix there is only the silence of joy and being. For me to wish that for all is what it means to be a liberal. It's not an idea or a philosophy or an ideology etc., but a kind of inner smile, present but unattached to things. It's like being a child who can't again have his childhood taken away.

To know what is good and what is bad isn't based on information acquisition or change, but the collapse of ones dual inner state and the realization there is nowhere to go and nothing to become because everything has always been absolutely perfect. To die on the cross is to surrender ones ego and let go of everything. Pain is what creates attachment to the notion of good and evil and to suffer consciously is how one lets go.

To change the world is delusion. To change the world is to change ones inner state.

 

[BoberFett]

If tomorrow all the things were gone I'd worked for all my life,
And I had to start again with just my children and my wife.
I'd thank my lucky stars to be living here today,
‘Cause the flag still stands for freedom and they can't take that away.

And I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free.
And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.
And I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land God bless the U.S.A.

From the lakes of Minnesota, to the hills of Tennessee,
across the plains of Texas, from sea to shining sea,

From Detroit down to Houston and New York to LA,
Well, there's pride in every American heart,
and it's time to stand and say:

I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free.
And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.
And I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land God bless the U.S.A.

That's in my top five most hated songs of all time.

 

[BoberFett]

I posted the lyrics for lulz, but with all sincerity I am a hopeless optimist when it comes to this country. I would not argue the validity of anything you wrote. But having the personal experience of being broke and in serious criminal trouble and eventually making it through that to being a gainfully employed citizen with his slice of the "American Dream" it's hard for me not to love this country warts and all.

Which is also why I consider myself a "liberal" and vote for politicians who identify themselves as "liberal". Not that it matters because I live in a red state and all my votes are wasted.

On the other hand, my experiences with the legal system are all because of liberals, which is a part of the reason I can't stand modern "liberals". Fathers in this country are treated like garbage by the legal system, and that's not due to "conservatives".

 

[Thebobo]

If tomorrow all the things were gone I'd worked for all my life,

.......Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land God bless the U.S.A.

 

[fskimospy]

That's in my top five most hated songs of all time.

It's really the worst. They played that for us when we were graduating boot camp in the Navy, it kind of made me want to defect.

 

[SheHateMe]

I had an encounter today that was interesting, and really reminded me that despite its flaws, the US is still a great country.

I passed a peace protest today on the way to work, a group of about 15 people carrying signs calling for the end of "American militarism", drone warfare, and the like. Some of them were praying before a cross, and one guy was actually standing against a lifesize cross with a sign "Victim of American Terrorism" around his neck. They were pretty quiet, mostly just holding their signs as silent witnesses.
There was a significant police presence, about 10 officers, but they were mostly just standing around talking and making sure no violence broke out. While I was there, people just walked past, looking at the protest but not doing anything out of the ordinary.
The best part was where the demonstration was being held - on the grounds of the Pentagon, right next to the entrance from the subway and bus stations. The fact that gov't officials and members of our military could walk past such a protest and allow it to continue right in front of the Pentagon was a reminder that we still have some civil liberties in the USA.

Wow, I seemed to have missed that protest. I was at the Pentagon earlier by the bus station around 9:30. They must have setup after I left.

 

[1prophet]

I miss some of the classic liberals of old, the kind who still recognized the importance of the principles of classic liberalism. People like Burton Joseph, who convinced the ACLU to intervene in the case of National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie, wherein a group of Illinois Nazis wanted to march through a Jewish community. It takes some serious principles to stick up for the free speech rights of fringe groups roundly detested by the general community.

Or liberals like Alan Dershowitz, a proponent of gun control (he has stated the 2nd Amendment has "no place in modern society"), who has enough intellectual integrity to recognize that an individual right to bear arms is in fact in the Constitution. He has stated:

"Foolish liberals who are trying to read the Second Amendment out of the Constitution by claiming it's not an individual right or that it's too much of a public safety hazard don't see the danger in the big picture. They're courting disaster by encouraging others to use the same means to eliminate portions of the Constitution they don't like."

Or liberals like Nat Hentoff, avowed atheist, who was both pro-life and anti-death penalty because he recognized that if chip away at the right to exist of any one group, you erode it for us all.

There's so few of those kinds of liberals anymore, especially here.

This,

It's not so much that the Republicans have hijacked the country,

but the so called liberal Democrats fumbled the ball because they wanted to feed at the same corporate pig trough without appearing to do so,

therefore compromising their beliefs while pretending to be for the ordinary person and not the elite, but the facts have a liberal bias and they have bit them in the ass.

 

[BoberFett]

It's really the worst. They played that for us when we were graduating boot camp in the Navy, it kind of made me want to defect.

It's definitely a contender for #1, but it gets very hard to pick a true winner when it's up against stinkers like We Built This City...

 

[Mursilis]

Wow, I seemed to have missed that protest. I was at the Pentagon earlier by the bus station around 9:30. They must have setup after I left.

It was ~6:45 AM, right near the metro escalators.

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

It's definitely a contender for #1, but it gets very hard to pick a true winner when it's up against stinkers like We Built This City...

:awe:

And f*** you for putting that song in my head

 

[Jaskalas]

This,

It's not so much that the Republicans have hijacked the country,

but the so called liberal Democrats fumbled the ball because they wanted to feed at the same corporate pig trough without appearing to do so,

therefore compromising their beliefs while pretending to be for the ordinary person and not the elite, but the facts have a liberal bias and they have bit them in the ass.

I've mirrored that sentiment for Republicans since 2006. Bush made it all too clear how the GOP was compromising the storied "small government" rhetoric which got them elected. How they pretended to represent me.

Press for your beliefs and be labeled a partisan, an ideologue, and extremest. They compromise under the guise of bipartisanship. Makes it easy for them to label Liberals as the enemy, on both sides.

 

[hal2kilo]

It's definitely a contender for #1, but it gets very hard to pick a true winner when it's up against stinkers like We Built This City...

Oh my god, the sellout "Starship".

 

[BoberFett]

:awe:

And f*** you for putting that song in my head

Oh my god, the sellout "Starship".

You're both welcome.

 

[Stewox]

As promised - here you go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq5cpQT54ws


Well, heh, not yet exactly ... working on it still, couldn't finish today, tomorrow for sure. This is just for laughs, in the meantime. Off to sleep.

 

[SheHateMe]

It was ~6:45 AM, right near the metro escalators.

ah...much too early for me to be out and about, haha

 

[MongGrel]

I'm probably more or less a Blue Dog type Democrat, that kind of equates to Ronald Reagan back in the day.

Most people don't even know what they are a lot of time in seems, even the far Right Wing pretending to adore Reagan, I voted for him twice actually then that party went off a cliff.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

At this point you should be ashamed to call yourself a Democrat or a Republican. If you still do call yourself either one, you are not paying attention and probably just listening to your allowed network (CNN or Fox).

 

[Greenman]

That's in my top five most hated songs of all time.

It's great tune, right up there with the angry American. The best part about it is that it's not trendy or politically correct, and hated by a lot of people. It has everything.