I am a liberal.
I am that fellow that a certain part of rural America thinks is out to get them.
I am a member of that group that Fox News tells it's viewers hates American wants to hand this nation over to the Europeans, the Marxists, the Russians, the Chinese and the Atheists.
I am a liberal and this is the core of what I believe.
I believe in the American individual. I believe that every individual is born with a certain abilities that could make America stronger and deserves the chance to thrive. However we live in a country of unequal opportunity where circumstance and situation often define whether or not that potential will ever have a chance to grow. When individuals are mired in poverty or violence or ignorance we all lose the benefit of their gifts. I believe it is our duty as Americans to establish structures to prevent individuals from regularly falling so far away form their potential that they become anchors on the best of us instead of assets to all of us.
I believe in the ingenuity of Americans; their ideas and enterprises, their organization and corporations. I believe that the greatest of America's strengths came from the ability of men and women to realize their dreams under their own direction and control. However I also believe that the pursuit of profit has a dark side that in times of extreme competition or economic hardship can quickly become a race to the bottom instead of a climb to the top. Companies pressured by immoral leaders or tough times can attempt to succeed at the expense of workers, safety, the environment, and our own personal integrity as corporations destroy one another and our world for more and more money. Because of this, I believe business, like sports, requires a referee. I believe it is government's correct role to establish and enforce the rules of engagement for corporate America and to define the field by which private enterprise carries us forward. I do not believe government should take over the means of production in our country, but neither do I abide being called socialist for remaining adamant about transparency in the behavior of companies and for holding them accountable for their actions intentional or not. Business must be responsible to our future even as they seek gains in our present. I believe American corporations are robust and inventive and do not require deregulation or tentative expectations from Americans to prevail; they can bear the burden of responsible oversight and accountability and still thrive in the global market.
I believe there are times when the pursuit of profit by corporate enterprise creates a conflict of interest with the public good. When providing less medical attention raises profits, or providing less safety for dangerous endeavors such as nuclear power increases revenue, or reducing sanitary requirements in food production increases per unit gains, the government must step in to make greater regulatory demands on these industries in the name of its people. I believe it is irresponsible to treat 'business' as a single thing that policy is either 'for' or 'against'. I believe government's role in business must not be to play the game as much as it is to carefully watch those areas where our individual enterprise has the risk of damaging people or our future – staying out of the way when it's business is done right and intervening with authority when it's done wrong.
I believe in taxation based on influence over resources. I believe it is only fair to ask those who control the most resources and take the most gains from the activity of society to pay the most for society's upkeep. I deny the idea that because the wealthy pay the majority of the taxes actually collected that they are 'paying enough'. This idea is misleading as the appropriate measure is how much they pay proportionate to how much they make, not the aggregate of what's actually collected. Taxation is a method of funding the structures of the society used to provide income, and those making the most income benefit the most from that society and should therefore pay accordingly to support it.
I believe America's strength has it's roots in our diversity. Like any creative process, the more options and ideas and perspectives you can gather, the greater the chance for the best ideas to be realized and rise to the surface. To this end, I believe that just as business should be allowed to practice as it sees fit with the oversight of government to keep the playing field fair and level, individuals should be allowed to live their lives and express themselves as they see fit, limited by government only when that expression threatens to impinge unreasonably on others or becomes violent. Therefore I believe morality should be taught, not legally enforced. I am pro-choice because I want people to choose NOT to have abortions instead of being required not to. I am pro gay marriage because I think depriving homosexuals of legal rights does not make me a better Christian. I believe social morality is the ultimate form of American individual expression and that using government to shape beliefs is exactly the opposite of what the founders of our nation intended.
I believe that our lives as Americans are deeply interconnected with one another and across the world. I believe that the idea of a 'self made' man has become a dangerous and counterproductive myth of false individuality that denies the truth. Every one of us depends on literally thousands of others every single day from the roads we travel, to the food we eat, to the consumer electronics we depend on to our trash, water, heat, power, and the programs that funded our education, provide for our retirement, and allow us to invest in one another just to name a few. None of us does anything that isn't built on a deep foundation of the contributions of numerous others. These are people we don't know and never see working quietly in the background whether it's to support our business success or just eating lunch on a Tuesday.
But as individuals we are all still only truly aware of the consequences of our actions on people in front of us; We touch the lives of thousands but we only see the effects on a few. It is because we are so dependent on people we don't know or never meet that society cannot be left the mere byproduct of individual initiative. We cannot expect a businessman in Chicago to understand that his investments in wheat futures to protect his retirement could contribute to a revolt in Cairo.
I believe therefore that society must be built by individual effort but must also be actively guided in it's growth by a representative government with an eye towards the public good as free as possible of any other influence. Government's role in an interconnected world is to take the long view and create policies designed not to control or repress individuals but to protect the future of the country from the unintentional short sightedness of our own ambition. The very things that make us powerful have the potential to consume us if left unchecked. With this in mind, I oppose treating corporations as individuals for free speech allowing them to drown out their own employees in a message they had no control over. Neither do I universally applaud private enterprise or condemn government: both are social institutions that can be pure or corrupt, beneficial or destructive. Where private corporations have their role in our success so does a properly managed and transparent government whose priorities are built around facilitating good faith and fair dealing in America's growth.
So there you have it.
This is not all I believe, but it is a large component what makes me liberal. You can disagree with some of my ideas or conclusions, but look carefully at what I've written. These are the views that many of us who claim to be liberal hold. Are we traitors? Monsters? Unamerican? Terrorists? When you hear the liberal conspiracy or the horror of the liberal agenda, come back to this post and read what I have here.
Ask yourself if maybe someone isn't trying to turn us into something a little darker and more malevolent than we really are.
I am that fellow that a certain part of rural America thinks is out to get them.
I am a member of that group that Fox News tells it's viewers hates American wants to hand this nation over to the Europeans, the Marxists, the Russians, the Chinese and the Atheists.
I am a liberal and this is the core of what I believe.
I believe in the American individual. I believe that every individual is born with a certain abilities that could make America stronger and deserves the chance to thrive. However we live in a country of unequal opportunity where circumstance and situation often define whether or not that potential will ever have a chance to grow. When individuals are mired in poverty or violence or ignorance we all lose the benefit of their gifts. I believe it is our duty as Americans to establish structures to prevent individuals from regularly falling so far away form their potential that they become anchors on the best of us instead of assets to all of us.
I believe in the ingenuity of Americans; their ideas and enterprises, their organization and corporations. I believe that the greatest of America's strengths came from the ability of men and women to realize their dreams under their own direction and control. However I also believe that the pursuit of profit has a dark side that in times of extreme competition or economic hardship can quickly become a race to the bottom instead of a climb to the top. Companies pressured by immoral leaders or tough times can attempt to succeed at the expense of workers, safety, the environment, and our own personal integrity as corporations destroy one another and our world for more and more money. Because of this, I believe business, like sports, requires a referee. I believe it is government's correct role to establish and enforce the rules of engagement for corporate America and to define the field by which private enterprise carries us forward. I do not believe government should take over the means of production in our country, but neither do I abide being called socialist for remaining adamant about transparency in the behavior of companies and for holding them accountable for their actions intentional or not. Business must be responsible to our future even as they seek gains in our present. I believe American corporations are robust and inventive and do not require deregulation or tentative expectations from Americans to prevail; they can bear the burden of responsible oversight and accountability and still thrive in the global market.
I believe there are times when the pursuit of profit by corporate enterprise creates a conflict of interest with the public good. When providing less medical attention raises profits, or providing less safety for dangerous endeavors such as nuclear power increases revenue, or reducing sanitary requirements in food production increases per unit gains, the government must step in to make greater regulatory demands on these industries in the name of its people. I believe it is irresponsible to treat 'business' as a single thing that policy is either 'for' or 'against'. I believe government's role in business must not be to play the game as much as it is to carefully watch those areas where our individual enterprise has the risk of damaging people or our future – staying out of the way when it's business is done right and intervening with authority when it's done wrong.
I believe in taxation based on influence over resources. I believe it is only fair to ask those who control the most resources and take the most gains from the activity of society to pay the most for society's upkeep. I deny the idea that because the wealthy pay the majority of the taxes actually collected that they are 'paying enough'. This idea is misleading as the appropriate measure is how much they pay proportionate to how much they make, not the aggregate of what's actually collected. Taxation is a method of funding the structures of the society used to provide income, and those making the most income benefit the most from that society and should therefore pay accordingly to support it.
I believe America's strength has it's roots in our diversity. Like any creative process, the more options and ideas and perspectives you can gather, the greater the chance for the best ideas to be realized and rise to the surface. To this end, I believe that just as business should be allowed to practice as it sees fit with the oversight of government to keep the playing field fair and level, individuals should be allowed to live their lives and express themselves as they see fit, limited by government only when that expression threatens to impinge unreasonably on others or becomes violent. Therefore I believe morality should be taught, not legally enforced. I am pro-choice because I want people to choose NOT to have abortions instead of being required not to. I am pro gay marriage because I think depriving homosexuals of legal rights does not make me a better Christian. I believe social morality is the ultimate form of American individual expression and that using government to shape beliefs is exactly the opposite of what the founders of our nation intended.
I believe that our lives as Americans are deeply interconnected with one another and across the world. I believe that the idea of a 'self made' man has become a dangerous and counterproductive myth of false individuality that denies the truth. Every one of us depends on literally thousands of others every single day from the roads we travel, to the food we eat, to the consumer electronics we depend on to our trash, water, heat, power, and the programs that funded our education, provide for our retirement, and allow us to invest in one another just to name a few. None of us does anything that isn't built on a deep foundation of the contributions of numerous others. These are people we don't know and never see working quietly in the background whether it's to support our business success or just eating lunch on a Tuesday.
But as individuals we are all still only truly aware of the consequences of our actions on people in front of us; We touch the lives of thousands but we only see the effects on a few. It is because we are so dependent on people we don't know or never meet that society cannot be left the mere byproduct of individual initiative. We cannot expect a businessman in Chicago to understand that his investments in wheat futures to protect his retirement could contribute to a revolt in Cairo.
I believe therefore that society must be built by individual effort but must also be actively guided in it's growth by a representative government with an eye towards the public good as free as possible of any other influence. Government's role in an interconnected world is to take the long view and create policies designed not to control or repress individuals but to protect the future of the country from the unintentional short sightedness of our own ambition. The very things that make us powerful have the potential to consume us if left unchecked. With this in mind, I oppose treating corporations as individuals for free speech allowing them to drown out their own employees in a message they had no control over. Neither do I universally applaud private enterprise or condemn government: both are social institutions that can be pure or corrupt, beneficial or destructive. Where private corporations have their role in our success so does a properly managed and transparent government whose priorities are built around facilitating good faith and fair dealing in America's growth.
So there you have it.
This is not all I believe, but it is a large component what makes me liberal. You can disagree with some of my ideas or conclusions, but look carefully at what I've written. These are the views that many of us who claim to be liberal hold. Are we traitors? Monsters? Unamerican? Terrorists? When you hear the liberal conspiracy or the horror of the liberal agenda, come back to this post and read what I have here.
Ask yourself if maybe someone isn't trying to turn us into something a little darker and more malevolent than we really are.
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