Broken Masterpieces

June 05, 2003

Thoughts on Liberal/Progressive Leadership in this Country

A liberal/progressive friend of mine brought up some issues that set my mind off on some thoughts and tangents about the Democratic leadership in this country. Here it goes.....

When did the term "progressives" become the normal word? That's just a cleaner word than liberal which the radicals from the 60's destroyed. I liked and respected the old liberals like JFK, Truman, FDR. Seems the new progressives (Jesse Jackson, Richard Gephardt, Howard Dean, Hillary, Dennis Kucinich, Babs Boxer & Striesand, Ted Kennedy, Susan Sarandon) are more socialist than anything and seem to like to blame America first for all the problems in the world and there is nothing that a government program (i.e. spending) can't fix.

Conservatives believe differently about many issues but some of the goals are the same. The big difference is the method. The environment....believe it or not conservatives want clean water, air, lower pollution. The progressive method is to add more and more regulations to companies. In California, companies are always tempted to move because of overregulation. Some regulation is good but the progressives in this state have gone to far for too long. If you want to clean up things there needs to be a balance between laws and incentives. That's the conservative approach.

Progressives want to maintain the forests and so do conservatives. What has happened though is the progressives have made it impossible to clean out some of the forest so when there is a fire it spreads like crazy. Conservatives want to thin out areas and make fire lines so it won't spread too much. Both have great end goals but I thing the conservative way works better.

Now, progressives will howl about the Alaskan Arctic Preserve and how we can't drill for oil there. First, how many of them actually have gone there? How many of them realize that the people of Alaska want drilling there? How many of them realize that it's only a very small part where the drilling would occur? From the left there is no balance, the caribou reign supreme so no drilling. Doesn't matter that very little of the millions of acres would be touched and it could reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Heck, the area is frozen over more than half the time. Technology has made the drilling process very clean and unobtrusive.

In terms of "social justice" it comes down to philosophy and extremes. Most political progressives I see believe we should take money from the rich and give it to the poor. That's always the bottom line. It doesn't matter if the rich person has earned it. Conservatives believe that there does need to be a safety net but how big? Conservatives believe that it's up to individuals to step up to the plate and help. Of course progressive Al Gore gave a grand total of $353 dollars to charity in either 1996 or 1997. Another progressive Bill Bradley (a multi-millionaire) gave away very small amounts also in the 1990's. Of course, they love to have all these great government programs but personally, they take a pass. Many of us conservatives believe that is backwards.

Government also does not do the best of jobs with many things. Once money goes from the tax payer to the person needing help the money is less than half what it originally was. All sorts of departments take a share off of the top. The government does some things well (fight wars comes to mind) but mostly very inefficiently.

Medicare.... conservatives have always been labeled they want to cut Medicare. Not true, we want to fix something that is very broke. The "progressives" only want to just pour more money into it and give prescription drugs to everybody. Conservatives want to give prescription drugs to the needy. 91 year old Ronald Reagan does not need free drugs. So with the impasse nobody gets them.

Race.... just because somebody doesn't believe in affirmative action does not mean they are bigoted or want to not give equal opportunity or believe in social justice. Of course, progressives don't seem to see it that way. Two days before the last Presidential Election, Albert Arnold Algore Jr. was at a prayer breakfast with an African-American congregation. He said that Bush wants to appoint Supreme Court justices who would interpret the constitution with the 3/5ths clause. A total race bait. Nothing like polluting the water. When doofus's like Trent Lott make stupid race comments they are tossed. Progressive Bill Clinton went on black radio before the 1998 congressional elections and blamed conservatives for church burnings. Progressives keep voting in Robert "KKK" Byrd to his seat in the Senate and nobody on the left will investigate or even ask what he did in the KKK. I won't even get into the progressive "Reverend" Jesse Jackson. Just more poison.

After the OK City bombing Clinton sent out Carville and Begala to blame Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives for poisoning the air and giving the atmosphere for it to occur. It didn't matter that the bombers where so out "there" that they would consider Rush a liberal and didn't listen to him. Did George W. Bush go after Clinton and the left for missing out on getting Bin Ladin. They had him but passed it up. Did he blame Clinton for cutting off many of the CIA assets in the Middle East in the mid-90's? No. He rallied everybody and didn't blame anybody except the terrorists that did the murders. Just seems that all that good will is out the door because once 9/11 calmed down the left seemed to begin playing politics and tried to blame Bush for what happened. The things Hillary said are just atrocious.

From the list of progressives I listed above I haven't learned anything from them other than, in a post 9/11 world, it's not safe to vote Democrat. They are too far left. Most will cut defense just like Clinton did. Most of the "reinventing government" was in getting rid of civilian military folks (thanks Rummy for getting some of it fixed real quick and bringing back the morale). Most of them will vote against banning partial-birth abortion. Talk about extreme. I'm a center-right bleeding heart conservative. I believe in helping people but on my own, with my own free will. I'm also 100% anti-abortion, support the death penalty, want lower taxes for everybody. I believe in a very strong defense and that sometimes the best defense is an offense (like the war on terror). I also believe in a safety net but every since the leaders of our country screwed with the Social Security trust fund in 1969 it's been messed up.

Again, the progressives shout down the conservatives when they try to fix something so SS is still broke. They go down to Florida and say Republicans want to take your SS away. We just believe that it should be there for the seniors now and for my kids much later. How do we fix it? We're trying but that third rail is hot.

I believe there are many good and kind hearted liberals. They just aren't to the left enough to gain national prominence. In order to be the Democratic nominee or to be on the ticket as VP they will have to be 100% pro-choice - abortion allowed at all times including the last weeks for any reason. FYI, George W. Bush is not 100% pro-life. He does make exceptions but he was still nominated, just like Dole and his father.

The most compassionate and giving man I've ever met is to the right of me on many issues. He gives so much time and money to helping children all over the world. There are many more like him on the right. They believe that it's better to do the job themselves than to wait for the government to do it. The left does not have a monopoly on compassion at all.

Posted by Tim at June 5, 2003 12:14 AM
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