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Hernando Today

Concerning Liberals And Conservatives

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By JOHN NASH, Of Cabbages and Kings

Hernando Today

Published: February 6, 2009

One of the three persons who admit to regularly reading my columns has written to me, expressing concern over the meaning of "liberal" and "conservative." Well, here Mr. Campbell, are my comments on that divisive subject.
My massive, desk dictionary defines a political conservative as one tending to preserve established traditions, conventions or institutions; while a liberal is non-conventional, loose in interpretation of everything and favors progressive change — especially when such increases personal freedoms.
Put another way, a political conservative is one who's generally opposed to change in traditions, mores, customs and even to written laws. When change is necessary and indicated, it is to be made slowly, and only with lots of testing and intelligent discussion of the pros and cons. Stated with similar oversimplification, liberals favor change — especially when such affords more freedom to individuals to do whatever feels good — and they want it now, without discussion nor testing.
It then perhaps becomes somewhat clear why those who favor killing babies in the womb are labeled as "liberals;" why liberals jump recklessly on the rickety socialistic bandwagon; and why liberals stick roses in gun barrels, expecting that feckless action to bring peace on earth, along with free love and cradle-to-grave welfare.
Liberals were, for example, quick to support risky schemes to make government guaranteed home loans available to everyone, with no regard for anyone's ability to meet the obligations accrued thereunder (an act that precipitated our current financial crisis). And liberals cling to an unstudied belief that all unions are good, in spite of hard evidence that greedy, careless, thoughtless unions have laid the foundation for the destruction of many U.S. businesses, such as railroads, maritime shipping and now the automobile industry.
Liberals would like all U.S. military forces to be brought home from around the world, without regard for the possible horrific consequences of such immature thinking. And liberals would like free college tuition for everyone, along with similar arrangements for medical care; that, in spite of evidence to show that attempts at such socialistic economics in other nations have almost always been tragic failures.
In general, liberals make decisions based on childish emotions, rather than on mature, educated, rational conclusion to careful studies and analysis. Our children are usually liberal in thought and action; the educable ones morph to conservatives as they mature. I, for example, clearly recall believing at age 16 that the solution to our nation's problems was to be found in the election of a 25-year-old as president. Incidentally, there was a lot of that sort of immature "reasoning" behind the recent, very close, election of President Barack Obama Without them, Obama would have lost!
It is in the natural order of life that children are generally liberal, and their naïve exuberance tends to be an engine for change, which is necessary if mankind is to constantly improve itself. The key to successful, instead of destructive, change is for adults to thoughtfully control and direct youth's attempts to change everything without having considered the consequences.
Trouble is, we now have an army of so-called "adults," who were allowed to mature without adequate guidance, so that their childish preferences for unlimited change are still at the center of their selfish personalities and have been passed on to their unfortunate offspring. That's what creates the large and growing herd of liberals old enough to vote irresponsibly.
Liberals have been responsible for so many undesirable and dangerous facets of life in these United States, that there is no use in attempting to catalog them all here, but no one can point out a single instance of where conservatives were responsible for anything that hurt our nation or its people. Keep in mind that not all Republicans are politically conservative: President George W. Bush is, for example, not conservative, nor is Sen. John McCain; Ronald Reagan was.
Liberals generally see conservatives as "old fogies" standing foolishly and ignorantly in the way of inevitable and desirable progress. Conservatives view liberals as selfish, childish hedonists that want love, prosperity and peace on earth right now, without considering the problems, costs and hidden dangers inherent to knee-jerk legislation.
History adequately demonstrates that mankind has been at its best when conservatism was dominate: when father knew best; when elders were venerated and respected for their wisdom and sage advice; when change was made slowly and cautiously.
On the other hand, there is now far more than enough evidence to prove that uncontrolled liberalism results in social and economic ills that seriously threaten even the strongest nations.
And now, with both the executive and legislative branches of our government soon controlled by Democrats, whom tend to be liberal, the future seems to be bleak indeed — even worrisomely threatening!

Of Cabbages and Kings is a regular column in Hernando Today. The author welcomes rational comment sent to john@have-eye.com.

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