Liberals and Conservatives - They Both Have Value

In our world of politics today, we use several terms to define people or groups.  Far too often those labels are misused with an end objective in mind — to confuse, obfuscate, or totally misdirect a person or persons’ thinking.

Liberals and conservatives have always existed and they both have a purpose in society.  Typically, one set of people (liberals) want to effect change, whereas the other type (conservatives) want more of a status quo.  Both have a purpose — to maintain a balance of change or progress with that of slow and deliberate decision making leading to a safer environment with slow and deliberate change.

If this balance is not maintained, we either have chaos with too much change too fast, or stagnation and a lack of progress — both can be disastrous.  With both parties in balance, we have forward movement of a society with rationale and analysis leading to better decisions.  My guess is this is one of the reasons why our founders created such unique documents — the Bill of Rights and our Constitution.  Although they argued incessantly, it was done predominantly in a professional manner with the end result of quality decisions — as evidenced by our founding documents.

More often than not, today the Democratic party sees itself as the liberal party and conversely the Republican party sees itself as the conservative party.  Our congress was designed this way to have differing opinions to invoke the same logic as stated, to strike a balance in our actions for the maximum end for all.

Today we also refer to these same people as the Left (democrats) or the Right (republicans).  Many people argue that the Left keeps marching further left.  However, that may not be the case.  Those who seek more radical approaches may not be the stereotypical liberal, but more a radical.  And many of those radicals are socialists who have an entirely new perspective for America’s future — foreign to both the traditional Left and Right.

It is for this reason, that ‘we the people’, are so far apart in our perspectives.  We use the words liberal, Left, and democrat interchangeably.  Liberal has a classical definition which is fading away insidiously.  The extremes are becoming the norm, while society is being torn apart.  We’re all praying for a king (president) to save us.  (1 Samuel 12:19 (NIV) — “Pray to the Lord your God for your servants so that we will not die, for we have added to all our other sins the evil of asking for a king.”

America was originated by Pilgrims (religious people) from Europe escaping religious persecution who established the foundation of our Judeo-Christian society.  Our founders subsequently created our unique documents mentioned above that protect our rights.  The vast majority of the governmental laws used today were created using those same principles.  Freedom of speech isn’t an empty phrase with little or no value, it is defined in our constitution as a “God given right”.  That term means, that no one can take that (those) rights away from you.  The only way to do so in America is to destroy our constitution.

That is exactly what the Left (socialists) are trying to do.  It is merely one of the steps toward ‘fundamentally transforming’ our country into a socialist state.  Over the last 70 years they have done a fine job toward that end.  It is up to us to stop them.

When you speak to those who don’t particularly share your perspective, remember that we are all different and here for different purposes.  Speak with kindness and understanding while listening as much as you can while trying to keep the conversation honest and direct.  The more we listen, the more we educate each other.  To that end, we also make better decisions.

If we argue, call names, or worse, we get nowhere except more chaos.  We must not fall into the same mold as those making the news every day through violence, lying, and deceit.  It is up to us to save this country, not some bureaucrat making a lot of money to sell you and I out.  If everyone in congress was doing what was right for all Americans, we would be where we are today.  At the very least, the character of congress — for the most part — has been lost to self-aggrandizement and riches.  We must hold their feet to the fire with our votes while trying to educate the lost in our society.

Watching TV and the news gets you ‘information’, the accuracy of which may be questionable, or just more propaganda.  We must sift through the garbage to learn the truth.  Otherwise we’re no better than the Russians in the early 20th century.  And look what that got them — Lenin followed by Stalin.  It took millions of them to die before the light came on.  Hopefully we won’t follow their example..?