If you have been paying attention you know that I am a flaming liberal. I am so far gone that I really cannot understand what “conservatives” think. Why are issues like birth control, drugs, alcohol, gambling, abortion, contraceptives, religion and the immigration of people who want to work cheap so important to them?
I joined our group in an effort to understand the conservative persuasion better. I listened intently for several years and finally I decided to ask outright “What is a liberal?”
Helen offered a response that took my breath away. “A liberal is someone who wants to raise my taxes.”
It is concise, to the point and difficult to answer because it is true.
I do want to raise her taxes. I believe that people should pay for what they consume and that if we are willing to pay for it we can live in a world with no hunger and little poverty or disease. I believe that the people who went to the moon can live a storybook life on earth if they are willing to pay for it.
People who don’t pay their taxes are taking advantage of society to supply clean drinking water, highways, inspected food and drugs, a public transportation system that their parent paid for and that they are not even willing to maintain. Nobody wants to be a free loader
I have been trying to think of a better definition, and I think I have one. At least one that suits me better:
A liberal is someone who is willing to discuss the problems we share in an effort to find mutually compatible solutions. This requires that everybody make the effort, to listen and to talk honestly, and to share the burden of providing clean water, streets, highways; and the research required to learn how to protect ourselves against floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, disease and meteorites.
This is not as easy as it sounds. Once we start talking and take a position we feel it is important to “win” whatever that means. Once we start trying to win we stop listening and reason goes out the window.
What do you think?
Gus
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