Sweet Land of Liber-Tea

Today I read several news stories related to dozens of grass-root protests to publically object to taxes, government spending, President Obama himself and various other gripes. Their motivational theme was inspired by the original Boston Tea Party. Since I’m not sure what “No Taxation without Representation” has to do with what is being protested today, I ended up reading several articles and visiting several sites to try to figure out what the deal is. So, President Obama is doing what he said he would do before elected and is putting the country more in debt in an effort to stimulate the economy and save our nation from rampant unemployment, homelessness and various other messes left behind by the old admin. He must be the anti-Christ or the new Hitler? He must be a communist, socialist, fascist or some other evil-ist? Seriously? 

 

Despite statements made by protestors that they represented the people and that they did not in fact represent a political party, researching further quickly proved to me that the movement is primarily fueled by a handful of conservative groups lead by current and former Republican leaders. I may have easily figured out which way the protesters hung, but I had a difficult time finding out what the real issues were and what the big deal was. Do people just like to dress up, paint catchy insults on signs and teach their pre-schoolers about the American right to protest?

 

I’m a thirty-three year old, lower-middle class, Caucasian, mother of two and a housewife; I don’t trust the news, the government or mob mentality. I don’t trust the current education system that is educating my children, nor do I trust the education system that supposedly educated me. Add to that our justice system, insurance companies, people who are positive they are right… The list of things I don’t trust is longer then it used to be.

 

You know you’re a liberal if…

 

I guess I’m a liberal because I don’t have a problem with gay people getting married or making out or anything in-between. I also believe that early abortions are not murder and shooting an abortion doctor is. I’m probably a liberal because I think that we shouldn’t go to war if we don’t have to and it really bothers me when young Americans who are in the lower or moderate-middle class sign up for the military under economic pressure. It especially sucks when they are maimed or killed or compelled to live with the cost of having a job that includes maiming and killing people in wars that we don’t need to be in.

 

I must be liberal because I think it’s hypocritical to get all worked up and label folks as “unpatriotic” if they do not blindly support the president in everything that he does–when that president is Republican and has promised to kill the scary heathen terrorists. When a Democrat president comes along and spends their hard earned money on welfare babies and bank bailouts those same folks grass-root organize, misremember history and teabag protest. I am morally offended that Americans were out in the streets today comparing Obama to Hitler. These same Americans believe they are patriotic. They keep using that word; I do not think it means what they think it means.

 

If liberal is as liberal does, does it make me liberal to think that it’s odd that conservatives went nuts on John Kerry’s military background. They questioned how patriotic he really was and whether or not he was really a war hero. Those same conservatives will go nuts if one of those liberal communists don’t unconditionally support the statement, “All troops are heroes, support our troops.” Are they assuming that we know they don’t actually mean democrat troops who might run against republicans or gay troops or troops that speak out against unnecessary war?

 

I’m leaning to the Left because I think that the color of your skin or the homeland of your forefathers does not affect a person’s value. I can’t hang out at conservative parties because I feel it’s an American’s right to have whatever religious belief they feel like having as long as they are not harming others; furthermore, it’s an American’s right to not have to live by someone else’s religious beliefs.

 

It’s possible that I believe in evolution because I was educated by the liberal manipulated public school system. I could be brainwashed and deluded into my liberal ways. Since I also went to bible study and read the bible and the supporting study guides, I decided to actually have an opinion on the evolution vs. creation debate. Everything that the scientific community labels as truth is subject to evolve (pun intended) as new information is added to the equation. We will never know with 100% certainty the answers to the universe. It’s like cosmic CSI. And yet, the educated guesses of the scientific community make a hell of a lot more sense then some creation myth. The Old Testament’s version of the beginning is either a metaphor or fiction.

 

Believing that teenagers have sex because they’re horny teenagers and not because they have access to condoms is probably a liberal belief. Equally liberal is my belief that kids should get accurate information about the effectiveness of birth control and the actual consequences of unprotected sex. Accurate sex education can prevent death. Isn’t that more important then the possibility that lies designed to scare kids into not having premarital sex might work for some?  

 

The presence of testicles and/or the absence of ovaries should not be taken into consideration when determining the head of a household or the person who get’s to make the final decision for a family. I’m not a feminist because my foremothers did all the hard work, and yet I still believe men and women are different but equal.

 

Is it an oversimplification to assume liberals believe in global warming and conservatives don’t? I know I’m not qualified to speculate on global warming. Whether or not global warming is real or if fluctuations in climate are a natural cycle influenced by our orbit and the Sun, what could it hurt to make positive changes in how we treat our air, water and land? Are we seriously more concerned about the thousands of jobs dependent on big oil then we are on our kids getting cancer from the air we breathe? Why aren’t we as Americans united in wanting to advance technology that is environmentally responsible and that we can be proud of as a people? Aren’t there jobs in the direction of producing in a way that doesn’t disregard the condition of the planet?

 

I’m not liberal enough to passionately go out and change the world and meet other like minded individuals. If individuals are like me, they aren’t out there changing the world in organized groups. That being said, people like me are probably not in churches or monitoring conservative media outlets to make sure all of their “for this” and “against that” are in order.  

 

Zealots scare me. There are no bumper stickers on my car expressing any of my personal beliefs because I’d rather not have my car damaged by an angry, entitled conservative. I believe it is possible that if I did have Left-leaning propaganda publicly displayed on my vehicle and happened upon a conservative zealot on the day that they’ve decided to make a difference that my personal safety is at risk. I’d never express any of my views in a public setting surrounded by strangers. Conservatives have more guns then liberals.

 

I can’t be a part of the Conservative Camp because all of my beliefs and opinions are subject to change and adapt over time. I can’t be Right, because I don’t believe I’m right about everything.

 

Even though any one of the above topics would inspire a real conservative to put me in the “liberal” category and ensure that all thoughts I share are worthless and potentially dangerous to the conservative crusade, there are also reasons why I’m not a true liberal.

 

I don’t hate Republicans. I’m a fan of capitalism (although I don’t think we have pure capitalism or pure democracy and I’m not afraid of a sprinkling of socialism). I’m okay with eating meat even if I think we can do better about how we slaughter animals. Even though I don’t want to personally go out and shoot a deer, it doesn’t bother me if people like that sort of thing (as long as the animal isn’t endangered).

 

It may be an American’s right to express free speech, but I don’t think it’s right to put down a person’s faith. If a celebrity makes a habit of saying blasphemous things for shock value to increase their notoriety or bottom line, I have occasionally chosen not to watch the shows or movies or purchase products they endorse. I don’t compel others to do the same; it’s just my personal right to choose who my dollar endorses.

 

The internet is my virtual happy place even though it is saturated with lies, half truths, spun manure and hate. Every flavor of view and “news reporting” that is out there is tinted with various degrees of bias and un-truth. When visiting these article sites, I can usually tell pretty quickly when they are excessively conservative or predominately liberal. When the conservative sites seem ridiculously biased to you and you tend to find the liberal sites to be somewhat believable, you’re obviously a liberal. I must say that even if I know the conservative sites are skewed, I’m not unaware that the liberal sites are spun as well. You can’t believe anything anymore. It’s like April Fool’s Day every day.  

 

To those conservatives out there that got outraged way up where I said that I don’t think that early abortion is murder and have continued to read at the risk of your blood pressure rising, I’d just like to point out that if abortion hadn’t been legal for so long, there would be a lot more liberal babies out there potentially messing up the vote. You think you hate paying for the welfare system now? Just imagine what could be. Final thought; if my mother hadn’t had me or if someone had taught her about safe sex, there would have been one less leaning toward the Left woman spreading her insidious liberal opinions. Please don’t shoot me.