DeAnneWhat's in a name?
July 22nd 2007 08:11
What’s in a name? Really, I’m not ranting about names, but labels.
First, let me make it clear that I don’t like labels. And when it comes to politics, some labels confuse me.
I won’t claim affiliation with any particular political party, nor which side of the fence I prefer. I won’t label myself as anything other than AMERICAN. (Well, I will admit that I am a Christian, but I won’t specify any particular denomination.)
I’m not by nature a very civic minded person. I have my opinions, and I try to be somewhat informed before elections. (I never vote strictly for a party.) I’ve never had any aspirations of running for office, or working on a campaign. Never really tried to influence others, politically speaking.
Until now. Still no political aspirations, but I feel compelled to voice my opinion and encourage others to get out there and fight for a change.
This all started because my husband can’t get enough of political media. He watches C-Span several hours a day. He watches Free Speech (I think it’s only available on DISH) and Link (on DISH and DirecTV) to get different perspectives on all the issues.
Being in the room while he’s watching all this political stuff, and listening to his rants, I hear all these labels…left and right; democrat and republican; liberal and conservative; etc, etc, etc. Honestly, I wasn’t even really sure what all of them mean. I know I should have known all this; I have taken political science courses.
Nevertheless, I really didn’t know what all of them meant, but I realized that I tended to agree more often with democrats, liberals, and those on the “left”.
I always thought of “liberal” as meaning “a lot” or “generous” as in a liberal portion of something. So I thought liberals were called that because of the “more government” thing usually attributed to Democrats. Conservative, on the other hand, means “careful” or “cautious” so I thought could be stretched to fit the Republican idea of “less government.” The only thing I could come up with for “left” and “right” was the “right” called themselves that – as in “correct” – and the others, not wanting to be “wrong,” chose for themselves the other opposite of right.
Turns out, there are political definitions of these words in my dictionary! Apparently, liberal means, politically speaking, “wanting change,” while conservative simply means “not wanting change.” Well, that’s pretty simple. (But it still doesn’t always fit!)
Think about it…
What is the conservative view on abortion? CHANGE the law to make it illegal. While liberals don’t want change – they want to keep the law as it is giving women the right to choose.
I can’t think of any more examples right now – but I know there are a lot of issues for which the conservatives want change and the liberals want to stick with what we’ve got.
I’m not going to call myself a liberal, but I DO want change! (A LOT OF IT!)
Why do I want change? Because I love my country! And there is so much wrong with it (the government) these days. I’ll get into all that in another rant.
First, let me make it clear that I don’t like labels. And when it comes to politics, some labels confuse me.
I won’t claim affiliation with any particular political party, nor which side of the fence I prefer. I won’t label myself as anything other than AMERICAN. (Well, I will admit that I am a Christian, but I won’t specify any particular denomination.)
I’m not by nature a very civic minded person. I have my opinions, and I try to be somewhat informed before elections. (I never vote strictly for a party.) I’ve never had any aspirations of running for office, or working on a campaign. Never really tried to influence others, politically speaking.
Until now. Still no political aspirations, but I feel compelled to voice my opinion and encourage others to get out there and fight for a change.
This all started because my husband can’t get enough of political media. He watches C-Span several hours a day. He watches Free Speech (I think it’s only available on DISH) and Link (on DISH and DirecTV) to get different perspectives on all the issues.
Being in the room while he’s watching all this political stuff, and listening to his rants, I hear all these labels…left and right; democrat and republican; liberal and conservative; etc, etc, etc. Honestly, I wasn’t even really sure what all of them mean. I know I should have known all this; I have taken political science courses.
Nevertheless, I really didn’t know what all of them meant, but I realized that I tended to agree more often with democrats, liberals, and those on the “left”.
I always thought of “liberal” as meaning “a lot” or “generous” as in a liberal portion of something. So I thought liberals were called that because of the “more government” thing usually attributed to Democrats. Conservative, on the other hand, means “careful” or “cautious” so I thought could be stretched to fit the Republican idea of “less government.” The only thing I could come up with for “left” and “right” was the “right” called themselves that – as in “correct” – and the others, not wanting to be “wrong,” chose for themselves the other opposite of right.
Turns out, there are political definitions of these words in my dictionary! Apparently, liberal means, politically speaking, “wanting change,” while conservative simply means “not wanting change.” Well, that’s pretty simple. (But it still doesn’t always fit!)
What is the conservative view on abortion? CHANGE the law to make it illegal. While liberals don’t want change – they want to keep the law as it is giving women the right to choose.
I can’t think of any more examples right now – but I know there are a lot of issues for which the conservatives want change and the liberals want to stick with what we’ve got.
I’m not going to call myself a liberal, but I DO want change! (A LOT OF IT!)
Why do I want change? Because I love my country! And there is so much wrong with it (the government) these days. I’ll get into all that in another rant.
| 48 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by Jim Stillman
Political Certainty