While I am increasingly against “conservative” and “liberal” as terms because I think that they are increasingly meaningless, I was particularly struck by this post from PatientWitness. I don’t agree with every item and I don’t think it is fair to say that liberals deserve all the credit for things mentioned below. That being said, I don’t think they were written as Gospel truth but rather to prove a point about “liberal” accomplishments – though with hyperbole. Regardless, a great post:
If your workplace is safe and you are paid a living wage, including overtime; if you enjoy a 40-hour week and you are allowed to join a union to protect your rights without being fired, beaten or lynched, thank a liberal.
If you have not died from tainted meat, or been prescribed something useless or poisonous by a quack doctor, have not given your children cough syrup which turned out to have heroin as its secret ingredient, thank a liberal.
If you ever drank a beer or a glass of wine without being thrown in jail, thank a liberal.
If you are not a land-owning white male, but have voted, thank a liberal.
If you or your parents or grandparents have ever used Medicare, thank a liberal.
If you’ve ever driven on an interstate highway, thank a liberal.
If you have ever breathed clean air or drank clean water, thank a liberal.
If you grew up in a family of less than 12 kids, like the idea of being able to choose if you have 12 kids or not, if you don’t live in an overpopulated third world slum, or just think birth control is a good idea, thank a liberal.
If your family benefited from the GI Bill of Rights, FHA or VA mortgages, thank a liberal.
If your children go to school instead of working in the fields, a factory or the coal mines, thank a liberal.
If you’re part-Irish, Catholic, or Jewish and are allowed to live in America, and are not harassed and attacked for failing to be born white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, thank a liberal.
If you’re not a slave or “indentured servant” (white slave), don’t think protection of slavery belongs in the constitution, if you’ve never been chained to a boat where half the passengers die, been whipped, had your family split up, been forced to “breed” with another slave you’ve never met, been raped by your boss, or killed for not being profitable, thank a liberal.
If you have never been lynched, or had your children firebombed in a church, thank a liberal.
If you have ever done anything that is a religious or superstitious taboo (think oral sex, shaving your beard, backtalk your parents, wearing clothes made from 2 types of fabric, etc.) without being stoned to death or cast out as a heretic, thank a liberal.
If you have never been raped, and then had the rapist escape punishment on the grounds that he marry you, thank a liberal.
If you are glad that the Nazis don’t control half the world (conservatives opposed joining World War 2 until it was forced on them – look it up!), thank a liberal.
If you don’t have to walk through ankle-deep sewage in the streets (because sewers are big government), thank a liberal.
If you have ever eaten food (agricultural subsidies), flicked on a light switch (rural electrification) or benefited from programs such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, thank a liberal.
If you do not have skin cancer, and have ever stood outside without having a peeling sunburn within moments, thank the ozone layer, thank the ban on CFC’s, and thank a liberal.
If you have not died in a heat wave, drought, hurricane, flood, wildfire, or other climate change disaster, and like the idea of your children and grandchildren not living in desert wastelands, thank a liberal.
If you are glad we don’t live in a right-wing dictatorship along the lines of what conservatives overtly and covertly created in Iran, Guatemala, Nicaragua, the Domican Republic, the Congo, Venezuela, Chile, Brazil, El Salvadore, the Phillipines, Indonesia and others, thank a liberal.
If you have ever visited or bought anything from Europe, and are glad the Marshall Plan kept it from remaining a bombed-out shell or falling to communism or neo-fascism, thank a liberal.
If you’ve ever seen a national park, and it hadn’t been strip mined and clearcut into a desert wasteland, thank a liberal.
If you kind of like freedom of speech, and don’t want the government to be able to censor you – (you think the 1st and 14th amendments are good ideas) – thank a liberal.
posted July 5, 2007 at 8:49 am
Sorry, but this is a pretty silly piece of left-wing propaganda. I am sure that there’s a “thank a conservative” list somewhere out there that’s equally ridiculous. No offense, David, because I enjoy your blog, but this is not up to your normal substantive standards.
And I don’t consider myself a conservative — or at least am not a Republican.
And… here’s the list from the right. Took me two minutes on Google. Equally preposterous, or equally valid. Either way…
If you own a nice house in the location of your choice; if you were not “assigned” your meager apartment by a bureaucrat according to “need”; if you have an air conditioner to run when it’s hot, and cheap hot water for your shower — you can thank conservatives. If you enjoy our country’s high productivity and high standard of living; if you like knowing that you are paid for your work and that you are free to choose another career — you can thank conservatives. If you drive a car to work, drop off your kids and run errands at your own pace, and arrive at the time of your choosing without being tied down to schedules arranged at your local transit authority — you can thank conservatives. If you own more than one car, allowing your family even more flexibility and control over where you live, where you work, and how you get around — you can thank conservatives.
If your country is the technological leader of the world, producing wonders of electronics, telecommunications, transportation, and medicine that were science fiction only a few years ago — you can thank conservatives. If your doctor’s visits are not rationed, and your surgery does not require a month-long wait — you can thank conservatives. If today you are able to live thanks to advanced surgery, and tomorrow miraculous new drugs are developed and made available to cure cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes — you can thank conservatives. If you are able to snag a few cheap plane tickets to visit friends across the country, you can thank conservatives. (If you couldn’t find cheap air fare, but were able to jump in your car and drive a few states over — still thank conservatives.) If you are able to open a business without waiting years for permission — you can thank conservatives. If you are able to keep enough of your paycheck to cover luxuries such as your computer — thank conservatives.
If your country is not a decaying, hollowed-out shell of its former glory, able only to impotently spit venom about “simplisme” — thank conservatives. If you are not dominated by an evil, tyrannical doctrine — be it Nazism, Stalinism, Maoism, or Islamism — thank conservatives. If you are Jewish, and still have a land to call your own — thank conservatives. If you are Iraqi, and will never again worry about being shredded — thank conservatives. (If you have family members tortured to death between November ’02 and March ’03 — thank a liberal for that.) If you do not have to tremble before the words of thuggish dictators; if you, your wife, your sister, or your daughter never wears a burka, if your life is not spent fearing a Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice — thank conservatives. If you are able to indulge in “sinful” pleasures such as drinking, smoking, or eating high-fat foods — thank conservatives. If, one day, you have a choice of not sending your child to a delapidated public school whose primary mission is keeing teachers’ union members employed — thank a conservative. If your children are not considered state property — thank conservatives. If you are able to post your opinions on a global network, without having to receive “license” from bureaucrats, pending proof that you will be operating “in the public interest” — thank conservatives for that, too. If you’re able to wake up every morning, feeling that you ultimately control your own destiny, and are not at the constant mercy of The People — thank a conservative.
posted July 5, 2007 at 9:12 am
Although I’m not a Conservative, I agree with Joe that this list is ridiculous. And as far as slavery goes, the Republican Party ended slavery. Lincoln wrote the doctrine that ended slavery and he was anything but a Liberal. As a matter of fact the Democrats fought to keep slavery throughout the Civil War. PatientWitness needs to study History before posting such assinine lists.
posted July 5, 2007 at 9:45 am
I think he wrote it to counter the claims of another commenter that “liberals” are the scourge of the earth and a source of all evil. There are no pure liberal or pure conservative positions. One can be a member of a Conservative party and maintain non-traditional, society-changing ideals (and vice versa). For example, Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation supported the abolutionist goals, overruling arguments for state’s rights and local governments and going against the many of the other Conservatives within his party. Yes, Lincoln was a Conservative, but he could also side with liberal causes as well. The point is that good ideas can come from anywhere and probably should be judged on their merits instead of their source. A related observation is that success has many parents but failure, none: Everyone would like associate themselves as the source of a good idea.
Keep in mind that today’s ‘liberal’/society-changing cause is often tomorrow’s ‘conservative’/traditional position.
posted July 5, 2007 at 10:46 am
“Keep in mind that today’s ‘liberal’/society-changing cause is often tomorrow’s ‘conservative’/traditional position.”
Agreed. Also keep in mind that “liberal” does not always equal “Democrat.” The Democrat and Republican parties have been made up of different coalitions throughout history to maximize the likelihood of implementing their goals.
posted July 5, 2007 at 11:38 am
I agree with David that our ideas of what is liberal and conservative are becoming meaningless. However, I don’t quite follow how the interstate system is a liberal accomplishment?
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System#History
The interstate system was authorized by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, popularly known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956. It had been lobbied for by major U.S. automobile manufacturers and championed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower- who was influenced by both his experiences as a young soldier crossing the country in 1919 following the route of the Lincoln Highway and his appreciation of the German autobahn network – as a necessary component of a national defense system. It would be able to provide key ground transport of military supplies and troop deployments.
posted July 5, 2007 at 1:11 pm
In regards to the question about the interstate system: The interstate highway system is a goverment program supported by tax dollars. According to some, that is by definition a liberal/communist/godless program. Of course, those same people have no problem with using and/or taking advantage of such programs.
On the broader topic at hand, I think this thread illustrates one of the greatest arguments against organised religion. That in many people it fosters this kind of us vs. them, with us or against us mentality.
posted July 5, 2007 at 1:16 pm
I think the big issue was more that most of those things (there are a few exceptions) listed above are due to government agencies, or laws, or building projects.
You know, took things like ‘tax dollars’ or Government ‘regulations’, things that are often railed against now by many conservatives. To the point that.. regardless of the letter by the name of the legislator who approved the plan, that simply not assuming that ‘free enterprise’ would simply volunteer to step in and take care of it would be a ‘liberal’ position.
Things like government oversite of food and drugs. All government run medical programs. Government using tax dollars to build sewers, or highways, (rather than privately run toll roads).
Changing of established traditions, like expanding the vote, or not instituting (or actively removing) religious doctrines into our legal system.
Its not that someone with the label ‘liberal’ did these things. Its that these things are, themselves, based upon liberal notions. Things like there are good reasons to spend tax dollars. There are actual functions the Government should serve, and areas of life that they should oversee. That the traditional way isn’t always the right way, just because that’s how its been done.
And when it comes to those ideas, AND their inverse, everyone has liberal moments, and conservatives ones.
THAT, I think, is the point being made.
posted July 6, 2007 at 12:28 am
David,
In your zeal to appeal to the Left you propagate their revisionist blather. Of course I understand your salesmanship. Books must cost a lot to print and sales of whatever your up to next must be running high.
Porn on every street corner? Thank a Liberal.
Drugs killing children every day? Thank a Liberal.
Divorce and bastard children being a catchy phrase? Thank a Liberal.
Inconvenient children just outright slaughtered? Thank a Liberal.
High School drop-outs? Thank a Liberal.
Property taxes eliminating home ownership of decent families? Thank a Liberal.
Women having to be inoculated for sexual promiscuity cancer (HPV)? Thank a Liberal.
Children force-fed and indoctrinated into Secular Humanist doctrines and taught that Christianity is a myth, no matter what their parents say? Thank a Liberal.
The free exchange of ideas being only a joke and not allowed by Leftist-Liberals shouting down anyone that dissents from, or presents a different view of Liberals? Thank a Liberal.
No one but only the very rich being able to own a home in Liberal dominated enclaves? Thank a Liberal.
Poor neighborhoods being violent and filthy? Thank a Liberal.
Etc., etc., etc., etc. . . . . . . . .
Patient Witness tries, like all Liberals, to make their ideology not look like the totalitariansim, elitism, pederasty and perversion that it is. I’ll trust a conservative business professional over a Leftist any day.
Most of the improvments listed by P-W, could have the words “Thank a Christian” settling the issue.
Except of course the union crap. Unions are run by thugs and people just as greedy and selfish as any robber baron of past yore and just as communist/totalitarian as Vladimir “Lenin,” Joe Stalin and Elton John.
It’s just this easy David, to make the Liberal-Democrat political ideology look like rabid sociopathic behaviors.
Ask a young person just entering the work force about how much of their money they should be able to keep from working. They’ll look puzzeled for a moment but answer that the money they make if theirs.
Then point out the truth that Democrat-Liberals will not only TELL them what will happen with their money, but will take their money before they are even going to see their paycheck.
You’ll have a new conservative in three-seconds. No gay issues, no abortions, no arguing. Just right versus wrong.
Then go on and tell them the horrors that Liberals visit on business owners, “if” they were ever to want to live the American dream.
This patient witness character, is applying “justice” to Liberals. That is simpy dishonest. Justice is allowing people to live freely. Something Liberals will not do. Ask a parent of a child going to a Liberal dominated school?
David,
When you want to get around to reality, let us know.
posted July 6, 2007 at 12:30 am
Think of a 2007 “Liberal” like you would a 70 AD Roman Caesar.
And thank a historian for the ability to compare the two.
posted July 6, 2007 at 2:52 pm
when do we just thank God for something?
posted July 6, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Both sides have their bad points. I’m liberal, and happily identify as such. But i think both liberal and conservative politics have been hijacked and both sides have been taken too far to the extreme in some areas.
posted July 6, 2007 at 9:30 pm
I don’t know, canucklehead. For someone who doesn’t vote or pass laws, I think God gets plenty of credit for things. But feel free to give more, if you wish.
posted July 7, 2007 at 9:10 am
I think people today seem to think conservative means Republican and liberal means Democrat, but my understanding of Nelson Rockefeller and George Wallace and their political parties would discourage that understanding. Likewise, Lincoln pushed for Land Grant universities, land grants for an transcontinental railroad, the Homestead Act, all government initiatives which Democrats believed were too progressive in involving government in business. Theodore Roosevelt was progressive in involving government in the regulation of business. Southern conservatives were Democrats from Reconstruction until the Civil Rights act. The Republican party was founded on the “liberal” basis of pushing for abolition, which challenged the Southern conservative position that slavery was sanctioned by the Bible and that government should not take away a citizen’s private property.