After watching the Republican and Democratic candidate debates I couldn't help but notice how much more anger seems to exist among Republicans. I know that conservatives are losing most of the social debates these days and I guess that leads to their anger. Gays aren't going back in closet, health care reform is here to stay and immigrants (legal and illegal) aren't going home. Change is always happening. You can adjust and accept it or remain rigid and angry. The country is becoming more diverse, secular and accepting of different lifestyles. Conservatives will always lose in the long run.
I am not surprised that Democrats have stopped calling themselves "liberal" after Republicans have demonized the word. The Democrat candidates seem to have only reluctantly used the word "progressive." Bernie Sanders is even willing to go farther and explains his political philosophy this way:
"I consider myself a social democrat, yes. And for me, what social democracy simply means is a system that leaves room for small enterprises and individual liberty but also recognizes the fact that we’re all part of a larger community, and what hurts any one group of us eventually hurts us all. So there are some things we don’t leave to the so-called free market. We don’t want people going hungry or suffering from sickness or at the bottom of the ladder in educational attainments because they can’t afford them — especially when in economic downturns millions of us lose jobs through no fault of our own. So we tax ourselves to put money into a common kitty to make sure those things don’t happen and we’re all the better off for it. In other words we agree to bear each others’ burdens and make others’ suffering our concern, bound in “brotherly affection.” A far cry from the virtues of unrestricted and unregulated winner-take-all competition."
Bringing it back to Columbia we are lucky to live in a community that was founded on the liberal ideals of the 1960's. Ecumenical religious philosophy, HMO for health care and an integrated housing plan. While each of these have changed over the years and not been totally successful the principles still guide our development today. This has led to a healthy community that is regularly selected as a best community in which to live. Liberalism is the direction of future and always has been. The "past" you long for "ain't" coming back. Jim Rouse addresses our philosophy well in a video he did a number of years ago.
P.S.
I have never really been impressed with Gov. O'Malley's campaign but he did a very good closing statement at the debate.
P.S.
Remember when you wanted to explain something that was easy to do by saying "It doesn't take a brain surgeon to........." After listening to brain surgeon Ben Carson explain things in the debates I think we need to come up with a different vocation to use in that phrase.
#hocoblogs
FWIW, I thought O'Malley's closing statement was terrible for a guy who's a "candidate." It was the talk of somebody who's at 1% in the polls and knows he's not going to get any higher. It was the talk of somebody who wants to stay on the good side of HRC so that she'll name him to her Cabinet in a couple of years. It was all about "we, we, this group of people up here." Nothing about "I want to be President because...." Nothing about "You should vote for me instead of Sanders and HRC because..."
ReplyDeleteIf it was a nominating or seconding speech for HRC at the convention, then yeah, it would have been decent. But as a campaign speech for a guy who's spending a ton of somebody else's money, I think it was terrible. And FWIW the polls agree with me - the vast majority of Americans think Marty did poorly and the speech was meh, at best.
I have to agree with you that O'Malley is running for some other job than President. VP or a cabinet post is probably his goal.
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