Friday, September 23, 2005

Liberal Verses Consertive

Posted by Picasa Most Americans have no idea what it sounds like to the rest of the world when an American condescendingly uses the word liberal as if it were a bad thing. Just to clarify: During the independence war, the British were the right-wing, conservative establishment. The Americans who decided to fight for their freedom were liberals. (liberal comes from liberty.) The founding fathers were liberals. The US is built on the ideals of liberalism. Thomas Jefferson (he wrote the declaration of independence) was a liberal. The declaration of independence, the constitution, and above all the bill of rights are the highest ideals of liberalism. You won't find a more liberal political paper than these documents. Everything the US stands for, everything Americans are proud of, are the liberal ideals of the liberal founding fathers. It has taken Europe centuries to reach those liberal ideals through horribly bloody wars. Ironically, today Europe is more liberal, while the US has drifted back into the same dangerous right-wing nationalism and radical patriotism that Europeans have fought centuries to rid themselves of - and that the US fought to liberate itself from during the independence war. Today the majority of Americans are more or less radical nationalists, with political views so right-wing, they often border on fascism. Of course Americans don't realize that. They think they're simply being "good Americans. This is just something I wanted to post, if you don't agree...Tell me!"

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