In a past life, when I was a raging conservative Republican I considered Milton Friedman close to God, and his book Free To Choose an ancillary to the Bible. Something would happen to me that would change my views dramatically. That event? Life. Over time it became clear that the concepts proposed by Milton Friedman and embraced by conservatives work best in a laboratory environment. They work best in theory. They will only work in a world where greed does not exist. I assure you greed does exist in this world.
There are those who would argue that greed is a good thing and I would agree with some of those arguments. You see I am the type of person that will accept that there is little in this world that is black and white and that there are certain truths on both sides of most arguments.
Greed is a great motivator, and many great innovations can be traced to greed. I do not believe that greed should be or even could be eradicated but, I feel that it must be controlled. If not we end up with an economy in its current state, due in part to irresponsible lenders, with the result that we must help out both those lenders and their equally irresponsible borrowers. We end up with a health care system that forces us to pay twice as much for woefully inadequate health care as any other industrialized nation.
Am I now a bleeding heart liberal? I do not think so. I consider myself an independent voter that is anxiously waiting for the Republican Party to field a candidate that I can consider voting for. I do not recognize the Republican Party as it stands today. Ronald Reagan is for me and probably always will be the greatest President that I have lived to experience. If Ronald Reagan were alive today I would find it difficult to believe he would embrace the current practices of the Republican party.
Perhaps it is only the ones shouting that are able to heard right now and are deemed newsworthy but, there seems to be little rational thought on the part of the conservative leaders. So much of what has the right inflamed is based on items which have no basis for truth. I have heard very few Republican leaders stand up and challenge these notions. In fact, they readily encourage them. The race is on, because I feel the first one who does stand up for truth, and makes his argument on substance, just might have a chance to win a national election.
Truth to conservative Republicans right now, very literally, seems to be easily discarded as if it was a candy bar wrapper.
In politics, just as in religion, I believe that if you must try to persuade me with fear and not by reaching my intellect I am immediately skeptical of your positions. It certainly does not earn my respect.
I choose to think for myself and not be told what to think by others who claim to know the truth. Because of this I eschew the wisdom not just of Sean Hannity or Glenn Beck but also the "sensationalistic" rhetoric of Keith Olbermann and Ed Schultz. Do not get me wrong, I do think Olbermann and Schultz are right most of the time, I just find some of their "inflammatory" language non-essential to the argument.
The truth should be the ultimate goal and that goal should never be compromised. Tell me one lie, just one, and I will have difficulty believing anything else you say. I do not swallow every hook that comes along, nor should anyone else.
I look forward to once again becoming a regular contributor. Hopefully this will mean renewing old friendships and starting new ones. Of course, I do accept that over the course of time I just may tick a few people off.
You can find out more about Dan Bimrose and his new book Max Yasgur's Farm at danbimrose.com.
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Very well done. I have been waiting for a candidate or politician to make a stand on substance instead of rhetoric for awhile now, and still . . . we wait. You're right truth should be the ultimate goal, yet for some reason it seems most of the politicians (and pundits) these days liken truth to what they think the truth is given their narrow view, and not objective truth.
Well said. I'm hoping there are more of us than it seems. All I'm seeing from the GOP is a mob and I'm trying to remember a historical instance when the mob was right. Nothing comes to mind.
How come when the Liberals reacted against Bush and the war, it was called a protest but now, when so much of the country is truly upset about universal health care, it is called a mob?
By the way, another time when the mob was 'right' resulted in The United States of America in 1776. I thank God that we still have the ability to expresss ourselves freely and openly and can only pray that that freedom continues.
I'll be happy to try to explain my feelings on this. First of all, let me clear up a few misconceptions. This is the first time in my life that I find myself on what might be considered the "liberal" side of a political issue. I've always identified myself as a conservative republican. Also, I have not ever said that other protests were ok and only the current ones are not. I thought Cindy Sheehan was a half a bubble off center and have never been a part of any sort of protests of that caliber - I've always seen them as the domain of crazy left-wing wackos.
That leads me to probably the central issue of my trouble. BECAUSE I'm a Republican, I have higher expectations for my party. I always thought my party was the party of logic and reason. I thought we understood that government should always be for the good of the people. I thought we were supposed to be the ones who looked at all sides of an issue, not the knee-jerk, scare-folks-out-of-their-minds guys.
What I see at these protests for the most part is people who are screaming about things that aren't true. They believe it's true, because for some reason, the party leaders believe they should give people misinformation about this issue. Why? Is it because they don't want anything accomplished that gives credit to the other side? I want more than that from then. You know my story, you know why I believe the government needs to intervene in this issue. Do I believe this bill is perfect? Of course not. Where's the money going to come from? How will it work logistically? Those are real concerns that need to be addressed. But Death Panels? That's a complete fabrication. I don't think we need a complete takeover by the government, but we need something. It was telling that a few days after President Obama announced he was going start the ball rolling on health care reform, the insurance companies came out with a list of changes they could make immediately if the government guaranteed that everyone would have to have health insurance.
Why is my party not willing to even have the discussion? Why are they inflaming people so? The Republicans have had the White House for 28 of the last 40 years and they never once even tried to discuss helping with this issue. I see the role of government to intervene when private companies fail to do right by the people. That's why we have the military, the police, the fire departments, medicare, medicaid, real estate laws, private property rights, anti-trust laws. As Dan so correctly pointed out here, greed exists. The government is supposed to protect the weak from the effects of excessive greed.
Another reason I see these protests differently is distinctly personal. As I said, I've never been on the "liberal" side before. Now that I'm here, I've experienced some frightening things. I've had people I've known a long time, snarl at me with true loathing in their eyes and say things like, "How can you call yourself a Christian and believe that???" I have felt genuinely threatened for the first time in my life by people I thought knew and loved me. I'm afraid to say out loud what I think in some circles because I'm afraid of retaliation. That is mob stuff. Those Iraq war protesters were mad at Bush, I never felt like one of them was going to make it personal with me. My friends don't see me as a person with a different opinion, they see me as the ENEMY. Some of them have changed the way they view me entirely just because of what I think on this one issue, so I don't feel free. That's why I see this as a mob.
Oh, I've never thought of the American Revolution as brought about by a mob. It was a much thought out, talked out, documented, and carefully planned campaign by some of the greatest political minds of that day.
Sorry for the length of this - I probably should have gone to an article, but thanks for your patience. Jean
First, Dan, good points to ponder. I think I'd have to consider myself a republibdemoconstitutionalist. I agree with a little of each. I think there are a lot like me out there. Opinions and discussion are good.
Jean, Man, I didn't realize some viewed you as an enemy. There is something terribly wrong with that.
I am sorry that you feel that your friends look at you differently but a lot of us on the other side feel some of the same things you are feeling. I would never place anything on my car that would label me as conservative for fear of my car being keyed. I saw this happening to Republicans during the last election too often.
I agree that our healthcare system needs a lot of change, but I am frightened by what I see that change will be. When I stated a few weeks ago that, upon the age of 55 you would have to meet with a diagnostician every 5 years to determine what type of coverage you would be able to get, I personally read that in the bill. I've been away, but I think I heard that that has come out. If that particular item was removed because of the reaction of so many of us, then so be it. Jean, bear in mind, the President wanted this 1000 page document to be passed immediately and no one had read it!
If this healthcare reform is so great, why aren't the government employees going to partake of it as well? They will not. They will still have their own healthcare insurance.
And the private insurance I now have and the President promises I can keep?
#1. If a new employee comes into a company, he/she will not be able to take advantage of what the employer presently offers the existing employees. Those individuals will have to resort to the government plan.
#2. My husband's company will find it cheaper to pay the fine than to continue providing the insurance we now have which means we will be delegated to the government plan.
#3. Private insurances will go out of business because of the above 2 reasons.
Our healthcare issues need work, there is no doubt about it. But the present plan is not the answer for many Americans. This is not a partisan issue. This is an American issue. There are several liberals in congress who are against the bill as well.
I understand that feeling Jean. The protestations seem to have no definite basis in fact but fear. I welcome a disagreement without demonization. If this is all about healthcare, then why are people bringing guns to a town hall? Why are they talking about the legitimacy of OUR president's citizenship?
I am thankful for what I enjoy as an American citizen, but that gratitude does not include worship of any political ideology and I think far too many people who claim Christ in America, seem to have forgotten that.
The Constitution (which I am thankful for) is not he Bible: the original Constitution did not acknowledge my African & Native American ancestors as being citizens (or completely human); nor did it acknowledge women as equal partners in society; the Bible always has always included people like me and the fairer sex.
America is not the Church: our American citizenship does not command favor with God --- with whom there is no Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free for all are one in Christ.
No political party or leader is Christ: too many of us have walked in this delusion unwittingly and it is time to wake-up. The words and lordship of Christ should be preeminent. Just because I have the right to do something, it doesn't mean that it is right to do --- especially if Christ says otherwise.
I can ramble as well, as you can see. Jean I appreciate your heart and agree with your sentiments. This is the time for us to love more purely than we ever had before and to pray more powerfully than we've ever believed we could. Blessings to you.
Hello Dan and and thanks for this composition. I am one of those perplexing individuals as well: nobody knows exactly what category I fit in. And guess what? I'm cool with that. The need to know how one fits into a neat political category, is part of the reason we are in such a mess. At any rate take care my friend and I look forward to future articles and writings.
» left by Anonymous (57 days 22 hours ago.)
It is hard to believe that someone can think that most of what Keith Olbermann says is true does not realize that Olbermann is very liberal ergo his beliefs are also liberal. I do not disagree with everything that Olbermann says, far from it. I just think it is important to call a spade a spade!
I'm a bit confused myself. I am fully aware that Keith Olbermann is very liberal and thus his beliefs are liberal. I didn't realize I claimed otherwise.
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