So recently my friends have started posted 'what do you think of my blog?' type question. I realized one of aspects that I appreciate about her blog is how liberal and reform minded it is. That, in turn, has got me thinking about what I most appreciate about the liberal / left / Democratic perspectives. And yes, even my friends who hate politics should read this post. It isn't that political. [Warning: Dangerous and overarching sweeping generalizations sprinkled generously throughout this post. These may or may not represent Al's thoughts, either partially or entirely. Al reserves the right to truthfully deny any and all thoughts posted here, especially under duress.]
One aspect that I consistently appreciate about most of my liberal friends is their willingness to see problems - serious problems - in society, and advocate reform. In general, many of my conservative friends seem very willing to define America's core problems as (a) Liberals, and (b) well, Liberals, and if we'd just get back to tradition, the good ol' times would reoccur. Generally, I see liberals reacting to some significant and deeply troubling problems in our society. And I think that is very, very good.
On the flip-side, while I deeply appreciate the liberal awareness of have fallen our society is, I don't typically like their solutions. I tend to think that the conservative tradition is closer to the outward appearance of how things should be. Yes, I think the core of a lot of conservative is pretty rotten, but I don't think discarding the mechanisms is the proper solution.
The upshot of all of this musing is that I make a very bad liberal, and a worse conservative. I get very uneasy when the conservatives talk about maintaining/returning to tradition, because I'm not convinced that the tradition is nearly as good as they think it is. On the flipside, while I agree with many of the liberals about the problems, I don't buy their solutions. I have also decided I would be a great unifying president: Everyone would be so angry with me that I would be a common public enemy, unifying the country against me.
As a final thought, I thought I'd share two essays that I often come back to when dealing with politics and Christianity. They are both by J. Budziszewski - who I know nothing about other than I like these two essays.
The Problem With Liberalism
The Problem With Conservatism
3 comments:
Alan, I recommend you read the book "God's Politics: Why the right gets it wrong and the left doesn't get it" by Jim Wallis. I'm sure it's in the library, but if not I can lend it to you. It echos many of the themes that you mention.
"President Al."
Well, you have to admit that it has a certain ring to it. :)
I had a pretty long discussion yesterday at work regarding polotics / economics / and religion to a point.
To be perfectly honest, my view on it all is that if you subscribe to a particular party - you sold out every single person who died in the revolutionary war, every world war, and everyone who has been killed at peaceful demonstrations. Parties are not made up of people who care about you and I. Parties are made up of people who want to dominate the government because they see the other side wanting to do the same thing. Its sad honestly. Democracy fails when the free market economy is no longer free, which we are making great strides to today.
My "Business Philosophies" text book likened Democracy to two coyotes and a lamb voting on what they'd like for lunch. It has become a way that person A decideds that person B has a problem, and then taxes person C to pay for B's problem. The curent "State of the State" is truly sickening,
I don't care if you are liberal or conservative, green party, or liberatarian.... Poloticians are merely puppets for the lobbyists behind them.
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