Otherwise, I will read a note that says "You Know you are a Liberal When. . . . ." And I will fascinate myself, spending the entire evening thinking of an equally caustic and disdainful equivalent for those to my right.
You know you’re a liberal when:And I will laugh to myself, and I will want to post my own version here, and then I will remember that I do have a few conservative readers (wave hello guys!), and I will equally remind myself that I am somewhat conservative. (No, really, I am.)
1. Your first reaction to anything you dislike is, “There ought to be a law against this!”
2. You foam at the mouth over how “hateful” and “intolerant” conservatives are.
3. You think there should be a million laws to protect children…unless they’re unwanted: then they’re “tissue”, not children.
4. You believe in “survival of the fittest” but you want to take the "fit’s" livelihood and give it to those who refuse to contribute to "society’s" survival.
5. You accuse the Bible of teaching hate against gays but ignore that it’s only in countries which have had the Bible that homosexuals are given any rights at all.
6. You enshrine personal freedoms, civil liberties, and privacy but think children should be taken from their parents if they aren’t in government-run schools.
7. You believe that “separation of church and state” is written in the
Constitution but you don’t find it peculiar that the government legislates against churches all the time.
8. You think outlawing guns will
prevent their use but fail to notice that millennia of laws outlawing the crimes of violence, rape, and theft haven’t done anything to stop them.
9. You believe people should question authority but you have a fit when they try to put stickers in textbooks reminding students that evolution is still just a theory.
10. You think immigrants who entered the country illegally,
proving their contempt for the law, would make model citizens.
11. You watch more than 9 out of 10 blacks vote for Obama and don’t notice any racism.
If anyone likes this list, you're welcome to publish it anywhere you like, as long as you don't change it to make it rude, angry or insensitive. - Luke
And I will try to be nice about the whole darn thing, until I read that note at the bottom. And that's when I say, game on. . .
You know you’re a conservative when:
1. Your first reaction to anything that might violate what you think is in the Bible, or what you want the Bible to say is to make a law.
2. You foam at the mouth about how stupid and ungodly those Liberals are. Why, they're positively un-American.
3. You think you should be able to tell a woman what to do with her body, until you have to help pay her health care bills. It's ok if children don't have healthcare or food after they are born, as long as we don't abort them.
4. You believe in organized groups, as long as they are church, or the NRA, and not unions or civil rights movements.
5. You love the portions of the Bible that deal with sex and violence and spanking your kids, but you somehow manage to ignore the parts about love and charity and duty to neighbour.
6. You want the smallest government possible, that is still big enough to be in everyone's bedroom, all the time.
7. You believe that “separation of church and state” is written in the Constitution but find that annoying. You'd rather legislate Christian morality than have people chose it because you've shown them the influence of God in your life.
8. Your convinced that if you just look hard enough, you'll find that right to bear arms in the Bible.
9. You believe that no one should question authority, unless it's you doing the questioning. If you are questioning, then that authority is just wrong, and more importantly, unGodly.
10. You think immigrants who entered the country illegally, often risking their own lives, living life on the edge, with virtually no safety net, doing jobs that no American wants to do would make lousy citizens, but they make great cleaners and gardeners.
11. You watch more than 9 out of 10 blacks vote for Obama and still don't believe that maybe the national sins of slavery are being slowly abolished.
12. You want to tell everyone how to be married, but your rate of divorce is as high as anyone elses.
See, I can do that too. I probably even got some of you smiling - at least wryly. And I can say that I'm fair and reasonable and even-handed. I can even mutter about speaking the truth in love.
And I'm left at the end of this, with a dirty taste in my mouth. None of it is true. Not what my BIL said about Liberals, not what I said about Conservatives. It's all parody, an intellectual short hand. Discussing the issues without having to sit and make a reasoned plea. Not even discussing the issues. We aren't articulating a policy to prevent child poverty, we aren't articulating ending gang violence, and there are still drug addicts on our streets. We hurling accusations, that have no basis in fact.
It used to be that politics was the process that attempted to define a better country. A better place to live. It used to be that policy could change lives, could make our countries better. It used to be that some Christians fought against slavery and fought for civil rights. I think, I hope we used to debate policy, not sling mud.
We can all sling mud. It's easy enough. I'm wondering if we can debate policy.
