At its core, liberal means 'free.' Liberty. While there isn't much of this in todays politics, I identify with this as much as anything. I am a small l liberal more than a big L Liberal. Civil liberties and Civil rights are at the core of me through my life observations and upbringing. It is why I work in Haiti. It is why I break up fights. It is why I participate. It informs who I am, but because I put the small l before the big L, I don't hate the other side. If I am a true liberal, I believe in the existence of more than one opinion. But lets get more specific.
I have something of a Robin Hood mentality when it comes to wealth. I wholeheartedly believe that someone who works hard to acquire wealth has a responsibility to help those who have little. In the short history of our little country, I see that we've been the strongest when we have a thriving middle class and we only have a thriving middle class when the wealth at the top is spread out. For me, it really is the difference between the wealthy having two mansions or one. I think they should only have one, so that fifty people can have a home of some kind. Until there is a system better than the government to handle that process, I see most of it happening through taxes. The fact is, from what I have observed, the wealthy in a capitalist system are hard-wired to not give up their money. We award greed. I am opposed to that.
I believe that health care is not a privilege, it is a basic human right. A healthy population is a productive population. We have the best services and it is irresponsible and beyond the pale that only those who have money would have access to it.
I am a supporter of gay rights. To say that it is a sin or a choice seems so obtuse. Actually, it is more representative to say that in a perfect world, gays, straights, blacks, whites, asians, native americans, muslims, jews, Africans, Canadians, Eastern Europeans, women, senior citizens, country singers, rappers, Nascar fans, soccer fans, garbage pickers, doctors, Red Sox fans, Yankee fans, conservatives, celebrities, and everyone else would be on equal footing. This is not to say that conservatives don't feel this way, I have just found that liberals have a bend towards non discrimination more than conservatives, so I identify with libs easier. Under God, for me, we are all equal.
God is incredibly important in my life, but I don't think that He belongs in policy or in school, although, healthy discussion in school doesn't seem like it would be a bad thing if it were left open. Maybe not exclusively teaching Christianity, but then again, you're counting on teachers to try and draw the line. I guess in my perfect world, school's talk about God, but not in that Pakistani Madras kind of way, but in open debate.
I am pro-choice. It is nothing I come to easily and of all my liberal leanings, this is the one that seems the hardest. Many Liberals who are pro choice have never seen a picture of a 3-4 month old fetus (which looks alarmingly child-like), laying in a pan, drenched in blood. It is a harsh image that begs debate on the wisdom of an abortion. That being said, I believe in a woman's right to choose. Here's another harsh image; in a overturned Roe v Wade world, a 19 year old girl who is raped and gets pregnant visits a man in a cold house and has a procedure done to abort the child with instruments that are less than sterile and goes through an incredible amount of pain to get the procedure done and three torturous months later, she dies of infections. That would happen. It's a woman's body and for me, I can't say what's best for her. I know what the arguments are and this is where I fall on this one.
War. This is one that both political parties own, but as far as I'm concerned, it sucks. Would I have fought in WWII? Yes. Vietnam, if I was drafted, but I would have hated it. Iraq? No. We have moved far enough as a society to avoid war but it has become such a money making tool that I don't see it stopping anytime soon. I think there are multiple ways to fight, AK's and bombs seem like a waste of time and life. I support troops and detest those who make decisions.
There is so much more that makes me a liberal and to be honest, this is just a snap shot of me as a 34 year old liberal. It is, like our constitution, subject and intended to change. What are we if not allowed to change?
