LHIA: Liberalism

Being on the extremes of liberal and conservative must be so boring. Really, labeling oneself under any party or political position makes me want to yawn.

Ever since I could remember, “liberal” and “conservative” always had particular rings to them. “Liberal” had a nice ring, “conservative”, a shady ring. Now, I’m not quite sure what a shady ring sounds like, but I guess we could put it like this: if you were filming a horror movie and the chick that’s about to get murdered in her house hears her cell phone ring, the ring you would set-up on her phone for the shot would be very ‘conservative.’ With “liberal”, you think freedom, and most people prefer this idea. With “conservative”, you think traditional. Traditions–okay, they’re alright. But in comparison to the mighty “freedom”, how can you compare? But then you have a gander through Webster’s perspective:

Entry Word: liberal
Synonyms broad-minded, nonconventional, nonorthodox, nontraditional, open-minded, progressive, radical, unconventional, unorthodox

Entry Word: conservative
Synonyms old-fashioned, orthodox, reactionary, traditional, unprogressive

Really, negativity and positivity can be associated with either. And what determines that negativity and positivity is evidently subjective. Undoubtedly, my bias towards the word ‘liberal’ is a product of bias and representation in the media. In the media, there is obviously bias all around. This can be problematic for those who are incapable of thinking for themselves, but it’s also problematic for everyday folk like you and me (on second thought, everyday folk are probably more corrupted than you and me ). Deny it or not, we’re still impacted. It’s hard to find any reporter that fairly attacks both sides of the debate, but when they do, my god it’s delicious. It seems like Lou Dobbs is one of these people. I love those reporters that can wildly stab one group and savagely maul the other group in the same sentence. It’s those middle men that I identify with the most.

I suppose liberalism also possesses that nicer ring because, based on my beliefs, I’ve set that particular ringtone. I could never see myself identifying more with a generally conservative viewpoint. While I could let my views place me in the appropriate category like an elderly man building a jigsaw with the wifey, I’d rather not identify with either. I am a middle man…well, biologically-speaking, middle woman. I stay in the middle and appease both sides. Through my eyes, both sides are radical. Yet there are good aspects to each. I believe it’s important we are progressive, but hold to some tradition. But I care not for upholding every tradition. Tradition does not equate with accuracy. There are plenty of traditions that hold no ground anymore, that restrict the freedoms of the citizen. Marriage is perhaps a tradition, but the tradition to restrict unions to men and women is discriminatory and disgusting. Then perhaps we have the tradition of enslaving blacks. Funny, I equate restrictions against blacks to be the same as restrictions against homosexuals; neither is worse than the other. You could almost refer to the US Constitution as a tradition–so can we say all aspects of the Constitution are up to par with today’s society? No, not necessarily. But the question of making alterations to traditions can be problematic. Stopping there, let’s go back a step. Traditional conservativism can sometimes lead to discriminatory events, yet liberal pacifying can result in just as many of these events. Parties aren’t parties without their desire to gain power and push down those of opposing views, no matter how much denial is revealed. However, the more you fight the quicksand, the quicker you’ll sink. Continuous strive by all parties typically ends in one thing: a party folding in on it’s fervent corruption.

Could this all mean that I’m just a libertarian? Unlikely (I do appreciate some government involvement), if I’m going to identify with any group, it would be more along the lines of liberals than conservatives. But while I do support the freedoms, I also feel we need the restrictions to put us in our place. But..but…mommy, can’t I just be a hermit in the forest and not associate with any label whatsoever? Sure, labels are important to some degree, but I don’t believe so much in the political sense. If you ask my beliefs, I’ll tell you them, I won’t tell you a label and let that do the dictating. I wish politics took advice from Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Although, I can admit there are some positives to having recognized political parties, it’s just…disturbing when the system becomes polarized with only two options at the forefront, as is prominent in the U.S. Why must we polarize something that should never be polarized? We need to live in nations that open their arms to both aspects of each party…and more.