A Liberal Rebuttal to Radical Conservative Views

This article is a general rebuttal to all those who attempt to equate liberalism with socialism, Communism and fascism. This article responds to all the attacks against the Liberals with equivalent attacks against the conservatives. That's what a rebuttal does. That's what this article does.

Living in Iraq under the leadership of Hussein was described to me by an acquaintance who was born and raised there. He did not describe any brutality he and his family may have suffered. But he did explain what he experienced in Iraq. He said he had a choice of careers based his aptitude. If a person's score on an aptitude test was not high enough, the person was denied a career in the field that person wanted. Prices of all goods were controlled by the government. In Socialism, everything is done for the benefit of society. Since this was not true in Iraq, the Iraq government under Saddam Hussein could not be called a pure socialist State.

The Justice system in Iraq included severe inhumane punishments for crimes. One caught stealing would have to serve a term in jail. The jail was a cave wherein the walls and floor were dirt. One slept, urinated, had bowel movements and ate in that dirt. Every day, the guards would come around and hose the criminal without opening the cell door. That meant that the criminal would be sitting and sleeping in mud. As one would guess, many prisoners did not survive a 30 day sentence for theft. And those who did never committed a theft again. Inhumane justice and inhumane treatment of the people was definitely a part of the Hussein regime.

Someone on C-SPAN stated that the assertion by some that the Democrats are socialists is ridiculous and that anyone who knows a true Socialist would never make such a claim. I assume that person was talking about a pure social economic system whereby one works for the benefit of all.

Liberalism is definitely different from this social economic system. In liberalism, the government provides benefits for those in need. Capitalism exists under a liberal government. Even TARP was based on capitalistic principle as I described in earlier articles. Purchasing stocks in order to provide a loan to a business is definitely capitalism and not socialism.

In my view, anyone who defines the bailout as a form of socialism insults all U.S. citizens including past and future Presidents, Congress members and investors. These people are unwittingly defining investing as a form of socialism because TARP constituted an investment in financially troubled firms.

The other ridiculous assertion by some conservatives is that liberals are communists. The Communists owned everything. Private property was non-existent. Government chose one's career. Government was one's religion. In my view, Communism is closer to the conservative view of a Christian nation than it is to liberalism; especially with regard to placing God in the U.S. Constitution and the Gay Marriage amendment. The refusal to raise the minimum wage and the obvious attempt to force the middle class into poverty via encouraging the exportation of jobs has the same effect as communism because it oppresses the middle class. The whole Conservative Ideology appears focused on making the poor poorer and the rich richer.

If the Liberals are accused of being Fascist and attempting to kill capitalism, then the Conservatives can be accused of promoting the corruption that occurs in a capitalistic society via reducing government regulations. So one could generalize the same way some conservatives generalize and state that some Conservatives thrive in corruption. Why not? Both assumptions are ridiculous.

The comparison of Liberalism and Fascism is the most ridiculous in view of the subtle form of genocide proposed by conservatives; namely denying unemployment benefits and killing Welfare which would leave people starving in the streets without shelter. I think one can draw parallels between abandoning the Welfare system and the holocaust. Even though, admittedly, the holocaust was much worse; the results are still the same.

The stimulus package finances certain private and public sector ventures for the benefit of the national economy. Tax cuts and tax incentives finance certain private sector ventures for the benefit of the national economy. Hence both are a form of socialism. Both leave the government with less money. And, as history has demonstrated over and over again, both are temporary fixes. With the unemployment still at 9.6%, one could claim that the Bush tax cuts and tax incentives were one huge miserable failure that did not prevent the global recession.

Writing this article was very enjoyable. Maybe I should write more rebuttals!