How Are Liberals Really Different from Conservatives?

Recently, the prolific Associated Content writer, S.L. Bradish, wrote an article entitled, "The Difference Between Liberals and Conservatives." I'm sure Ms. Bradish is a very devoted conservative, based on her work. However, the propaganda that is her article must not stand without a few counterpoints. These are not just semantics we're dealing in. This is about uncovering the true reasons why we've lost sight of what America was supposed to be. In case you haven't noticed, we're being led by a political powerhouse (the conservatives) who will point the finger at a man having an affair that harmed noone but himself and his family, yet fight tooth and nail to protect a child molester for five years. And that's only the most recent case of hypocrisy. It is time for someone to speak the truth, simply and without pretense, about how liberals really are different from conservatives. You can listen to what Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann have to say all you want, and end up more confused than ever. Before you vote, you should know just how different the two main parties really are.

How Are Liberals Really Different From Conservatives Fiscally?
It is true that conservatives live to lower taxes, and conservative lawmakers count on the fact that you and I don't look any deeper into the issue than , "Oh! Lower taxes, that's a good thing!" Lower taxes for who? Everyone? Not so fast. Conservatives believe that higher earners should get lower taxes only, and therefore more rewards, to put it simply. Liberals just have a different take on it. They believe that if you are a higher earner, you already get more rewards, and the tax breaks should go to those who we refer to as the working poor, who make up most of our country now. Liberals believe it makes no sense to keep pushing money at people who already have more than enough, and that we all have a responsibility to the people who keep America successful. To conservatives, those who keep America going are the stock brokers and the CEO's, whereas liberals, in just one more example of our vastly different points of view, consider the steel workers, the waitresses, farmers, and teachers to be the backbone of our country. Conservatives will refute this truth all day, but the proof is in the pudding. You can get a tax break on your brand new gas guzzling Hummer, but not the used car you bought with money from your two jobs to get your kids to school and back. This is but one of many examples of how diffferent liberals and conservatives are. Liberals do not hope to tax the country into prosperity. We hope to tax the rich into bridging the financial gap. Remember, the gap that is now causing the poor to get poorer, and the rich to get richer? Liberals do not, contrary to what conservatives (and S.L. Bradish) would have you believe, just want to throw money at the working poor. They want to put it into funding adequate childcare, healthcare, housing and development. Liberals really are different from conservatives fiscally, in that their idea of prosperity is looking out for the masses, and right now in America, the masses are living below poverty level. There should never be billions of dollars, and government funded programs to keep the rich rich. They can do that for themselves.

How Are Liberals Really Different From Conservatives Socially and Morally?
The biggest myth about liberals is that they are unpatriotic and immoral. This is according to the sweeping generalizations of the conservative doctrine. I'll just give you a few examples and let you make your own conclusions, instead of telling you that if you disagree you shouldn't be an American.

Liberals believe that what individuals do with their bodies is their choice. In other words, the choices they make are between them and their higher power, not between them and Jerry Falwell. Liberals believe that the death penalty should be abolished, because it is state sponsored murder, proven as a weak deterrent against crime, and we're finding more and more that innocent men and women have been executed. Conservatives believe that every life is sacred, except the lives of poor people, inmates, and soldiers in Iraq. Conservatives would like to make the decision as to whether a woman can have an abortion or not, but they don't need any evidence to send a fully developed teenager to die thousands of miles away for oil.

Liberals believe in civil and human rights, for all. Without exception, without limit. Conservatives have a much different take. They believe, (because Jesus W. Bush said it, so it must be true) that our country should be able to indefinitely hold foreign prisoners without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial on hearsay evidence, and on the rare occasion when trials are even granted them, sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses.

Liberals believe in religious freedom for all Americans, without the detrimental interference of the government. They believe in children being allowed their own prayers, not those led (or coerced by) school administrators. A lot of conservatives think that liberals and the ACLU want all religion abolished. But most of us just don't want government employees forcing us into praying to their god or spending our tax money to preach their religion. Conservatives believe in state-sponsored force-fed christianity, without thought of the results of such mass alienation. And the melting pot becomes the stuff of legend. We all must be christians, who keep our heads down and don't dissent. Sound familiar? That's because it's the doctrine used in the past by the Nazi regime. So the conservatives would have you believe that they are more moral. How can they be moral and intolerant at the same time?

Conservatives believe that if you have to get on welfare, you should be made to pay that welfare back by cleaning public toilets, and other humiliating practices. Conservatives do not believe in assessing public assistance on an individual basis, reworking the whole idea of welfare, and then funding it so that it can be available to those who truly need it. They're all about formulas (and boy how it's worked so far!). Conservatives don't have a problem with welfare, as long as it's corporate. Liberals believe that if you've paid taxes in this country, you deserve help when you need it. What a novel idea! And most everyone in this country has needed it at some point in time, unless you're born with a silver foot in your mouth (RIP Ann Richards). If you're a conservative, you want to apply a different (new testament) bible verse to every situation that is clearly not working, and pretend that when it isn't it's the fault of some non-believing immoral tree-hugger.

If you're a liberal, you believe everything isn't so cut and dry, and there are times when everyone needs to pitch in. For instance, liberals believe in this radically different and new idea that healthcare should be available to all, and that income should never enter into the quality of care a person receives. Everyone deserves the same high level of care that the rich now corner the market on. In order to do that, health insurance as we know it must be abolished, and everyone's tax money, especially those with higher than average incomes, should go to pay for it. You can slice it and dice it and Hillaryize it all you want, but it's very simple. Where it becomes complicated is when multi-billion dollar industries are threatened with change. After all, isn't it easier to downsize factory work, so it's only poor people who lose everything, than it is to downsize fortune 500 firms? Conservatives believe it's every man for himself, and people must earn their way out of crappy healthcare, living conditions, and bad education.

I will not be addressing the paragraph in S.L. Bradish's article that speaks to racism, because the paragraph itself is absurd, and bigoted. I think the best way to show how liberals are really different from conservatives is to let you read that for yourself. It's a disgrace, I can tell you that much. How are liberals really different from conservatives socially and morally? One could write a thousand volumes. But you get the idea.

How Are Liberals Really Different From Conservatives? The War on Terror
This is an easy one. We were lied to. Conservatives believe you support the president no matter what. That's not so bad, in theory. However, here we have a man who has repeatedly, and blatantly, stepped on the backs of over 3,000 murdered Americans to push his father's unfinished Iraq agenda. Even G.H.W. Bush looks ashen when asked about this issue. Some liberals feel they can chortle with delight at the President now that he's finally been revealed to 80% of the country as a dictator, but I hesitate to do that when I know it's taken so many lives in Iraq to finally wake people up to the fact that the War on Terror is a farse. Ms. Bradish refers to liberals 'kissing terrorist butts' in this part of her article, which I find sad. I can't remember, so please remind me, readers. Was it a democratic president who made his first calls on September 11, 2001, to have the Bin Laden family safely moved out of the country? Is it a democratic president who still can't answer the question ,"Why haven't we gotten Bin Laden?" Those kooky liberals feel strongly that we need to make sure we're dealing with terrorists before we perpetrate genocide. Conservatives believe we need to make a parking lot of out any country who is poorer than us, but has oil to provide us. There is no War on Terror, only a war on ourselves.

We now live in a country that is run like a failing business. We are handled, spun, and herded around like sheep. All in the name of more money, and more oil, and less dissent. Conservatives will blame the media until the cows come home, but without the media to at least provide us with a different view, we are the modern equivalent of Cold War Russia.

How are liberals really different from conservatives? This article wasn't written to address all the differences, but rather to stir more discussion and debate, and to present a kind of accountability to the people who perpetuate the lie that is being daily heaped upon us. To give those of us who have never cared about politics a chance to see where we stand, because now is the time to stand for something. I applaud S.L. Bradish for standing for something, weak and slimy as it is. She is a microchosm of the conservative point of view. If you can't bully people into listening, give them a bad rating, give yourself a higher one, invent support, and watch the dominoes fall. Whether this article empowers you or enrages you, do your own research and form your own opinion based on fact.

So, back to our original question: How are liberals really different from conservatives? Let us count the ways, and count them correctly. Please get out and vote.