Big Bad Liberal? Or Crazy Right Winger?

by Urbain in June 28th, 2008

Musings - Lifestyles and Politics Tags: Coulter, Fairness Doctrine, FISA, political quiz, politics, right wing, tax and spend liberal

With the popularity of talk radio and television opinion shows, politics are polarized. The opinion makers would have us believe that you’re either a tax and spend liberal (Democrat) or control freak, right wing conservative (Republican). If you’re somewhere in the middle, some talk show hosts would have you believe that there’s something weak about you; that you are unable to make decisions and are a fence sitter. This all started happening long before the war and is getting worse.

I used to be a Republican. My very first political experience was working in Dallas on Ronald Reagan’s reelection campaign. These times were exciting and empowering for me. We believed in a more responsible form of government where we were going to cut taxes, reduce the size of government, support business … but I was quickly disillusioned when the party embraced big religion for its own purposes.

The “right wing” devolved over the years with the popularity of venomous opinions espoused by people like Ann Coulter. With a weird “Christian” perspective, the right wing uses its version of morality to justify its positions. The day I stopped listening to talk radio was when I heard Michael Reagan screech that we should just “nuke ‘em” when talking about Iraq. Any reasonable person knows how horrible nuclear warfare will be. Millions of innocents would die; the environment would become toxic; millions would suffer the after effects. This is a man who frequently talks about dropping down to his knees and praying. How can killing untold hundreds of thousands of people and other lifeforms and creating severe environmental illness be “Christian?”

On the flip side, the “liberals” would have these very talk shows regulated under the “Fairness Doctrine” whereby radio stations would be forced to balance their programs with both right wing and liberal talk show hosts. This hardly seems like freedom of speech. Radio stations should be allowed to choose their own programming, based on the advertising revenues they generate. The “tax and spend” liberals advocate increasing taxes on the rich in some sort of Robin Hood style of distributing wealth in ways that they feel are morally justified. My take on liberalism is that everything should be “fair” for everyone. Government has a responsibility to make everything “fair.”

Both extremes apparently think it’s perfectly all right for the government to spy on American citizens in the name of security. See the FISA voting record.

I think most of us are somewhere in the middle. There are aspects of both parties that have some appeal and some things that are repulsive. Because of this, we’re left with the choice to ‘vote for the lesser of two evils.’

When it comes down to this year’s vote, are you going to be a tax and spend liberal? A crazy right winger? Probably neither. The good news is that you don’t have to vote for the “lesser of two evils” once you know where you’re politically aligned.

The World’s Smallest Political Test is a great way to see where you stand. Chances are, you maybe shocked by the results! Check it out — it only takes a minute or two. The quiz may be small, but it’s regarded as highly accurate:

The World’s Smallest Political Test