Why I'm Not a Modern Liberal

The following was written by Dr. Lyle Rossiter, author of The Liberal Mind. It encapsulates the reason why I am not a liberal.

What the liberal mind is passionate about is a world filled with pity, sorrow, neediness, misfortune, poverty, suspicion, mistrust, anger, exploitation, discrimination, victimization, alienation, and injustice.

Sounds pretty uplifting, yes?

Those who occupy this world are "workers," "minorities," "the little guy," "women," and the "unemployed." They are poor, weak, sick, wronged, cheated, oppressed, disenfranchised, exploited, and victimized. They bear no responsibility for their problems. None of their agonies are attributable to faults or failings of their own: not to poor choices, bad habits, faulty judgment, wishful thinking, lack of ambition, low frustration tolerance, or defects in character. None of the victims' plight is caused by failure to plan for the future or learn from experience. Instead, the "root cause" of all this pain lie in faulty social conditions: poverty, disease, war, ignorance, unemployment, racial prejudice, ethnic and gender discrimination, modern technology, capitalism, globalization and imperialism.

In the radical liberal mind, this suffering is inflicted on the innocent by various predators and persecutors: "Big Business," "Big Corporations," "greedy capitalists," "the oppressors," "the rich," "the wealthy," "the powerful," and "the selfish."

With this take on mankind, it's no surprise liberals are angry all the time. Worse, they have no sense of humor. It's funny. Conservatives have always been stereotyped as stodgy, uptight folks. But my experience has proven just the opposite. I've received more positive vibes and belly laughs from hanging out with conservatives than I ever have with liberals.

The underbelly of a modern liberal rests in a deep distrust of authority. It's a child's view of the world. Rather than study the reasons for things, the pros and the cons, a modern liberal will attack the person in authority (think President Bush) simply because he doesn't see the world the same way the modern liberal does. He assumes that if the person in charge doesn't think the same way, his intentions must be evil.

It's a shortsighted and immature way to look at things, but there it is.

0 Responses to “Why I'm Not a Modern Liberal”: