Journal Gorbie's Journal: Nothing like a good old political debate on a Friday!
A friend of mine, JHT has put in $.02 in regards to my response post intended for Trolling4Dollars.
In response, I would first like to note that my post was a response to something Trolling4Dollars wrote, and intended only to be that. I was not intending to create the definitive piece on liberals vs. conservatives.
That said, I must also disagree with Josh in that, while his statements regarding liberalism being inherently accepting of chage and conservatives not being accepting of change is inaccurate. While this may be a classic definition of the two concepts, it has little bearing on what it means in todays society to be either. I would challenge him to make a supported arguement on this (in a friendly way, of course), and am certain that for every instance shown in his favour I can come up with an equal and opposite instance that is disproving.
Some of what he wrote is very true. His statements regarding how the two groups view society, opportunity, and institutions are on the money with the exception of religion. I do not know many if any conservatives that do not respect the separation of church and state. You'd think that living in Massachusetts I wouldn't know many conservatives, but I manage to find a few here and there.
Once we are past this nit-picky quagmire of words, our views generally are in alignment. Josh's model of what government should provide to citizens is very similar to mine. It is always worth one shot to give someone a chance to turn things around, but if people having put themselves in a poor position refuse to make an effort to help themselves, then that is life.
And no, government should not be in the morality business. The only difference we have here is with abortion rights, and even that is somewhat semantic. The issue over abortion is quite literally whether or not abortion is an act of murder. I am not saying it is, and I am not saying it isn't, just that the two sides of the issue say either yes it is or no it isn't. Someone needs to decide that question, and I for one think the government is the best and truly only place it can be decided. Sexual behavior...do what you want (unless you belong to NAMBLA...). Drug policy should be limited to what is safe to use (like not heroine), and what isn't (like not grass). If someone is likely to jump off a building because of a substance tricking them into thinking flying would be fun, I don't have a problem with it being illegal (even is this is reverse darwinism).
P.S. Happy Birthday. Late, early, on time...it's close.
P.P.S. The 'pen scares me as well!!!