- broad: showing or characterized by broad-mindedness; "a broad political stance"; "generous and broad sympathies"; "a liberal newspaper"; "tolerant of his opponent's opinions"
- having political or social views favoring reform and progress
tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition - a person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties
- big: given or giving freely; "was a big tipper"; "the bounteous goodness of God"; "bountiful compliments"; "a freehanded host"; "a handsome allowance"; "Saturday's child is loving and giving"; "a liberal backer of the arts"; "a munificent gift"; "her fond and openhanded grandfather"
- a person who favors an economic theory of laissez-faire and self-regulating markets
I can't imagine why anyone would want to be viewed as the opposite of those things. It never ceases to amaze me that the political right has managed to redefine the word liberal to mean something bad. Or that liberals have accepted this redefinition and now try to call themselves progressives instead.
Because I'm an unabashed liberal, I'm awaiting the upcoming midterm elections with more hope and optimism than I've had about the political process in years. But that doesn't mean I expect to get much pleasure out of my own trip to the polls next Tuesday. Because even though I live in a blue state (California), I live in a red district (the 52nd) within a red county (San Diego).
I have, heaven help me, Duncan Hunter, the father of the 700-mile border fence and head of the Armed Services Committee who famously tried to force the military to limit women's role in combat, as my Congressional representative. And despite the Republicans' troubles nationally, Hunter will win my district by a landslide even though I'll be voting for his Democratic opponent, John Rinaldi.
Yesterday, Hunter announced that he'd formed an exploratory committee to make a bid for the presidency in 2008. Heh, the Democratic party can only hope he gets the nomination, because if John McCain gets it, the Democrats could nominate God himself and not win.
But the lack of the competition in my district's congressional race is just the tip of the iceberg. The governator is well on his way to his first full term in a landslide and, while I can't vote for the man because the way he says "California" makes me cringe and he's got serious sensitivity problems, the guy has pretty much reinvented himself as a Democrat in Republican's clothing. I'll be voting for Angelides, but I know it's purely symbolic.
Because my district is heavily Republican, all the state senate and assembly races will go to Republicans. The high school district board will probably remain in the hands of the right wing nutjobs who've been running it for years. I'm also pretty certain that none of the ballot measures I'm voting in favor of will pass and equally convinced that the ones I'm voting against will. It almost always turns out that way.
Of course, I'll vote anyway. Even if my vote won't have much affect on the final outcome, if I don't vote, I'm not expressing my liberal values. I figure at worst, I'm letting the politicians I didn't vote for know that people who don't like their policies exist.
But oh, how I wish for once in my life I lived somewhere with a competitive race. I'm envious of the voters in places like Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Ohio. And I really hope those folks appreciate just how much their vote matters this year. Because those of us who can't make a difference are counting on them not to let us down.
11 comments:
I've allowed myself to be quietly optimistic about next week's election, but I can't get my hopes up too much. I don't want to spend another election night in tears because the creeps have won again. :-(
If you've ever read my husband's blog, you probably have a pretty good idea of our political beliefs. We've been so discouraged by the last six years that we're seriously considering moving to Vancouver. Our property in Georgia is on the market as commercial already, and whenever it sells (which will probably happen when the nearby road construction is done), we'll have a big decision to make.
I know what you mean about not getting your hopes up, Lynne. I was really crushed in both 2000 and 2004.
I haven't read John's blog (is it linked from yours?), so I wasn't aware of your political beliefs, but I have a feeling that most people who write romance novels (inspirationals aside) tend towards political liberalism. As a result, I tend to feel pretty safe in espousing liberal political views here.
I completely understand why you'd consider a move to Canada. And hey, if you moved to Vancouver, you'd even be in my time zone!
My husband and I talk wistfully about moving to Greece (probably someplace in the Peloponnese) when we retire, but almost all our family on both sides lives within an hour of our current location, so moving out of the country while our children are young is just not an option. Theoretically, I suppose we could move to Mexico and still be within striking distance of our families, but if anything, it's worse politically than the US and neither we nor our kids speak Spanish (to say nothing of the border crime problems of late).
He's the Sergeant John of the Friends & Family section on my sidebar. His Shakespearean Daily Diss usually features politicians from the current administration.
We're not overjoyed about the idea of leaving the country, either, for exactly the reasons you described. I've only ever lived in Georgia, and 90% of my family members are here. Most of John's relatives are East Coast, too.
But I just don't know if this is going to be a good place to live, ten or twenty years from now. I want to be old in a place that's peaceful, safe, and relatively unpolluted. If we make a new start in a place like Canada now, while we're still young(ish), retiring there will be a lot easier.
Have you ever been to Vancouver?
Brilliant post Barbara. I'm liberal and I'm proud!! I do live in a state (Oregon) where voting is very important. The gubernatorial race here is going to be interesting. We're very nervous the right-wingers will vote Republican without realizing their candidate is an idiot (he actually says he'll fire all state workers to cancel their retirement benefits to save the taxpayers money)! We are getting more involved. My husband serves on a democratic committee that will oversee the election (it's a committee of lawyers and my husband actually has experience with election law, which is apparently hard to find!). He's also running for city council of the new city we're trying to incorporate so we don't get annexed by the incredibly corrupt neighboring city. Yikes! Such a mess.
We were also so disappointed in previous elections, especially two years ago. I doubt I'd move out of country. But never say never! And Lynne, I have been to Vancouver multiple times - a good friend of mine and my mom's cousin live there. It's a huge city and property is very, very expensive. It's also absolutely breathtaking. The mountains rise right out of the city and the water is right there too. I'm heavily doped up on cold medicine so I doubt I'm making any sense. :-) Anyway, it's gorgeous.
Back to the box of tissue...
Darcy
Vancouver is amazing. I love it! But most of my friends are Canadian, and they have problems, too. They're just not trying to bring their problems to everyone else, LOL.
Are you in Tennessee, Jody? My husband sent me a link the other day to that anti-Ford ad that Corker (now THERE'S an appropriate name!) ran for a short while with the "porn" star in it. Man, that's some serious dirty pool!
My husband and I are largely insulated from all the campaign ads because we virtually never watch commercial TV. It's either PBS or sports in this house, and they don't seem to run that many political ads during sports programs, oddly enough. And, of course, as I said, there aren't many competitive races in our area anyway. The ads we do see are generally about ballot initiatives, not candidates.
But anyway, this means I'm always surprised by just how AWFUL some compaign ads are.
LOL, my verification word is blue and it's smruf. Um, guys, I think you mispelled it!
Lynne, I've been to Vancouver but it was a LONG time ago (when I was in my early teens). I don't really remember that much about it except that it was pretty. I remember Victoria a lot more clearly, possibly because that's where I saw my first transvestite and actually realized he/she was a transvestite.
I read John's blog, BTW. May I just say "Concur"? And I love the daily Shakespeare thing. Inspired!
Are y'all using Diebold, TS? My loathing for that system knows no bounds. If I were running this state, I'd donate all the equipment to video arcades and go back to paper ballots. ;-)
Chiming in as another liberal (gasp) Californian. I'm just on the other end of the state, Jacqueline.
And dreading this whole voting faaf on Tuesday, but I'll do it anyway. The Engineer's already turned his ballot in.
Hey, Lynne, if you move to Vancouver, you may see The Engineer and I. Much as I don't want to be one of Those People, who leave the country when things don't go their way, this country has gotten so very screwed up that, if things go badly in 2008, we may do it anyway.
And he really likes Vancouver. :)
For me, it's just that I have a sense of impending doom about what it's going to be like to live here when all the chickens come home to roost. When we first started thinking about moving, we were pissed off, sure. But over time, that gave way to a feeling of dread and inevitability. I don't want to be old, sick, weak, and poor in the kind of country we may be headed toward. :-(
We've been to Vancouver twice to scope things out, and we LOVED it. I scour the real estate ads on BC Farm and Ranch weekly. If I recall correctly, there are usually some good engineering, high tech, and eLearning jobs in the area.
I completely understand your impending sense of doom. Truly, I worry more about my children's future than my own, though. Unless things change a LOT, they're going to be saddled with massive bills for our generation's spending spree, diminishing global resources, and an increasingly unstable planet, both environmentally and politically.
And, let's face it, things RARELY change a lot. Wven if the Dems take the House and the Senate, little will be done to address the massive federal deficit, global warming and pollution control, etc., because there's simply no political will to do anything that's painful and for which the benefits won't be realized for decades. That's just not the way our system works. And the chickens are coming home to roost, my friends.
Which is not to say that I'm a pessimist by any means. Given how gloomy I think the outlook for the planet is, I suppose it's reasonable to wonder why I had children in the first place. But I had them precisely because the outlook ISN'T good unless people like us have children and instill in them the values and goals that might just save the planet. And I have real hope that the children of today will be the saviors of the planet tomorrow. Just wait!
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