Quote from Maverick74:
You know what's funny? The fact that you yourself think "Liberal" is a bad word. LOL. This is too funny. There use to be a time in our history (60's) were liberal was a cool word. You were a progressive thinker, you pushed for change. I find it so funny whenever someone on this board is called a liberal, they get all up in arms over it. LOL. My have times changed. In fact, it almost goes as far to prove the point. If someone calls you a liberal, you should say thank you very much, thanks for the compliment, that is if you believed that liberals have valid points, and a valid belief system. By the very fact that you denounce the word, you are at the same time denouncing their very beliefs and ideals which supposedly you are arguing for. LOL. Don't you see the paradox here? Very ironic indeed.
Yeah, go ahead and create your thread of hate spreaders. There are very many people on here with the sole purpose of defaming the character of our President with absolutely no cold hard facts to back it up. I will fill that thread up with each and every one of them. The only bad word (according to you it's a bad word) that I use on here is calling people a liberal. But wait, is that really a bad word? However, others on here have used words to describe the President that I would not even use in front of my mother.
And to answer your question, no, i do not want a one party system. I also do not want this country to slide to the left. And yes, the democratic party is dieing a slow and painful death. I think it died with Jack Kennedy. I actually liked the man a lot and have a lot of respect for him. Somehow I have this feeling that his own party killed him. In fact, interesting new book out that LBJ in fact was directly linked to his murder. After Jack was killed, the party was never the same. It started drifting further and further to the left. Even Clinton himself ran as a moderate democrat and avoid the fanatics on the far left as much as possible.
The party is doomed though because they have decided that their strategy is to keep moving to the left and in turn will alienate them from most of America. And with Hillary Clinton looking at a 2008 run she will really pull the party to the left. I really can't find anyone in that party that can save it either now or in the future. The one that I think has some potential if he moves just a little bit over is Senator Harold Ford from Tennessee. But I'm afraid that not even he can escape the stronghold that the far left liberals now have on the party. Rest in peace Jack Kennedy.
Hard to know where to start in response to your comments.
Liberal is not a bad word. What people react to is your generalization of use, labeling people who take a position on one issue as "liberal" and your tone of use, and seeming hatred of those people who have different points of view of various issues.
If a white guy calls a black guy "nigger", he gets quite a hostile and negative response from the black man.
If a brother calls another brother "nigger", it is a sign of closeness.
Same word, different meaning. Context often determines meaning.
Liberal was not a "cool" word to the right wing conservative party in the 60's. Liberals were hated by those who feared the changes that America was experiencing in the 60's. "Cool" is fashionable according to the majority party.
I don't believe the democratic party is dying at all. It is changing, in the same way the republican party has changed. It is the nature of politics to cycle from one extreme to another, in an attempt to find balance. The current wave of "conservatism" is reactive in nature. People feel fearful of the changes brought forth by 911, and those who offer aggressive and simplistic solutions to simply destroy the enemy are appealing to the masses. Prior to 911, the election showed that the country was quite evenly divided between Democratic and Republican lines. After 911, the conservative base initially received strong support by those fearful Americans who wanted to regain a sense of safety.
People want things to return to "normal." Over time, when these attempts to win the war on terrorism on a military basis alone fail, then their will be another reaction.
Clinton was smart to run as a moderate, in the same way Bush ran as a moderate. Extremists will never be elected in this country.
At present, the democrats are not acting too smart if they think that Howard Dean can win the election, he cannot. He is an extremist.
The fact that escapes the democrats, is that getting elected is more important than making a point. Once elected, and only when elected can change begin.
A strong moderate democratic ticket can win in the election versus Bush, and the polls are showing that to be a strong possibility.
