Difference between revisions of "Liberal"

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[[Image:Liberal Brain.jpg|thumb|450px|top|<center>A satirical conception of the liberal brain.</center>]]
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A liberal is a person who looks at the current state of things, and sees a need for a change. There is no coherent liberal ideology, only an emphasis on the means of democracy. Without a set end a liberal is free to explore and discuss various ideas and through that discussion may arrive at a better end. Conservative efforts to label what a liberal is, has resulted in many misconceptions.
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A '''liberal''' (also '''leftist''') is someone who rejects logical and biblical standards, often for self-centered reasons.  There are no coherent liberal standards; often a liberal is merely someone who craves attention, and who uses many words to say nothing.<ref>As one liberal website candidly observes, "Obama is a shallow narcissist, not a believer in any cause higher than himself. Every American president has had a healthy ego, but none has ever been as purely motivated by vanity as the childishly self-loving [[Barack Obama]]."[http://www.opednews.com/articles/Barack-Obama-s-ego-driven-by-Christopher-Calder-091210-804.html]</ref> Liberalism began as a movement for individual liberties, but today is increasingly [[statist]] and, as in Europe, [[socialist]]ic.
 
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A liberal generally supports many of the following political positions and practices:
 
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* Taxpayer-funded and/or legalized [[abortion]]
 
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* [[Censorship]] of teacher-lead [[prayer]] in classrooms and school sponsored events
 
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* Support for [[gun control]]
 
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* Support of obscenity and pornography as a [[First Amendment]] right<ref>The [[Warren Court]], led by [[liberal]] Justices [[William O. Douglas]], [[Hugo Black]], [[Abe Fortas]], [[William Brennan]] and Chief Justice [[Earl Warren]] issued 36 decisions granting [[First Amendment]] rights to obscenity and pornography. These decisions remain fully supported by liberals today.</ref>
 
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* [[Income redistribution]], usually through progressive taxation
 
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* Government-rationed medical care, such as [[Universal Health Care]]
 
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* Taxpayer-funded and government-controlled [[public education]]
 
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* The denial of inherent [[gender differences]]
 
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* Insisting that men and women be placed in the same jobs in the [[military]]
 
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* Legalized [[same-sex marriage]]
 
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* Implementation of [[affirmative action]]
 
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* [[Political correctness]]
 
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* Support of [[labor union]]s
 
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* Teaching acceptance of promiscuity through sexual "education" rather than teaching [[abstinence]] from sex.<ref> [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,286671,00.html Democrats Aim To Kill Abstinence-Only Program Funding], [[Fox News]], Monday, June 25, 2007</ref>
 
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* A "[[living Constitution]]" that is reinterpreted as liberals prefer, rather than how it was intended
 
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* Government programs to [[rehabilitate criminals]]
 
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* Abolition of the death penalty
 
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* [[Environmentalism]]<ref>[[Greenpeace]], for example.</ref>
 
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* [[Disarmament treaties]]
 
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* [[Globalism]]
 
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* Opposition of the [[Bible]].
 
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* Opposition to an interventionalist American foreign policy <ref>Stefaan Walgrave and Joris Verhulst, [http://nicomedia.math.upatras.gr/conf/CAWM2003/Papers/Verhulst.pdf The February 15 Worldwide Protests against a War in Iraq: An Empirical Test of Transnational Opportunities. Outline of a Research Programme](PDF).</ref>
 
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* Opposition to full private property rights<ref>For example, the liberal wing of the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] issued the 5-4 [[Kelo v. City of New London]] decision authorizing the taking of private property by government in order to give the property to another private entity rather than convert it to a public use.</ref>
 
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* Reinstating the [[Fairness Doctrine]]
 
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* In 2005, it was reported by CBS News that [[Theory of evolution and liberalism|liberals were the most likely supporters of the theory of evolution]]. The theory of [[evolution]] is a key component of [[atheistic]] ideologies in the [[Western World]].
 
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* Opposition to domestic wire-tapping as authorized in the [[Patriot Act]]
 
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* Calling anyone they agree with a "professor" regardless of whether he earned that distinction based on a real peer review of his work (see, e.g., [[Richard Dawkins]] and [[Barack Obama]]).
 
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* Opposition of [[Operation Iraqi Freedom]], a major part of the [[War on Terrorism]].
 
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* "The long romance of Western leftists with some of the bloodiest regimes and political movements in history is a story not told often enough ...."<ref> [http://www.city-journal.org/2009/bc0605bt.html Dupes by Bruce S. Thornton], City Journal - 5 June 2009</ref>
 
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==Liberals and Uncharitableness==
 
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[[Image:228130875 35181424e3.jpg|thumb|right|175px|[[United States|American]] liberals give less to charity than American conservatives.<ref>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/conservatives_more_liberal_giv.html</ref>  In addition,  [[per capita]] [[atheism|atheists]] and [[agnosticism|agnostics]] in the United States [[Atheism and Uncharitableness|give significantly less to charity than theists even when church giving is not counted for theists]].[http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/12-faithspirituality/102-atheists-and-agnostics-take-aim-at-christians][http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3647/is_200310/ai_n9340592/][http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Story?id=2682730&page=2] ]]
 
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''For more information please see'': [[Liberals and uncharitableness]]
 
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In March of 2008, [[George Will]] wrote at [[RealClearPolitics]] concerning the [[United States]]:
 
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{{cquote|Sixteen months ago, Arthur C. Brooks, a professor at [[Syracuse University]], published "Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism." The surprise is that liberals are markedly less charitable than [[conservative]]s....
 
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If many conservatives are liberals who have been mugged by reality, Brooks, a registered independent, is, as a reviewer of his book said, a social scientist who has been mugged by data. They include these findings:
 
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-- Although liberal families' incomes average 6 percent higher than those of conservative families, conservative-headed households give, on average, 30 percent more to charity than the average liberal-headed household ($1,600 per year vs. $1,227).
 
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-- Conservatives also donate more time and give more blood.<ref>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/conservatives_more_liberal_giv.html</ref>}}
 
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[[Atheism|Atheists]] and [[agnosticism|agnostics]] often reject [[Bible|biblical]] [[morality]] (and therefore [[conservative Christianity]] ) and hold to [[moral relativism]].<ref>http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=152</ref>  Therefore, it is not surprising that [[per capita]] atheists and agnostics in [[United States|America]] [[Atheism and Uncharitableness|give significantly less to charity than theists even when church giving is not counted for theists]].[http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/12-faithspirituality/102-atheists-and-agnostics-take-aim-at-christians][http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3647/is_200310/ai_n9340592/][http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Story?id=2682730&page=2]
 
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== Liberal politicians and uncharitableness ==
 
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The political magazine the [[American Spectator]] featured an article which focused on [[liberal politicians and uncharitableness]] and the article exposed the hypocrisy of the liberal politicians it featured.<ref>http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1c5_1238044128&c=1</ref>
 
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In addition, [[Barack Obama]] has been criticized concerning [[Barack Obama and uncharitableness|his charitable giving]].
 
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==Liberals and Superstition==
 
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[[Image:2384975035_230a0eac30.jpg‎‎|thumb|right|150px|The [[Wall Street Journal]] reported: "A comprehensive new study released by Baylor University yesterday, shows that [[Conservative Christianity|traditional Christian religion]] greatly decreases belief in everything from the efficacy of palm readers to the usefulness of [[astrology]]. <ref>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178219865054585.html</ref>]]
 
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In September of 2008, the [[Wall Street Journal]] reported:
 
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{{cquote|The reality is that the [[New Atheism|New Atheist]] campaign, by discouraging [[religion]], won't create a new group of intelligent, skeptical, enlightened beings. Far from it: It might actually encourage new levels of mass superstition. And that's not a conclusion to take on faith -- it's what the empirical data tell us.
 
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"What Americans Really Believe," a comprehensive new study released by Baylor University yesterday, shows that [[Conservative Christianity|traditional Christian religion]] greatly decreases belief in everything from the efficacy of palm readers to the usefulness of [[astrology]]. It also shows that the irreligious and the members of more liberal Protestant denominations, far from being resistant to superstition, tend to be much more likely to believe in the paranormal and in pseudoscience than evangelical Christians....
 
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This is not a new finding. In his 1983 book "The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener," skeptic and science writer Martin Gardner cited the decline of traditional religious belief among the better educated as one of the causes for an increase in [[pseudoscience]], cults and superstition. He referenced a 1980 study published in the magazine Skeptical Inquirer that showed irreligious college students to be by far the most likely to embrace paranormal beliefs, while born-again Christian college students were the least likely.<ref>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178219865054585.html</ref>}}
 
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== Liberalism in North America today ==
 
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[[Democrats]] and many media outlets in the [[U.S.]] are often [[liberal]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mrc.org/biasbasics/biasbasics1.asp|title=Media Bias basics|publisher=Media Research Center}}</ref>
 
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*Some argue that liberals typically support economic policy similar to that of [[fascism]]. <ref>{{cite web|url=http://fora.tv/2008/01/30/Liberal_Traits_of_Fascism|title=Video discussion about how modern liberalism is actually fascist by author Jonah Goldberg.}}</ref>
 
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* Liberals claimed a monopoly on [[compassion]], [[decency]], and [[social justice]] (as defined by themselves), posing as the sole defenders of [[civic virtue]] against a horde of backwoodsmen, racists, and religious fanatics. [http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/03/the_disgrace_of_liberalism.html]
 
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<blockquote>
 
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''There's another goal, from my point of view, which is to try to lay the groundwork for a radical political force which would conceive of itself as distinctly to the left of moderate, reformist American liberals. And that has two aspects. One is to try to change that liberalism, to transform it by analysis, critique, and activism; the second is to build a radical movement which would be an autonomous force in its own right, which would be distinct from the traditional American liberal consensus. This radical part of the program involves not simply supporting the liberal students against conservative students and conservative professors, but trying to act on them, to push them to the left. It also involves trying to find and support, even trying to help create, networks of radical students in law school and of radical professors around the country — students and teachers who see themselves as wanting to go a lot further than most people want to go.'' <ref> [http://66.218.69.11/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=liberal+teachers&fr=yfp-t-501&fp_ip=MX&u=duncankennedy.net/documents/Liberal%2520Values%2520in%2520Legal%2520Education.pdf&w=liberal+liberals+teachers+teacher&d=BNZFhPReRjC1&icp=1&.intl=us Liberal Values in Legal Education] Duncan Kennedy (professor at Harvard Law School)</ref>
 
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</blockquote>
 
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===Liberal Rankings of Congress Members===
 
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The National Journal compiles the votes of each congress member each year and uses the information to create rankings<ref>http://nationaljournal.com/voteratings/index.htm</ref> of how liberal each member of the United States [[Congress]] is. In addition to showing the voting records of each member and given an overall all ranking of liberalness, the National Journal also ranks congress members by liberalness in the areas of social, economic, and foreign policy.
 
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==Liberalism in Europe today==
 
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In Europe, on the other hand, parties that call themselves ''liberal'' are moderate in outlook, ranging from centre-left to centre-right, promote typically economic and business freedom. The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe<ref>http://www.alde.eu</ref> is a party of the European Parliament that represents most ''liberal'' parties from European countries. Similar policies are promoted by many ''liberal'' parties throughout the world,<ref>http://www.liberal-international.org/</ref> such as the Liberal Party of Australia.<ref>[http://www.liberal.org.au/]</ref>
 
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Trade unions and socialist parties often criticize politicians for promoting lower taxes on business, or more flexible hiring and firing laws, by calling them "liberals" or [[neoliberal|neoliberals]]. Thus, just as in the US, "liberal" may occasionally be used as a term of abuse. But when someone is called "liberal" in Europe, it has an entirely different meaning than in the US. In fact, the US meaning of liberal is more similar to the politics of European [[socialist]] or [[social democracy|social democratic]] parties.<ref>[http://www.pes.org]</ref>
 
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==Historical Liberalism ==
 
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In history, the word "liberal" has meant different things at different times, and was associated with individual liberty in prior centuries. In the postwar period, liberals supported government intervention in the economy and welfare state policies, as well as peaceful coexistence with the communist block, which are not liberal policies in the sense of classical liberalism. After the end of the cold war, with the demise of socialism and communism, many liberals embraced some ideas from economic neo-liberalism, and coined it the "Third Way". In the area of national security and foreign policy liberals in the [[U.S.]] failed to define a consistent stance, even after the events of 9/11 and the beginning of the war in Iraq.  Liberals generally support affirmative action, gay marriage, and abortion.<ref>"Political liberals tend, for whatever reason, to be ardent supporters of both gay rights and pro-choice programs." Greenberg and Bailey [http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/Bailey/Greenberg-Bailey/Homosexual%20Eugenics.pdf]  </ref>
 
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==Original meaning: Classical Liberalism==
 
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Liberalism is a political philosophy with freedom as its core value. The term was originally applied to supporters of individual liberties and equal rights, but, in America, the term has come to represent a movement of social change that often conflicts with [[conservative]] values such as moral values and tradition.
 
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See [[Classical Liberal|Classical Liberalism]]. Compare [[Libertarianism]].
 
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==Alternative meanings of 'liberal'==
 
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One definition of liberal is anything that is not conservative.  For example, the American Heritage Dictionary includes this definition of "liberal":<ref>Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/liberal</ref> 
 
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* Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas ...
 
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==Liberal Organizations ==
 
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*[[AARP|AARP - American Association of Retired People]]
 
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*[[ACLU|ACLU - American Civil Liberties Union]]
 
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*[[AFL-CIO|AFL-CIO - American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations]]
 
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*[[Amnesty International|AI - Amnesty International]]
 
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*[[Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism]]
 
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*[[Democratic National Committee]]
 
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*[[Greenpeace]]
 
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*[[NARAL|NARAL - National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League]]
 
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*[[NAACP|NAACP - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]]
 
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*[[National Committee for an Effective Congress]]
 
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*[[National Education Association]]
 
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*[[National Organization of Women]]
 
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*[[Planned Parenthood|Planned Parenthood Federation of America]]
 
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*[[Progressives for Obama]]
 
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*[[Rainbow/PUSH Coalition]]
 
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*[[MoveOn.org]]
 
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*[[A.N.S.W.E.R.]]
 
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*[[U.S. Peace Council]]
 
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Source: [http://www.politixgroup.com/lo.htm The Politix Group]
 
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==References==
 
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{{reflist|2}}
 
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==See Also==
 
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* [[Conservapedia:Articles about liberals|Articles about liberals]]
 
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* [[Classical liberal]]
 
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* [[Drinking Liberally]]
 
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* [[Godless liberal]]
 
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* [[Last wordism]]
 
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* [[Essay:Liberal celebrity obsession|Liberal celebrity obsession]]
 
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* [[Essay:Liberal Behavior on Conservapedia|Liberal Behavior on Conservapedia]]
 
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* [[Liberal Christianity]]
 
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* [[Liberal Democrats]]
 
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* [[Liberal Elite]]
 
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* [[Essay: Liberal Falsehoods|Liberal Falsehoods]]
 
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* [[Liberal Fascism]]
 
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* [[Liberal friendship]]
 
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* [[Liberal Gloss]]
 
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* [[Liberal grading]]
 
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* [[Essay:Liberal hysteria|Liberal hysteria]]
 
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* [[Essay:Liberal Intellectualism|Liberal Intellectualism]]
 
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* [[Liberalism and art]]
 
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* [[Liberal labels]]
 
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* [[Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right|Liberal Lies About the American Right]]
 
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* [[Liberal logic]]
 
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* [[The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness|Liberal Mind]]
 
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* [[Liberal Party]]
 
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* [[Liberal supremacist]]
 
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* [[Massachusetts liberal]]
 
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* [[Progressives]]
 
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==Further Information==
 
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* [[Conservative Links]]
 
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{{liberalism}}
 
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[[Category:Political Ideologies]]
 
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[[Category:Politics]]
 
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[[Category: Liberals]]
 

Revision as of 13:15, May 31, 2010

A liberal is a person who looks at the current state of things, and sees a need for a change. There is no coherent liberal ideology, only an emphasis on the means of democracy. Without a set end a liberal is free to explore and discuss various ideas and through that discussion may arrive at a better end. Conservative efforts to label what a liberal is, has resulted in many misconceptions.

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