Anyone here a self-identified liberal?

nausicaa

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Apr 1, 2007
Messages
64
Purraise
1
Location
Washington,D.C.
I just stumbled into the IMO section of the website and all I can say is...whew, thank God I don't have posting privileges there.
For a minute I thought I'd mistakenly logged on to Little Green Footballs.

Soooo...anyone else here a tree-hugging, Birkenstocks-wearing, PC-platitudes-raving, peace-marching bleeding heart liberal who thinks "San Francisco values" is a compliment, not a slur?


(Nota bene:this is not meant to be a sensitive issue. Just curious, that's all.
)
 

mirinae

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 13, 2005
Messages
1,292
Purraise
1
Location
Ontario
I really think of myself as more of a libertarian than a liberal, but I've been known to hug trees and wear Birkenstocks.
(Okay, cheap Birkenstock knock-offs ...)
 

adymarie

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 23, 2001
Messages
11,210
Purraise
1
Location
Toronto
I've done the peace marching, government protesting, tree hugging thing, but tend not to label myself unless it is as a wannabe hippee. (I even have the tiedye)
 

rubsluts'mommy

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 1, 2005
Messages
2,211
Purraise
11
Location
On the west side of... of... somewhere.
I consider myself a milder form of one, yes. I'm proud to be liberal (registered Dem... so I can vote in primaries as well...).

Although, according to your list, I'm not much of one...

-I don't own Birkenstocks... hate 'em actually... maybe it was because of a teacher in HS who wore them with white athletic socks... ugh. However I do own a pair of Chacos sandals... holy frijoles... if you want a comfortable and sturdy pair of sandals that FIT your feet... try them... not cheap (usually hovering just under $100), but I wear them as much as humanly possible.

-treehugger... yes, undeniably yes. I moved to Oregon to be closer to the trees. I love and respect them more than I tend to respect many of my fellow humans... I have plans for a a**-kicking house that is super-cat-friendly and uses as few trees as possible... no wood framing. If you sit still long enough, you can hear the trees tell stories (no, I'm not insane). I believe we should stop talking so stinkin' much and listen to the world around us... it has some important things to say... and we're not listening.

-PC Platitudes... hmmm... as in Politically Correct? HA! I'm anything but. I'm polite... I try not to offend people... I've had my share of it in my own face. Long story. You remember that whole "Do unto others..." yeah, I try to live by that... although when I'm behind the wheel of my car, all bets are off.


-Did one march, back in Chicago... country-wide one a year after Bush got reelected. Ours remained peaceful (although the cops were prepared, with two rows of gun-toting, BP-vest wearin' officers). I heard NYC or Boston did get violent... we did not. I'd do more rallies, but i like not having a Rap Sheet.


Growing up across the bay from SF, I don't think having SF Values is all that bad... as long as the drugs don't have a part in it. I don't do drugs, don't smoke, etc... of course, doing anything opposite of my mother is a good thing... so if that makes me a bleeding-heart liberal freak... then so be it. I'm proud of that. So, who can I call for bail money?


Gotta get to work...
Amanda
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #5

nausicaa

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Apr 1, 2007
Messages
64
Purraise
1
Location
Washington,D.C.
I was being facetious with the descriptives.
I wear heels (the slightly less primitive form of footbinding), not Birkenstocks and have only ever hugged a tree when drunk.


I just wanted to make sure I wasn't a nonexistent species on TCS.
 

mirinae

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 13, 2005
Messages
1,292
Purraise
1
Location
Ontario
Originally Posted by nausicaa

I was being facetious with the descriptives.
I wear heels (the slightly less primitive form of footbinding), not Birkenstocks and have only ever hugged a tree when drunk.


I just wanted to make sure I wasn't a nonexistent species on TCS.
Nope! There are a lot of us!
 

katiemae1277

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Nov 28, 2005
Messages
20,445
Purraise
17
Location
NE OH
I consider myself a liberal too, at least much more liberal than conservative, but not extreme by any means
 

whosamyhercules

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Apr 24, 2007
Messages
388
Purraise
1
Location
Pa
I wouldnt say Im a liberal but Im not conservative either...Personality wise..Im a fan of piercings and tattoos..Ive got 9 piercings myself and moving up to tattoos for my next bday. I even got a couple tie dyes myself and love deady bears cuz they are so cute. I jam out to Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones and Grateful Dead when Im in the mood...As for drugs, Ive had friends who had died from ODs so Im not a fan but I look at pot the same way Katt Williams does.."Its a plant it just grows that way...It just so happens if you light it on fire there are some effects. Happy, Sleepy and hungry...Whats wrong with that, its the drugs you have to mess with that kill people like crack/cocaine or heroin. Have you ever heard of anyone overdosing on pot...I dont think so"I do believe that if it is legalized and the gov can find a common ground to control it, it wouldnt be such an issue....But thats just my opinion..Im probably a hypocrite because I dont feel the same way about other drugs...I think that they should remain illegal, you really dont ever hear about people oding from pot...but pain killers than can easily be precribed by a dr just by saying to have back pain can kill you...Sorry to take this off subject...Anyways I also dont agree with whats going on in Iraq..There is an article in the new Playboy about how our brains are like a length of galvenized pipe. "When your a kid, the pipe is empty, so you can slam a lot of stuff into there and it stays. But as you grow older, the pipe fill up. So when you put stff into the front end, something tends to fall out. Frankly, I thought this was a lot of hooey. I thought the brain was a relentlessly complex, protean and adaptive machine that had capacities far beyond galvanized pipe." The article also goes on to state that its the freak show things that society focuses on. Instead of Bush sending money to the Gulf Coast, which two yrs after Hurricane Katrina it is still a disaster area. Looking like it did two weeks after the hurricane hit. "Ive noticed when you put John Mark Karr in the brain, people on the rooftops in New Orleans fall out. When you put Dick Cheney shooting his pal in the face, the lost millions along with the Gulf Coast fall out. When you put 'Child with two heads found in Uruguay' in the front of the brain, our goverments funding of Sunni terrorists falls out the back." I was upset when Bush was reelected because at that point I had already been to 5 funeral for friends that were the same age as me or younger had died in Iraq. Im honestly sick to death of getting phone calls or emails asking if I knew that so and so died. It breaks my heart to have to see my friends parents burying their children who were sent over seas to fight in something they didnt believe in. Most of them had joined the armed forces to fight for what America stood for, or what they believe we should be standing for. As we are fighting for other countries rights to be like us maybe someone should go over there and inform them that in due time they are going to have the goverment invading their personal rights to freedom of choice. That if they want to they may not be able to marry their true love because they are the same sex. Or that if they want to help rescue exotic animals and help make their lives better someone is going to come around saying that what they are doing is dangerous to society without taking the time to investigate the situation....(Im sure some of you have read Johns posts about Carmelo and his other cats) Its just a shame that in the past 8 yrs we have had a president whos main concern was putting his values and opinions into a plan that did nothing but stifle our freedoms that were put onto paper by our forefathers. I think that if Thomas Jefferson and other members who signed the Declaration of Independance would be highly P.O. at what they worked so hard for is slowing becoming a diminished thing.
*Im sorry if this offended anyone that wasnt what it was meant to be....Its just my opinion and Im not trying to start any arguements or make anyone mad at me. So I am really sorry if someone gets mad about this it wasnt meant to be that way...*
 

zissou'smom

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
6,482
Purraise
8
I am. You've probably read my posts in IMO, though I haven't a clue what Little Green Footballs is. No birckenstocks for me either, those are pool shoes for yuppies. I guess I do own three pairs of tevas which a lot of people think are 'hippie' but I just like them.

I'm not PC, and I am NOT a feminist. I just think that in my generation most people don't care professionally, like at my work pretty much everyone is a college student, and I've never heard anyone even mention that most of the managers including the head one are all women. It just is.

But I am an ideological pacifist, and a realistic don't-invade-countries.

And I'll be in my little ivory tower my whole life.

People at my high school called me "everyone's favorite liberal" after my teacher threatened to send my essays to homeland security (come from an extremely traditionally republican place (read everyone wants to keep their taxes low)) I'd rather be told I have Seattle values than San Francisco though.
 

carolpetunia

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 25, 2005
Messages
9,669
Purraise
17
Location
Plano, Texas
Yes, I am a liberal. But like the vast majority of liberals, I do not conform to the extreme stereotype plastered onto us by the political opposition.

For example, I don't think a drug test constitutes an invasion of privacy if your job affects the safety of others, and I don't worry overmuch about whether prisoners have gym equipment and big-screen TVs.

Like nearly all other liberals, I respect the spiritual beliefs of others, so long as they don't try to force their religious principles on me through the political process. This includes the prejudices of those religions that think God has told them to discriminate against certain kinds of people. We liberals have a bumper sticker for them: "Hate is not a family value."

Despite traditional rightwing rhetoric, I do not want "big government," and I don't know any liberal who does. We proved this during the Clinton administration, when we actually balanced the budget and created a surplus.

What most liberals actually want is a government that recognizes our responsibility, as a rich and fortunate nation, to treat our own citizens humanely. Again, contrary to popular rhetoric, this does not mean "using our tax money to support people who are too lazy to work." It means supporting those who cannot find work, who are physically unable to work, or who suffer such mental incapacity as to be unfit for work. (The mentally ill, by the way, should be treated -- not allowed to become homeless, criminal, and/or dangerous.)

Treating Americans humanely also means ensuring that anyone who works full-time in America, however humble the job, will be paid enough to live a reasonably safe and decent life that includes reliable daycare for their children. We liberals don't think that's too much to ask... and we also think it would go a long, long way in reducing crime.

Another thing: I don't know any liberals who actually want to fling open the borders and invite the whole world in to receive welfare and food stamps and Medicaid. But neither do we want to treat our fellow man inhumanely just because he is not an American citizen. There is a happy medium, and we need to establish it.

Although conservatives like to pretend that being liberal means chaining yourself to a tree in defense of some rare species of nematode, the truth is that the great majority of liberals support the wisely-managed use of renewable natural resources, and a phased move away from those that are not renewable. The past several years make it obvious that this is the only intelligent course of action -- even Republicans are starting to accept it.

So yes, I am a liberal -- but that label doesn't mean what most "conservatives" seem to think it does. That's one of the problems with a two-party system... it tends to polarize, and all the truths that reside in the shades of grey get distorted.

Thank you, Nausicaa, for giving me a post that I absolutely had to respond to this morning. Last night, I was so upset about another exchange I'd had that I was going to just stop posting altogether and become a lurker... but this has shown me that if I'm going to be here on TCS at all, I'm going to have to participate.
 

rockcat

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Nov 6, 2002
Messages
6,665
Purraise
18
Location
The Spacecoast
Originally Posted by nausicaa

I was being facetious with the descriptives.
I wear heels (the slightly less primitive form of footbinding), not Birkenstocks and have only ever hugged a tree when drunk.


I just wanted to make sure I wasn't a nonexistent species on TCS.
You're among friends.
 

siggav

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 26, 2007
Messages
1,327
Purraise
22
Location
Scotland
I'm currently living in the UK, from Iceland originally and well..

From my point of view the Democrats are a right wing party and Republicans are a hugely extremely right wing party. I.e from what I've seen of american politics it feels quite a lot like the choice is between coke and pepsi, there's not even 7-up on offer, what then milk or apple juice


Anyway yes I'm definately on the liberal side.
 

snuzy

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
554
Purraise
2
Location
Tewksbury, Massachusetts
I'm with you guys, and hate that some have tried to turn the term into a dirty word.

And there's nothing wrong with hugging a tree either.
 

Moz

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jun 6, 2006
Messages
3,244
Purraise
708
Location
Canada
I guess do, even though I can't vote or post in IMO yet.
Yay for "chain me to a tree" hippies! :p
 

Moz

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jun 6, 2006
Messages
3,244
Purraise
708
Location
Canada
Originally Posted by theimp98

nope they went out of style about the same time disco did.
Disco went out of STYLE?!?!
 
Top