Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2015 09:35:32 -0400
From: Al Cooke
Subject: liberal or socialist behavior
” If we lose our liberties or rights, can we call it liberal or socialist behavior? ” Good question.
If we restrict the right to marriage is that liberal or socialist?
If we specify what a doctor can or cannot (or must) do when a pregnant woman comes to the office, is that liberal or socialist?
If we want to retain restrictions on what drugs and herbs someone may possess and use, is that liberal or socialist?
People that espouse these ideas find some very good reasons justify their positions. I don’t want to debate whether any of those ideas have merit. There are good and complex arguments all around them.
But I seldom hear the label liberal or socialist applied to those who want to limit or restrict those rights. We might even give them the honorific – conservative. Why is that? It just seems to me that our use of such labels may not lead to good communication and may even be deceptive. People who we may call liberal or socialist don’t have a monopoly on restrictive behaviors. So I continue to ask for more about what the labels mean.
alcooke