::::::::
Looking at a thesaurus for an objective definition of what makes a liberal and what makes a conservative reveals that there really are no liberals, but a large part of the population are inexplicably conservatives. These synonyms come from a current thesaurus:
Conservative: controlled, die-hard, fearful, fogeyish, fuddy-duddy, hidebound, illiberal, inflexible, obstinate, old-guard, orthodox, red-neck, unchangeable, unchanging, uncreative, unimaginative, unprogressive.
Liberal: advanced, broad-minded, enlightened, flexible, free, high-minded, humanitarian, impartial, interested, magnanimous, rational, reasonable, receptive, tolerant, unbiased, unbigoted, understanding, unprejudiced.
Can you imagine anyone being proud of being a conservative? Given the objective description above, it's unthinkable.
Notice that all the synonyms for conservative are negative and all the synonyms for liberal are positive. Notice also that conservatives who say, "Why, you're just one of them god dammed liberals," condemning all things they view as liberal, are defining themselves as the opposite of liberal attributes, and are saying that they are unenlightened, partial, uninterested, irrational, unreasonable, unreceptive, intolerant, biased, bigoted and prejudiced.
Keep a list of these descriptions in your pocket and the next time a conservative says he's against being a liberal, remind him of the inhuman things above that he is confessing to being. That's what I do. You should see them go into a red-faced, spluttering fit. It's really fun. The hard right Republican Christian fundamentalists who are so dead set against liberals refuse to acknowledge that the liberal morals and ethics listed above are the very foundation of their religion.
The irony is that the conservatives expect to be treated according to the liberal qualities they deplore at the same time they expect to treat liberals with the conservative lack of qualities they're so proud of. If you treat a conservative according to his conservative belief, he will be highly offended and become your enemy. But, if you treat a liberal according to liberal beliefs, you'll have a friend for life.
The conservative synonyms are so extraordinarily inhuman that they deserve a label that puts them outside acceptable human behavior: Conservative.
Being tolerant, unbiased and unbigoted, and all the other liberal synonyms are not deserving of a label of any kind. Those qualities and attributes are just the ordinary, normal, human moral and ethical standards that are the minimum to be expected of a decent person.
We so called "liberals" can proudly proclaim that when we're vilified for being a liberal, it just proves and confirms that we're normal, ethical, moral, decent human beings. Those attributes are so ordinary and normal that they don't need a label. We're not liberals. We're not conservatives. We're just plain folks.
