Creating a Credible Liberal Position

i am indebted to Alphakafka on Daily Kos for permission to reprint this very lucid and thought-provoking material...

We can't at the same time want the power to keep monopolies from being created by businesses in this country because they destroy the competition workers need to have any power or upward mobility and then turn around and give all our guns away while the government maintains a monopoly on destructive force through its military.

We must have the right to compete with the government at any time they might try to become a monopolistic dictatorship and that is why the second amendment is in fact a very liberal value. It is also why we would make massive headway if we could somehow embrace it. I dare say that we could pass any progressive social reform we wanted in this country if we only came clearly around on the right to bear arms.

I'm so tired of words like communist and socialist being thrown around our necks unchallenged, especially when our opposition is so entwined with support for corporate monopolies which also makes them much more susceptible to the creation of dictatorships.

The way we can differentiate ourselves is by saying that we are for the purest form of competition possible. One where the rich and corporations don't become subsidized with finances and other advantages which protect them so that they never have to compete.

It's obvious that the stronger our principle of equal competition, the stronger our distribution of wealth. And the distribution of wealth is something which I personally believe must be focused on.

I am also tired of hearing "progressive" used when people mean "modern liberal." Fonda's character in Easy Rider wears a jacket with the flag on its back even though he is very liberal. Talk about having pride and being bold in expressing the promise of pure freedom the flag can represent to him!

Have some pride in the term liberal. The fact that idiot conservative talk show hosts attack it every day makes me want to wear it as a badge of honor even more. Yes, I am their opposition, [and] thanks for using the term daily so that I can use it to undeniable prove boldly to anyone who asks that I am in fact opposed to your fascist viewpoints.

The constitution, I believe, is on our side - and we should use it. And while we're at it, we need to pluck that American flag right out of the "right's" defiling paws. They sure as hell don't deserve that honor, as they will trample freedom whenever the opportunity arises. They honestly do not deserve the right to be the arbiters of the symbols of freedom because they do not represent it.

So the things that can benefit us most, I believe, are these... Freedom, Competition, and the Constitution - but very much the combination of Competition and how it is inherent in the Constitution.

Of course it won't work if Dem Centrists adopt that message and destroy it through complete misuse for political gain. We do need idealists to run but not "idealists" in the sense that we might imagine it.

We need those in the sense of "can not be bought".

If we could somehow nail that down, we could definitely take down an opposition which represents none of it.

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