My final thoughts on this thread (hopefully).
Honestly, there's really not that much difference between liberals and conservatives as far as wanting the best for our nation and planet.....And there's even less difference between Democrats and Republicans as far as "politics as usual". "Two piles....same smell" describes how I feel about both parties. While both say they're working for the middle class, they pander to the deep pockets of the rich shelling out political favors to the rich at the expense of tax payers.
On Election Day we as voters have the choices of picking the least of two evils, or staying home and saying "fuck-it"....which more than half the registered voters do each election. Our candidates have been picked by the very same deep pockets long before we cast our ballets.
Once elected, our so-called representatives spend 30% of their time holding their hand out for campaign contributions, 30% of their time not being in Washington, and the rest of their time doing their best to obstruct the "other side" from gaining any political edge. In the meantime nothing gets accomplished except back-room deals passed in the middle of the night.
In the not so distant future, the economic house of cards will tumble, and all that can-kicking our politicians are so famous for will end up at the end of the road with all American's suffering like we've never suffered before. Real Draconian cuts will have to be made at the expense of the poor and elderly, and the working youth will be burdened with over 50% of their income being taxed to try to make ends meet. The decades of irresponsible politicians that made all these ill-adivised decisions will either be dead or sitting on their fat retirements.
So we can point fingers at liberals and conservatives and nothing will change....but we can stop being irresponsible citizens of this country and stand up and be counted.
I keep seeing liberal vs conservative, democrat vs republican, when I've noticed the real difference is collectivism vs individualism. There are collectivists on both sides doing damage. The hypocrisy of collectivism has brought us both the moral majority and politically correct agendas. I'm just not a fan. You can see how they conflate and justify their stances with emotion instead of logic. (I understand psychology plays a large role in economic factors, so emotion is important, not saying it's not)
Two simple questions exposes the hypocrisy on both sides of the collective thought.
1) do you support a woman's right to abortion? why?
2) do you support a 50 year old gay male's right to purchase an insurance policy without maternity coverage? why?
one side says no, yes, the other says yes, no.
Both left and right collectivists have caused damage to our way of life. A free society and free economy has historically been the most advanced and successful, yet collectivists are not happy until they can alter this in their image. Not a fan of either side doing this. Each side of the collectivist argument is only fine when it's THEIR image, not the other collectivists. I'm not a fan.
So while I understand most liberals to be collectivist, not all collectivists are liberal. In fact, it's trending toward liberal, but it wasn't long ago that the conservatives were the worst. "The greater good" is euphemism for "what I think is best, so everyone must conform".
That's how we get stupid laws like in our war on drugs, UEIGA, Patriot Act and the UCA.