Posted on 01/30/2005 6:54:22 PM PST by JKrive
"These handouts have been used in 9th Grade Civics classes at Hudson High School in Massachusetts for at least the last 4 years. Their source is not disclosed. They depict Liberals as caring and generous, and Conservatives as stupid, mean and cheap." Here's an excerpt from page 3 of the handouts:
-Chris Bowler
President, Hudson High Conservative Club
"Under Conservative Presidents Ronald Reagen and George Bush many things changed in the 1980's. The government reduced taxes on the wealthy, reduced social programs to help the poor, and stopped enforcing laws they thought hurt businessmen."
(Excerpt) Read more at hscca.org ...
Well, to be entirely fair, Conservatives did do all those things (actually more under Reagan than Bush 1, but I don't know which President Bush the author meant in the handout).
This is an example of being deceptive by not telling the whole story. There is no question a liberal bias, but this quote isn't false (though it is deceptive).
Ironically its true, in technical terms, Conservatives did do all those things. However, read the rest of the documents to see how blatant they are.
I don't doubt that at all, but we should strive to be precise when criticizing the other side.
My 5th grade social studies teacher was telling us all about the different forms of government worldwide. He described socialism as a system of government where everyone, even the poorest, got free houses, food, health care, and college tuition. I went home and announced I liked socialism. My parents gave me a looooong lecture. lol
There's a reason we have voting age requirements.
It is all true, best as I am aware. And you are right - the liberal line tends to sound more good until questions are raised: who pays for these programs and how; how can we guage the effectiveness of these social programs; what is the result of raising tax rates and lowering tax rates; what are the pros and cons, the impact, and the legacy of the federal health care insurance for the old, etc.
I don;t doubt for a second that these questions are not broached. The typical response is, among teen and old alike, 'cool, free stuff.'
Our side has consistently lagged behind the dem side in communicating what we stand for. This has been addressed but really needs to always be improved.
Good find.
Kennedy also reduced taxes 'for the wealthy' that's why Johnson had money to start his great society programs. The civil rights laws were passed in the 60s as well, but to the deference of the democratic party who stood in their way the whole way. Specifically Al Gore Sr. and Robert Byrd filibustered the bills for God knows how long, and it was liberal state and local officials that enacted the 'Jim Crow Laws' as well as 'disenfranchised' southern black voters through bullying tactics such as dogs and fire hoses.
...and now you know....... the rest of the story.
Ultimately, that's what it is. To an unsophisticated mind (child and adult alike), the prospect of 'free' stuff is appealing.
Very few things in life are free, as most conservatives will tell you! ;-)
Well, that's all part of it. Also they could point out that Reagan cut taxes for not only the wealthy, but for EVERYBODY. There is no doubt that these clips are slanted pro-lib, but that's not to say they are false.
They are, in their simplicity, deceptive.
They could also add a chapter like...
"Then, after President Johnson got finished with another sordid affair, he saw that there were millions of dollars in the Social Security trust fund. He thought to himself, 'Gee, I'd sure love to spend that money too!' So he had congress remove the safety barrier between those accounts and the general fund. Now Pres. Johnson had more money than the sultan of Brunei! and there was no longer a way for those nasty cheap republicans to stop him from giving away the future of so many generations"
Now you get it!
What you point out though is interesting, and something that I have pointed out for years. Everyone has a bias and no doubt if conservatives ruled the media roost, the news would be slanted in our direction.
That being said, at least in my personal life, I have seldom seen conservatives twist themselves in the kind of crazy contortions liberals seem to do almost daily. There is a basic decency that conservatives have that, I have consistently felt, liberals don't.
Give conservatives an inch, they will likely take about 1 foot. Give liberals an inch, and they will change the system over to the metric standard suddenly, explain how it's the more just system (because they said so), and then race ahead several hundred kilometers because, doggone it, for a bunch of people who don't seem to be able to run their own lives, they sure have convinced themselves they are experts at running everything.
Ed schools weed out expressly Judeo-Christian, conservative and libertarian teacher credential candidates via censorship and bias, to the point that people with such beliefs generally avoid ed schools and public school teaching altogether. The result is a pool of public school teachers who are generally liberal atheists, and who perceive nothing biased about themselves, since all their peers are the same as they are-- they have no reference point from which to perceive themselves as anything but ordinary.
Exactly. You hit the nail right on the head.
There's an aspect to this handout that's not reported here. The teacher who uses it first takes a poll of the students in the class. "Do you consider yourself more conservative, moderate, or liberal?" Then he hands out the reading assignment. When the students are finished, he takes the poll again. What result was he expecting? What is the purpose of the exercise? He never really says. To their credit, no one in the class changed their mind.
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