The real difference between liberals and conservatives is in which specific things they want to change, and in what way.
Milton Friedman was the leading conservative thinker of his time but he wanted to radically change the Federal Reserve, the school system, and the tax system, among other things.
Everybody is for change. They differ on the specifics. Uniting people behind the thoughtless mantra of "change" means asking for a blank check in exchange for rhetoric.
The real difference between "liberals" and "conservatives" (note my scare quotes) is in which specific things they want to change, and in what way.Journalism is simply self-promotion via the ownership of propaganda organs and monopolization of the newswire. Journalism, that is, exists to promote its cheap talk over concrete action, which can always be second guessed. Journalists award positive branding to their fellow demagogues, and negative branding to those who reject demagoguery. The founding fathers were liberals (without scare quotes), and outside the US the word "liberal" still is understood to refer to their (and FreeRepublic's) perspective. So when journalists were handing out positive labels to their friends they awarded the term "liberal" to them. And when journalists were handing out negative labels to their opponents they imposed the term "conservative" (which is the last thing that the British would have thought to call the founding fathers) on us.
Dangerous Demagoguery (Thomas Sowell)
Townhall.com ^ | January 22, 2008 | Thomas Sowell
As always - my gratitude for your writing on this forum.
I am late to the discussion but have enjoy the past hour or more reading the contributions.
Thank you again for including me in your list to receive your wonderful authorship and thoughts.
Trouble