Is Obama A Liberal?

[Lionel Mandrake]

31. It's unclear what the word "Liberal" means these days.

Like most people, Obama is left of center on some issues and right of center on other issues.

It's simplistic to suppose that all politicians, or all people, can be placed on a continuum from Left to Right. That's like belief in the Great Chain of Being, a concept which, like belief in diabolical witchcraft, is evident in Shakespeare's MacBeth.

The great chain of being (Latin: scala naturae, literally "ladder/stair-way of nature&quot , is a concept derived from Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, and Proclus; further developed during the Middle Ages, it reached full expression in early modern Neoplatonism.[1] [2] It details a strict, religious hierarchical structure of all matter and life, believed to have been decreed by God. The chain starts from God and progresses downward to angels, demons (fallen/renegade angels), stars, moon, kings, princes, nobles, men, wild animals, domesticated animals, trees, other plants, precious stones, precious metals, and other minerals.

Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_chain_of_being

Just as a single continuum is inadequate to describe the variety of animals, plants, minerals, etc., a single continuum is inadequate to describe the variety of political views.