I'm done being a "liberal" [View all]

[titaniumsalute]

I have never been a fan of "labels." But everyday I am becoming even more perturbed with labels. Liberal, Conservative, right, left, Dem, repub, etc.

I am an individual who has certain principals. I'm not sure if they jive with others who hold a number of similar principals. I am my own individual with my own thoughts, opinions, and ideas of how to progress.

I support the American worker to have certain rights to fair wages and benefits. I support educating our youth in the best way possible and to be competitive on the global job markets. I support social safety nets like SSI and SSI for the disabled workers. I support Medicare and Medicaid in its current form as a social universal health care program that needs to be expanded to include all Americans. I support common sense legislation to regulate deadly weapons that are owned and obtained by the general public. I believe in a strong federal network or safe transportation including roads and bridges that are safe to travel. I believe in the rights of women to make decisions regarding their own health and reproductive systems. I believe in marriage for ALL consenting adults. I believe that people have the right to go to church, worship their Gods, or to believe in no Gods, without persecution.

Rather than negotiating labels, I'd rather negotiate my beliefs. I tend to find that it is easier to tell someone that I am not a liberal. I then start explaining who I am with the above points and then discuss those individual points. People who claim they are Conservative seem to have a tough time actually arguing the above points. By the end of the discussion many of them seem to believe they way I do. Yet they go back to that odd label they give themselves.

I swear these labels are part of the huge overall us versus them mentality. We need to drop labels and discuss beliefs.