After considering our last class on Friday, and our discussions, I have been thinking about the some of the issues that were brought up and argued over. First, is the idea of the united states being a capitalist country. This, while may be somewhat true is by no means the way our country is ran. There are many aspects of the government which help the people through socialist ideas. I believe that when looking at a country and considering if it is capitalist or socialist one should put the ideas and regulations that country goes by on a continuum, and then see how that country is placed on one side or the other. I mean it is rather difficult for one country to be 100% one way or the other.
Second, I think that how we placed liberals and conservatives on the topics may have been done too easily without enough thought or discussion. When we were talking everything seemed to make sense but after further thought I have come to the conclusion that it was not as easy as we made it out to be. For most of the issues we basically just said the liberals were laid back and were OK with most things, and the conservatives were religious, strict and did not approve one most of the issues. While this maybe true on a broad sense, by no means is it true for every member of each party. I think that given the idea of abortion, there are plenty of conservatives who would be open to the idea of at least discussing why it may be necessary for one to have one. Or gay marriage, I would bet you that there are many conservatives who would be for it. While a majority may think one way, I think it should be at least considered that there are plenty of those who do not. I also think that this is why the debate is so real at the moment, because it is not just liberals against conservatives, I think there is a lot of personal thought that goes into it. These are issues that every person can have their own ideas about, regardless of political affiliation. I do not think this makes people hypocrites either, these moral debates can be argued one way or the other and people should have the right to do just that, no matter which political party they belong to. It is just a matter of ones own personal beliefs.
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I had a very similar feeling about our class discussion on Friday... and completely agree with your comment about how all liberals and conservatives cannot really just be grouped into those particular frameworks because we all have different opinions, experiences, and views for our own future. I personally get frusterated with the terms "liberal" and "conservative" because I feel that people throw those terms around very nonchalantly (sp?). For some reason I find myself really liking the term libertarian because I feel that it stands for one, solid foundation: no big government. I found it very interesting that we came to such contradictions when talking about conservatives and the fact that while they're anti-government, at the same time they tend to stand behind the government when it comes to abortion, gay marriage, etc. I guess all I'm trying to say is that I wish there WERE more ways to define one's self politically instead of just "liberal" or "conservative." Personally, I am socially liberal and fiscally conservative.... but it frusterates me that if I say I'm a Republican people think of me as a white bigot. Which I'm NOT!
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