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Liberalism once meant limited government & liberty of individuals. What does it mean to you today? n

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jody Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-22-10 07:22 PM
Original message
Liberalism once meant limited government & liberty of individuals. What does it mean to you today? n
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WCGreen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-22-10 07:24 PM
Response to Original message
1. Actually, almost the same...
The government should be limited to the protecting of the individuals liberty. This means, at least to me, protecting people from abuse by the ruling class...
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JuniperLea Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-22-10 07:28 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. I agree, but would add one thing...
Protection of the people and land... EPA, FDA, etc., you know, all those agencies that have been asleep at the switch for the past decade.
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WCGreen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-22-10 07:45 PM
Response to Reply #4
9. that is very true...
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NaturalHigh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-22-10 07:25 PM
Response to Original message
2. Pretty much the same.
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nemo137 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-22-10 07:27 PM
Response to Original message
3. I like Alan Wolfe's definition.
"As many people as possible should have as much say as is feasible over the course their lives will take."
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DJ13 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-22-10 07:32 PM
Response to Original message
5. A means of leveling the unfair nature of our capitalistic society
Liberals created the work rules that prevents employers from working people more than 8 hours without overtime pay or even rest/bathroom breaks.

They created the safety net that the GOP and our own corporate owned politicians have been trying to destroy for over 70 years.

To me liberalism is the only thing that has kept our country together in the face of naked greed by the oligarchs.
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Xipe Totec Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-22-10 07:34 PM
Response to Original message
6. laissez-faire bedrooms nt
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Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-22-10 07:37 PM
Response to Original message
7. To me, it's a government that stands with the people
and protects them against the powerful.
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leeloo Donating Member (153 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-22-10 09:04 PM
Response to Reply #7
13. The powerful happens to be the government.
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Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-22-10 11:26 PM
Response to Reply #13
14. Fascism merges corporate and government powers into one
and that's what we've gotten perilously close to and it's why we have to keep the GOP out of office and eliminate Blue Dogs as we find them, with luck in primaries.

We need to get our government back to protecting the people against the powerful and that means regulatory agencies with teeth that are not staffed by right wing biblebots.
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leeloo Donating Member (153 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-23-10 07:46 PM
Response to Reply #14
16. You are joking ,right?........n/t
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NaturalHigh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-23-10 07:52 PM
Response to Reply #14
17. Trying to eliminate "Blue Dogs" in conservative districts is political suicide.
You would be handing those districts over to the Republicans. Like it or not, there are a lot of conservative Democrats.
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harun Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-22-10 07:41 PM
Response to Original message
8. Limited in terms of what? Services, cost, control, authority, role
in our lives, role in the world.

Problem with the "small gov't" meme is people don't say what "small" they are referring.

Most neo-con's don't view "small gov't" as a limited role in the world, limited in cost, they favor a HUGE expensive army and when it isn't in terms of the super wealthy they favor a lot of authority and role in the lives of the little people, as to keep them in line so they can use their labor and income for the armies.
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jody Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-22-10 07:50 PM
Response to Reply #8
10. Limited as in government of the people, by the people, for the people against government of the
corporation, by the corporation, for the corporation.

See, that's not so hard unless one disagrees with the point Lincoln was trying to make.

Lincoln's overriding goal in all he did during his tenure was toward preserving the Union, the government "of the people, by the people, for the people" the oldest stable government in the world and still just an experiment to see whether a diverse people in all respects can live together in some sort of peaceful existence.

If these United States fail in that experiment, there is no hope for the world other than a brutal, totalitarian regime.
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Toucano Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-22-10 07:53 PM
Response to Reply #8
11. +1
"Limited government" and "small government" are so vague as to be meaningless.
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Ozymanithrax Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-22-10 08:42 PM
Response to Original message
12. This is what I see...
It is the purpose of government to preserve individual rights and to maximize freedom of choice.
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grahamhgreen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-23-10 04:34 PM
Response to Original message
15. Whatever the president tells you it means, pal.
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jody Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-23-10 07:57 PM
Response to Reply #15
18. Sounds eerily similar to "whatever mein fuhrer says it means" and that's not liberal. n/t
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