My God, I could get whiplash from the goalposts moving here. You initially talk about their decline from positions as world powers. That is a geo-political, military construct. Now you are talking about economic prowess. Make your mind up (assuming you realize there is a difference here).
Now, on economics, there are different factors at play. Firstly, Japan wasn’t a free market. It’s economic rebirth was (a) important to the US for anti-communist reasons and (b) the product of immense state intervention. I assuming from your comments you are unaware of the role of MITI. Look it up. As for Germany, it was no more free market than Britain. You’d papper your cute little Republican britches if you had to live under that sort of government, even when the Christian Democrats have been in power.
Snort. Yes, it was a large win for the Republican Party. It is not a revolt if you have to quality it with goofy adjectives like “near record-breaking.”
As the old bigotry dies out or becomes untenable with the end of another generation, successive groups of people are granted the rights that the old majority once took for granted. Whether it’s women, blacks, or gays, civil rights are expanding, not contracting. And in every generation what was once liberal (Social Security, labor laws, equal rights, minimum wage, etc.) is now touted as a fundamental value whether you’re conservative or not.
Liberalism isn’t dying, it’s the new normal. Conservatism is dying. In 20 or 30 years, no one will even remember why gay rights once had to be fought for, it will be the default.
Point taken. The Republicans gained nearly 700 state legislative seats in November. This is the biggest gain since 1938 and much bigger than the revolution of 1994. Republicans control more of the country’s state legislatures than they did since 1952.
My adjectives may have been goofy, sir, but I was just trying to be concise. You will have to talk to your grandparents and maybe even your great grandparents to hear about the last time any political party delivered a ballot box beating of this magnitude.
True. Economic liberalism - as in, less Government control of economics - is on the rise. It would only be consistent that the Government stay out of the bedroom. We have no business deciding what ‘marriage’ means between two people. Then again I don’t even care about polygamy - it’s their choice what they do as long as they don’t harm others.
Then again you can also define Conservatism as limited Government, too. As in, “the Government is too conservative about its use of power” versus “the Government uses its power liberally”, LOL. Just tryin’ to be funny (please don’t beat me, moderators!)
You do know that what happened in 1994 was not really a revolution, right? It was a catchy name given to a big electoral victory.
That’s true. On the other hand, it’s not true that it’s a revolt. It’s also not true that this is some kind of permanent change or a representation of the death of liberalism.
What then qualifies as a revolution? Armed rebellion?
The public is ready to attack sacred cows like Social Security and unemployment extensions. We’re about to roll back health care reform (that is, if the USSC sends that law back to Congress). States are denying health care coverage for transplants and forcing people to go back to their communities for help instead.
If liberalism isn’t dead it sure looks like it’s lost a limb or two.
No you can’t. It may be what Conservatives want people to believe, but in practice, this isn’t what conservatives act like. It would be like me saying Communism is the best form of government because everyone’s equal.
It’s ironic in a way, kind of funny too. There will always be liberal and conservative positions, but the absolute line for these are always relative to the middle. When the middle sways left, the “absolute” limits sway left. There seems to be a few beliefs that are harder to move than others, but how can anyone say that just because a few conservatives won control of their government, that we’re exactly or more conservative than we are, say, 50 years ago? 50 years ago a black guy would get beat up for whistling at a white woman in the South! 100 years ago women couldn’t vote and child labor was legal! These things are seen as crazy now.
Some of us liberals may wish that things moved a little faster, but some of us also know that the world is becoming little by little more liberal, despite occasional hiccups along the way.
This would seem to be classic example of confusing your wishes for what is actually true. Extension of unemployment, for instance? Surely you know that the compromise hammered out between Obama and congressional Republicans, the same one you were so happy about in your first post, also contains an extension of unemployment. The public wants to attack Social Security? That’s news to me. States denying health care to needy people? Yes, that’s happening, but I haven’t heard anyone saying that they’re doing it on principle. They’re doing it because there’s been a financial crisis and they’re out of money. The fact that you’re happy about this development … well, I won’t comment on that.
You do know the whole point behind the social security tax holiday, right? I mean, everyone knows what this is about. It’s about slowly starving the blue beast.
What? Everybody knows that? And I didn’t? Well, day-um! All those T-Per’s, with their “Hands Off My Social Security” signs, they’re all part of a suicide pact? Son of a gun!
Dean is whining about this, but I for one am glad to see this holiday has a chance of happening. It’ll bring us one step closer to ditching this $17.5 trillion unfunded liability.
If we use budget gaps as a proxy for state fiscal health (and that doesn’t seem too unreasonable to me), we see that, in general, the more liberal a states’ fiscal policies, in general the worse off they are.
Now, before you word nazis get all apoplectic and start spitting in your starbucks, I’m using the word liberal here ONLY IN THE SENSE of higher taxes and higher spending (and high regulation, for those few areas of our lives left where states do the regulatin’).
Again, I think that’s what the OP had in mind when s/he talked about liberalism. If you want to use a different word, feel free to propose one.