What Do Liberals Stand For?

Here is a great discussion about what we as liberals stand for.

Some excerpts (I reccomend reading the entire post):

Government is uniquely qualified to provide for certain needs of a society

One of government’s roles is the protection of minorities with regard to certain basic rights

Liberals are interested in expanding liberty... Liberals wanted to expand the franchise and conservatives resisted. In the U.S. the terms were most useful during the civil rights movement in the '50s and '60s. Everyone who believed African-Americans should have the right to vote was a liberal. Everyone who didn't was a conservative.

Liberals believe you should be able to do with your property as you please, unless you impinge on others

Liberals believe labor should have the right to organize into unions, just as capital organizes into corporations.

Liberals also understand that economic development sometimes destroys markets, leading to oligopolies and monopolies, and these must be regulated or commerce becomes extortion.

Liberals have also reluctantly concluded from the evidence that modern medicine has outstripped the privately financed, fee-for-service system, which now makes no more sense than private ownership of New York City streets.

Poverty is poor soil for liberty, so they favor unemployment compensation and other temporary relief measures for those with the capacity to adjust, and a Social Security system for the disabled, dependents, and the elderly, who cannot.

Liberals believe the public sphere should be governed by empiricism, which requires an intellectual discipline best developed through education and the free expression of ideas.

I guess liberals also believe that utility is more likely to lead toward good policy than abstract ideology.

society is a cooperative venture

Helping others is not charity and taxation is not theft: rather, it is a recognition that none of our achievements would be possible without the supporting background of cooperation; the multiple criss-crossing fibers of support and opportunity that society provides.

all actions (of government) should be taken with a view towards providing the broadest public good possible

government should favor the policy which produces the more equitable distribution of wealth

The weakest groups in society should be lifted out of their weakness, rather than blamed for it

Reason, empiricism and negotiation are far more important tools of public policy than moral outrage

We see the complexity of issues and honor differing perspectives in working toward solutions

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7790823/#050510