Posts Tagged Liberal
Terrorism, interest-group politics, and public policy: curtailing criminal modes of political speech.
Terrorist incidents have occurred in the United States and around the world for centuries. Tax revolters, anarchists, war protesters, and other critics of government policy have often used violence to send messages to the policymakers controlling the issues of interest. The attacks of September 11, 2001, for example, have been widely interpreted as a comment on U.S. policy toward the Islamic world, especially U.S. policy in the Middle East. Indeed, terrorist attacks might be defined as violence for the purpose of sending a political message with the aim of influencing policy or at least of voicing disapproval. In this sense, terrorism is one possible method of “political dialogue.”
Even when political analysts do not share the goals of terrorist groups, they may defend the use of violence as a method of sending messages because of the political nature of the message sent. After all, political messages and popular protests receive special protection in all liberal democracies, and civil disobedience has often generated improvements in government policies. The conjunction of the “political message” explanation of terrorist actions and a “free speech” justification of those actions clearly resonates with some proponents of popular resistance, but it is nonetheless a bit puzzling for most proponents of free speech. Those who advocate the former explanation might argue that the United States brought the recent attacks on itself by various foreign-policy mistakes made over the years. Most proponents of free speech will reject this conclusion as a justification for terrorism, but they have not yet found a clear line of argument with which to respond to it.
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Setting Policy
I kind of like the idea that our new Alberta Premier is nicknamed “Honest Ed” and that the new leader of the Liberal Party won because no one had him as an enemy.
We are living in a world where “honest”, “nice” and “good guy” aren’t always associated with political leaders.
When I watch television or read newspaper reports about some of the personal or career decisions of numerous leaders throughout the world, I wonder how on earth they will be able to develop appropriate policies or set a healthy direction for the millions of people who they represent.
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Morality is The Foundation of Public-Policy Making Say Liberals
If you ask an academic liberal what liberalism is they are bound to give you a dictionary type meaning or a historical one. But this old-thinking or definition of liberalism is nothing like the modern-liberal movement of today. Modern day liberals are much closer to socialists than anything else.
Academic liberals seem to believe that government must speak from a higher moral grounding and thus if they do not have such then they must create it. Such is the thinking of Free Speech, Freedom of the Press, Right to Free Contract and even Freedom of Thought. Unfortunately if you look at the true dynamics of the political left you see something much different in their trend and movement.
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