What's with the con "elitist liberals think Americans are stupid and need to be told what to do" argument?

Question

I see it every once in a while from clueless cons.

First of all, everybody thinks they are right and the other side is wrong, including cons.

Second of all, it is conservatives who want to tell the American people who they can marry, what they can do with their own body, and even when they can die. Conservatives, historically, have used the government to restrict social decisions based on their conservative interpretation of christianity. Today that means opposition to the right of gay marriage, abortion, and death (for example Oregon's right to die laws for terminally ill patients). In the past, it meant opposition to invitro fertilization, birth control pills, interracial marriage, women's rights, and abolition of slavery.

Liberals, on the other hand, believe in using the government to enforce social freedoms. We believe people should be free to make up their own minds.

And how can liberals be "elitist" when we believe in shifting the tax burden to the rich and helping out the little guy? We restrict a corporations right to pollute, abuse the worker, and scam the consumer to give workers 40 hour work weeks, overtime pay, workman's compensation, work place safety laws, minimum wage, unemployment insurance, and the right to baragain. We give everybody else the right to live in a cleaner environment and the right not to be sold unsanitary food or fraudently labeled products.

Answer 1

It is just more NeoCon propaganda, hot air, they generate it in endless amts. Maybe that is where global warming comes from.

Answer 2

You're partly right. The neo-conservattives do indeed make that accusation--frequently. And it's unwarrented--with respect to both moderate conservatives as well as moderate liberals.

And you are also right that the more extreme--adnd elitist--conservatives have sought to restrict/control people.

BUT (and I'm speaking as a moderate liberal)--the more elitist liberals have just as sorry a record when it comes to interfering with people's lives and freedom. For example, if you look at the early part of the 20th centrury, it ws the more extreme and elitist liberals of the Progressive Era who advocated policies like eugenics, euthanasia, and the use of state programs to eradicate "inferior" cultural elements within ethnic communities.

This remains true today, to a considerable extent. You only need to look as far as (extreme) "liberal" attempts to mandate what food we can eat, or force "politically correct" language, even in private conversations (especially on many college campuses) to see that thre is still a push to control people's behavior on the part of some on the left that is just as dictatorial as the stuff coming from the right.

Don't get me wrong--I don't minimize the far right (neo-con) disregard for individual freedom. Their distrust of dissent, contempt for the Constitution, and open attempts to undermine personal freedom, religious liberty, etc. are obvious.

But make no mistake about it--the extremist elements, whether on the right or the left, have no love of individual liberty and nothing but contempt for the rights, intelligence, or dignity of the individual.

Answer 3

no one tells liberals that they are clever and something of u . s . a . is stupid. you're seeing the rantings of the crazed liberal minority we (liberals) desire shall we lock in closets and overlook approximately. i'm constructive the conservatives have those too. And maximum everybody else. those crazed persons on all components make the greater average persons who do think of that those crazies signify the finished 'different' part get offended. Then, we finally end up disliking one yet another for our thoughts, calling one yet another 'libtards' and 'bull-headed sheep,' and different propose issues. regrettably, human beings interior the midsection do no longer win too plenty throughout election time (exceptionally national). So picking a facet and giving the different to the different is all that we can desire for. 'nicely, even however Candidate X sucks at A,B,C, they believe me on D,E,F, which Candidate Y might circulate against. and because I purely believe Candidate Y on A, i assume I won't vote for them. as a results of fact Candidate Z is average, even however I agree on all, they in all risk won't win (fake, yet human beings think of it), so i will vote Candidate X.' ok, possibly it is style of long-winded and perplexing. despite. My component is, you're finding at radicals, no longer the genuine human beings.

Answer 4

I couldn't have said it better myself. It is a big-time con indeed, my friend. If you study the great liberal minds, e.g., Hon. Sen. Ted Kennedy, Hon. Sen. Hillary Clinton, Hon. V.P., Al Gore, Hon. Pres. William Jefferson Clinton; you see a passion for "the little guy". You observe a passion for the elderly, disenfranchised, those without health insurance, those earning the miserly, meagerly minimum wage, those jailed while innocent, those stopped by the police for driving while black or Hispanic and those in the military who are underpaid, unappreciated and ignored. If, on the other hand, you study the conservatives, e.g., Supreme Court Justice, Hon. William Rehnquist, The Big Idiot, Rush Limbaugh, Hon. ? Strum Thurman, Hon. ? Jesse Helms, Hon.? Newt Gingrich: You will find cowardly, greedy, corrupt, restrictive, mean-spirited, elitist minds. Yes, conservatives have ruled the day recently. But, fortunately, the sunset of their power is approaching quickly. We cannot let them re-write history. We must guard that history records events accurately. This we must do until our dying day.

Answer 5

They (Cons) can't simply admit that we have made things much better for them, and others - Then they have for anyone.

A Day in the Life of Joe Republican

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer’s medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too.

He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe’s bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some liberal environmentalist fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air.
He walks on the government-provided sidewalk to subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe’s employer pays these standards because Joe’s employer doesn’t want his employees to call the union.

If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he’ll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some liberal didn’t think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It is noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe’s deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some liberal wanted to protect Joe’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. Joe also forgets that in addition to his federally subsidized student loans, he attended a state funded university.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some liberal fought for car safety standards to go along with the tax-payer funded roads.

He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers’ Home Administration because bankers didn’t want to make rural loans. The house didn’t have electricity until some liberal stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and demanded rural electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn’t have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn’t mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. Joe agrees: “We don’t need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I’m a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have.”

Answer 6

Many neocons try to paint liberals as people trying to foment class envy. This is an example of neocon intellectual envy.

Answer 7

When people say that liberals want to tell other people what to do, I think they're talking about things like gun control, smoking bans, affirmative action, etc. That is telling people what to do and not letting them make up their own minds, though not really elitist.
Plus the liberals are not for economic freedom. They think that the government can spend people's money better than they can.

Answer 8

Who said liberals were clueless? I certainly am not, and I resent your comments. What drives your drama today? Marriage, abortion, religion, gender situations, death penalties or whether one has the right to even die, stem cell research, and slavery are not topics for any election as they are situations that warrant debate of the elected officials who are seated and can make a difference one way or the other, anything less than that is just TALK, and TALK is cheap.
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Like your question, or statements, they are ridiculous in nature and neither conservative or liberal, not even moderate.

Think next time, before you speak.

Answer 9

You pretty much indicted yourself.... Let's see :

You believe in killing unborn children. I'm sure they appreciate that.

You believe people in a perverse lifestyle ought to "marry" and receive benefits of a married couple, just as a heterosexual couple does. The majority consensus in this country is, that's unacceptable.......both the practice, and the paying of benefits to them.

You think killing people on their death beds is right? It amazes me that liberals want to kill off children and the helpless, but oppose guns. What's the rationality to that?

I thank God ( Yes, I'll say God!! ) that you don't run this country.

Answer 10

Because cons are told what to do by their "talking heads"--Limbaugh, Coulter, ad nauseum..........................