"Liberal" or "Conservative" or "Right Wing" or "Left Wing"

These labels don't serve any useful purpose in discussions of public policy.   They are primarily used as implements of name calling.  In the 1950s a child might have said, "You have cooties".   Now those same people, as senior citizens might say, "You're a LIBERAL."  or "You're a RIGHT WINGER."    In his book, Pat Buchanan was so incensed at Bush, Cheney and the neoconservatives that he called them the most damning name he could think of - "LIBERALS".

In 2006, I had a discussion with a rich retired farmer at the Windmill Days Festival in New Holland. It started out with his smiling and saying it would be a "cold day" when he voted for a Democrat.  After a ninety minute discussion about my specific proposals,  he agreed with virtually everything I proposed and I learned much from his ideas formed in fifty years of farming - one of the very toughest businesses.  When his wife returned at the end of the discussion he said, "You're not going to believe this, but I'm going to vote for a Democrat."  When we got past the labels and talked about the specific problems of the country and how to best solve them, we had a forum for exchanging ideas.  Flinging labels doesn't solve anything but exchanging ideas about specific problems and the solutions does.

A Dayton Daily News editor called my web site "vibrantly liberal".  A blogger called it centrist.  Another called it a mixture of  conservative and liberal.  I like best a Springfield Sun News writer who noted that I had many good new ideas, not putting a label on them.  If you read this web site in depth, you will see that I am for people and for the vitality of American business.  Universal (single payer) health care is essential to people and will take a heavy burden from American businesses, allowing them to better compete internationally and provide more and better jobs. 

I have always been fiscally and morally responsible.  In public policy, this translates to everyone gets a chance and no one takes unfair advantage.  When you go through the buffet line of life, everyone should pay his way and get to fill his plate.  No one should get to shovel food into a five gallon bucket, leaving nothing for the people behind him.