Liberal "Values"

For the past four years Democrats and other liberals have been horrified by the manner in which the Republican minority in Congress has impeded that body’s ability to do business. They have accused the minority party of acting in bad faith, they have accused them of “hostage holding” and have made threats to revise parliamentary procedures in order to render the minority powerless and irrelevant.

But when a Republican governor introduces a bill which the Democratic minority in Wisconsin does not like they obstruct the function of that legislative body not by any parliamentary process, but by leaving the state. Democrats and liberals regard them as heroes. Don’t defend their action by the crowds protesting outside the capitol; that came later and as a result of their action. They did precisely what Republicans in Washington had been doing, only they did it by extra-legal means.

In both cases the minority blocked the will of the majority within a legislative body, and liberals condemned the action when done by Republicans, cheered it when done by Democrats.

President George W. Bush declared that this nation had the right to hold persons in prison indefinitely without trial, and liberals howled in outrage. The closing of Guantanamo was demanded as a “blot on the nation’s honor,” and liberals demanded that persons held in prison either be given legitimate trials or released.

President Barack Obama now declares that this nation has the right to hold persons in prison indefinitely without trial if they “present a danger to our nation” and that Guantanamo is unlikely to be closed, and liberals have absolutely no objection to his declaration.

Liberals object to indefinite detention and the presence of Guantanamo when declared by a Republican president, but they remain silent in the face of the same issues declared by a Democratic president.

The only conclusion that can be drawn from these things is that “liberals” have no actual values; that “liberal” is just another word for Democrat and that they care only about the preservation of their own political party’s hold on power.