Category Archives: Liberal

Everyone knows that Salt Lake County which contains Democratic Salt Lake City and 40 percent of the states population is more liberal than Utah as a whole.

But how much more liberal?

Well, the 13 state House Democrats and five state senators are all from the county, most around Salt Lake City.

Thats one measurement.

But we also have demographics as provided by years of polling by UPDs expert, Dan Jones of Dan Jones & Associates.

Lets take a look at some of those numbers for the county, and compare them to the state as a whole.

First off, Utah is a very Republican state. It hasnt voted for a Democrat for president since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

It hasnt elected a Democratic U.S. senator since 1970. And it hasnt elected a Democratic governor since 1980.

Yes, weve had some Democratic U.S. House members usually winning because they carried their section of Salt Lake County by large margins, evening winning a number of traditionally Republican voters.

The last was former Rep. Jim Matheson, who retired from the House in 2015. He had to jump from his 2ndDistrict into the new 4thDistrict after the GOP-controlled Legislature redrew the U.S. House districts in 2011, making it even tougher for a Democrat to win a congressional seat.

Lets look at some of Jones demographic numbers:

-- Across the state, 52 percent say they are Republicans.

-- Only 17 percent identify with the Democratic Party.

-- 28 percent say they are political independents; they dont belong to any party.

-- And 7 percent say they belong to some other party, like the Green Party or the Constitution Party. (The so-called Tea Party is not a real political party in Utah, but an anti-establishment, anti-government political movement.)

Now, look at the makeup of Salt Lake County (according to Jones latest UPD poll.):

-- Only 30 percent of county voters say they are Republicans.

-- Democrats jump up to 27 percent of county voters.

-- Independents are 35 percent.

-- And members of other parties come in at 7 percent, just like statewide. (Although there would be more Greens in this group, fewer Constitution Party members.)

So you see that Democrats pick up ten percentage points more in the county compared to statewide, and independents pick up seven percentage points more.

How about political philosophy?

Jones finds statewide:

-- 25 percent self-identify as very conservative.

-- 33 percent, a third, say they are somewhat conservative.

-- 17 percent say they are moderate, or in the middle.

-- Only 15 percent of Utahns say they are somewhat liberal.

-- And 9 percent say they are very liberal.

In Salt Lake County:

-- Only 18 percent say they are very conservative.

-- 24 percent (or a fifth) say they are somewhat conservative.

-- 16 percent say they are moderates.

-- While 24 percent say they are somewhat liberal.

-- And 16 percent say they are very liberal.

Big differences here, dont you think?

Put the two conservative groups together statewide, and Utah is 58 percent very or somewhat conservative or right of the middle.

But look at Salt Lake County, and only 42 percent say they are on the conservative side.

Statewide, only 24 percent, or one-fourth, of Utahns say they are liberals, either somewhat or very.

In Salt Lake County, 40 percent give themselves the liberal title.

Considering that liberal is sometimes a nasty word in Utah these days, and has been for years, that is rather remarkable.

Theres little doubt that the unpopularity of GOP President Donald Trump, who calls himself a conservative but really doesnt hold the title very well in Utah probably has something to do with more Salt Lake County folks being willing to accept the liberal title nowadays.

It is to be expected that the Salt Lake City mayor while to job is officially nonpartisan would be a Democrat. In fact, not since the mid-1970s has a Republican held that job.

But Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams is also a Democrat, and was a moderate Democratic state senator before he won the county mayorship six years ago.

The county council is 5-4 Republican, with Democrats holding the district attorney, clerk and sheriff posts in county government.

There are 29 state House seats wholly or partly in Salt Lake County. Democrats hold 13 of those seats, with Republicans at 16.

There are 11 state Senate seats wholly or partly in the county; Democrats hold five, Republicans six.

It was clear during the 2011 legislative redistricting that the majority Republicans were going to protect their incumbent House and Senate members in Salt Lake County.

And they did, telling Democrats in the House and Senate they could determine their seat boundaries, as long as they clearly gave up at least one House and one Senate seat their minority members being combined in some manner.

If you split up the political independent percentages evenly in the county giving half to Republicans and half to Democrats than Democrats in the House and Senate are batting below their percentage averages, but only slightly.

UPD calculations show 44.5 percent for Democrats, and 47.5 percent for Republicans and the parties are about at that with 6 GOP Senate seats (5 for Democrats) and 16 GOP House seats (13 for Democrats) in the county.

Democrats won two additional House seats in the county last year defeating Rep. Sophia DiCaro, R-West Valley, and getting the open seat left by retiring Rep. Johnny Anderson, also R-West Valley.

At various times during an extended count, Democrats also led in three other GOP House seats, losing them when the final canvas was counted.

No seats changed hands in the 2016 state Senate elections, and it looks like redistricting there shored up both Democrat and GOP seats in the county.

Finally, lets look at religious preferences statewide and in Salt Lake County.

There have been some well-publicized combining of LDS wards and stakes in Salt Lake City and the northern part of the county in recent years.

Jones figures show:

-- Statewide, 52 percent of Utahns say they are very active in the Mormon Church meaning they are likely tithe-paying members who have recommends (passes) to do religious work in LDS temples.

-- 7 percent say they are somewhat active in their LDS faith.

-- 4 percent say they were once Mormons, but are no longer practicing that religion.

-- 19 percent statewide say they have no religion.

In Salt Lake County:

-- 38 percent say they are active Mormons.

-- 4 percent say they somewhat are LDS.

-- 4 percent say they are no longer Mormons.

-- And 33 percent a third say they have no religion at all.

Thus, the county is much less Mormon than the rest of the state.

In fact, faithful Mormons are actually in the minority in the county, Jones latest demographics show.

In this analysis, Jones latest poll is of 607 adults statewide, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.98 percent.

The Salt Lake County sample was of 216 adults, with a margin of error of about three times the statewide numbers.

Should a proposed non-partisan approach to redistricting in 2021 get on the 2018 ballot and pass, we could see more Democrats elected inside of Salt Lake County than in 30 or 40 years.

But Utah, as a whole, is safely in the Republican column for decades to come, it appears.

More:

Analysis: Just how liberal is Salt Lake County? - Utah Policy

Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) is takingon Democratic opposition to hisnewly proposed immigration plan, saying that liberal "fear mongering" lets you "know you're on to something good."

"Anytime a liberal politician starts fear mongering, you know you're on to something good," he told Fox News's "Fox & Friends" on Thursday.

.@SenDavidPerdue on RAISE Act criticism: Any time a liberal politician starts fear mongering, you know youre onto something good. pic.twitter.com/YGmzc4EZZM

Trumpduring thepresidentialcampaign pledged to cut immigration.

Critics have pegged the new plan as an assault on American values.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the "hateful, senseless, anti-immigrant agenda that instills fear in our communities, weakens our nation, and dishonors our values."

"We've modeled this after Canada, for goodness sake," Perdue responded on Thursday. "I mean goodness, Nancy Pelosi herself and other liberal Democrats have talked about Canada as being a beacon of light, and all we're doing is modeling this after a program they've proven for decades works."

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GOP senator on immigration plan: Liberal 'fear mongering' means 'you're onto something' - The Hill

Growing up in Southern California, Mai-Ling Garcias grades were ragged; her long-term plans nonexistent. At age 20, she was living with her in-laws halfway between Los Angeles and the Mojave Desert, while her husband was stationed abroad. Tired of working subsistence jobs, she decided in 2001 to try a few classes at Mount San Jacinto community college.

Nobody pegged her for greatness at first. A psychology professor, Maria Lopez-Moreno recalls Garcia sitting in the midst of a lecture hall, fiddling constantly with a cream-colored scarf. Then something started to catch. After a spirited discussion about the basis for criminal behavior, Lopez-Moreno took this newcomer aside after class and asked: Why are you here?

Garcia blurted out a tangled story of marrying a Marine right after high school, seeing him head off to Iraq, and not knowing what to do next. Lopez-Moreno couldnt walk away. I said to myself: Uh-oh. Ive got to suggest something to her. At her professors urging, Garcia applied for a place in Mt. San Jacintos honors programand began to thrive.

Nourished by smaller classes and motivated peers, Garcia earned straight-A grades for the first time. She emerged as a leader in diversity initiatives, too, drawing on her own multicultural heritage (Filipino and Irish). Shortly before graduation, she won admission to the University of California, Berkeley, campus, where she could pursue a bachelors degree.

Today, Garcia is a leading digital strategist for the city of Oakland, California. Rather than rely on an M.B.A. or a technical major, she has capitalized on a seldom-appreciated liberal-arts disciplinesociologyto power her career forward. Now, she describes herself as a bureaucratic ninja who doesnt hide her stormy journey. Instead, she recognizes it as a valuable asset.

I know what its like to be too poor to own a computer, Garcia told me recently. Im the one in meetings who asks: Never mind how well this new app works on an iPhone. Will it run on an old, public-library computer, because thats the only way some of our residents will get to use it?

By its very name, the liberal-arts pathway is tinged with privilege. Blame this on Cicero, the ancient Roman orator, who championed the arts quae libero sunt dignae (cerebral studies suited for freemen), as opposed to the practical, servile arts suited for lower-class tradespeople. Even today, liberal-arts majors in the humanities and social sciences often are portrayed as pursuing elitist specialties that only affluent, well-connected students can afford.

Look more closely, though, and this old stereotype is starting to crumble. In 2016, the National Association of Colleges and Employers surveyed 5,013 graduating seniors about their family backgrounds and academic paths. The students most likely to major in the humanities or social sciences33.8 percent of themwere those who were the first generation in their family ever to have earned college degrees. By contrast, students whose parents or other forbears had completed college chose the humanities or social sciences 30.4 percent of the time.

Pursuing the liberal-arts track isnt a quick path to riches. First-job salaries tend to be lower than whats available with vocational degrees in fields such as nursing, accounting, or computer science. Thats especially true for first-generation students, who arent as likely to enjoy family-aided access to top employers. NACE found that first-generation students on average received post-graduation starting salaries of $43,320, about 12 percent below the pay packages being landed by peers with multiple generations of college experience.

Yet over time, liberal-arts graduates earnings often surge, especially for students pursuing advanced degrees. History majors often become well-paid lawyers or judges after completing law degrees, a recent analysis by the Brookings Institutions Hamilton Project has found. Many philosophy majors put their analytical and argumentative skills to work on Wall Street. International-relations majors thrive as overseas executives for big corporations, and so on.

For college leaders, the liberal arts appeal across the socioeconomic spectrum is both exciting and daunting. As Dan Porterfield, the president of Pennsylvanias Franklin and Marshall College, points out, first-generation students may come to college thinking: I want to be a doctor. I want to help people. Then they discover anthropology, earth sciences, and many other new fields. They start to fall in love with the idea of being a writer or an entrepreneur. They realize: I just didnt have a broad enough vision of how to be a difference maker in society.

A close look at the career trajectories of liberal-arts graduates highlights five factorsbeyond traditional classroom academicsthat can spur long-term success for anyone from a non-elite background. Strong support from a faculty mentor is a powerful early propellant. In a survey of about 1,000 college graduates, Richard Detweiler, president of the Great Lakes Colleges Association, found that students who sought out faculty mentors were nearly twice as likely to end up in leadership positions later in life.

Other positive factors include a commitment to keep learning after college; a willingness to move to major U.S. job hubs such as Seattle, Silicon Valley, or the greater Washington, D.C., area; and the audacity to dream big. Finally, students who enter college without well-connected relativesthe sorts who can tell you what classes to take or how to win a choice summer internshipbenefit from programs designed to build up professional networks and social capital.

Among the groups offering career-readiness programs on campus is Braven, a nonprofit founded by Aime Eubanks Davis, a former Teach for America executive. Making its debut in 2014, Braven already has reached about 1,000 students at Rutgers University-Newark in New Jersey and San Jose State University in California. Expansion into the Midwest is on tap. Braven mixes students majoring in the liberal arts and those pursuing vocational degrees in each cohort, the theory being that all can learn from one another.

One of Bravens Newark enrollees in 2015 was Dyllan Brown-Bramble, a transfer student earning strong grades in psychology, who didnt feel at all connected to the New Jersey campus. Commuting from his parents home, he usually arrived at Rutgers just a few minutes before 10 a.m. classes started. Once afternoon courses were done, hed retreat to Parking Lot B and rev up his 2003 Sentra. By 3:50 p.m., hed be gone.

Brown-Brambles parents are immigrants from Dominica. His father runs a small construction business; his mother, a Baruch College graduate, manages a tourism office. Privately, the Rutgers student is quite proud of them, but it seemed pointless to explain his Caribbean origins to strangers. They typically reacted inappropriately. Some imagined him to be the son of dirt-poor refugees struggling to rise above a shabby past. Others assumed he was a world-class genius: an astrophysicist who could fly. There wasnt any room for him to be himself.

When Brown-Bramble encountered a campus flier urging students to enroll in small evening workshops called the Braven Career Accelerator, he took the bait. I knew I was supposed to be networking in college, he later told me. I thought: Okay, heres a chance to do something.

Suddenly, Rutgers became more compelling. For nine weeks, Brown-Bramble and four other students of color became evening allies. They met in an empty classroom each Tuesday at six to construct LinkedIn profiles and practice mock interviews. They picked up tips about local internships, aided by a volunteer coach whose life and background was much like theirs. They united as a group, discussing each persons weekly highs and lows while encouraging one another to keep trying for internships and better grades. We had a saying, Brown-Bramble recalled. If one of us succeeds, all of us succeed.

Most of the volunteer coaches came from minority backgrounds, too. Among them: Josmar Tejeda, who had graduated from the New Jersey Institute of Technology five years earlier with an architecture degree. Since graduating, Tejeda had worked at everything from social-media jobs to being an asbestos inspector. As the coach for Brown-Brambles group, Tejeda combined relentless optimism with an acknowledgment that getting ahead wasnt easy.

Keep it real, Tejeda kept telling his students as they talked through case studies and their own goals. Everyone did so. That feeling of being the only black or Latino person in the room? The awkwardness of always being asked: Where are you from? The strains of always trying to be the model minority? Familiar territory for everyone.

It was liberating, Brown-Bramble told me. Surrounded by sympathetic peers, Brown-Bramble discovered new ways to share his heritage in job interviews. Yes, some of his Caribbean relatives had arrived in the United States not knowing how to fill out government forms. As a boy, he had needed to help them. But that was all right. In fact, it was a hidden strength. I could create a culture story that worked for me, Brown-Bramble said. I can relate to people with different backgrounds. Theres nothing about me that I have to rise above.

This summer, with the support of Inroads, a nonprofit that promotes workforce diversity, Brown-Bramble is interning in the compliance department of Novo Nordisk, a pharmaceutical maker. Riding the strength of a 3.8 grade-point average, he plans to get a law degree and work in a corporate setting for a few years to pay off his student loans. Then he hopes to set up his own law firm, specializing in start-up formation. Id like to help other entrepreneurs do things in Newark, he told me.

Organizations like Braven draw on the power of the cohort, said Shirley Collado, the president of Ithaca College and a former top administrator at Rutgers-Newark. When students settle into small groups with trustworthy peers, she explained, candor takes hold. The sterile dynamic of large lectures and solo homework assignments gives way to a motivation-boosting alliance among seat mates and coaches. You build social capital where it didnt exist before, Collado said.

For Mai-Ling Garcia, the leap from community college to Berkeley was perilous. Arriving at the famous universitys campus, she and her then-husband were so short on cash that they subsisted most days on bowls of ramen. Scraping by on partial scholarships, neither knew how to get the maximum available financial aid. To cover expenses, Garcia took a part-time job teaching art at a grade-school recreation center in Oakland.

Finishing college can become impossible in such circumstances. During her second semester, Garcia began tracking down what she now refers to as a series of odd little foundations with funky scholarships. People wanted to help her. Before long, she was attending Berkeley on a full ride. Her money problems abated. What she couldnt forget was that initial feeling of being in trouble and ill-prepared. Her travails were pulling her into sociologys most pressing issues: how vulnerable people fare in a world they dont understand, and what can be done to improve their lives.

Simultaneously, Berkeleys professors were arming Garcia with tools that would define her career. She spent a year learning the fine points of ethnography from a Vietnam-era Marine, Martin Sanchez-Jankowski, who taught students how to conduct field research. He sent Garcia into the Oakland courthouse to watch judges in action, advising her to heed the ways racial differences tinged courtroom conduct. She learned to take careful notes, to be explicit about her theories and assumptions, and to operate with a rigor that could withstand peer-review scrutiny. Her professors would stay in academia; she was being trained to have an impact in the wider world.

What can one do with a sociology degree? Garcia tried a lot of different jobs in her first few years after graduation. She spent two years at a nonprofit trying to untangle Veterans Administration bureaucracy. After that, she dedicated three years to a position at the Department of Labor, winning many small battles related to veterans employment. She had found job security, but she couldnt shake the feeling that a technology revolution was racing through the private sectorand leaving government far behind.

Companies like Lyft, Airbnb, and Instagram were putting new powers in the publics hands, giving them handy tools to hail a ride, find lodging, or share photos. By comparison, trying to change a jury-duty date remained a clumsy slog through outdated websites. Instead of bemoaning this tech gap, Garcia decided to gain vital tech skills herself. She signed up for evening classes in digital marketing and refined that knowledge during an 18-month stint at a startup. Then she began hunting for a government job with impact.

In 2014, Garcia joined the City of Oakland as a bridge builder who could amp up online government services on behalf of the citys 400,000 residents. This wasnt just an exercise in technology upgrading; it required a fundamental rethinking of the way that Oakland delivered services. Buffers between city workers and an impatient public would come down. The social structures of power would change. To make this transition, it helped to have a digitally savvy sociologist in the house.

Over coffee one afternoon, Garcia told me excitedly about the progress that she and the city communications manager were achieving with their initiative. If street-art creators want more recognition for their work, Garcia can drum up interest on social media. If garbage is piling up, new digital tools let citizens visit the citys Facebook page and summon services within seconds.

Looking ahead, Garcia envisions a day when landing a municipal job becomes vastly easier, with cities Twitter feeds posting each new opening. Other aspects of digital technology ought to help residents connect quickly with whatever part of government matters to themwhether that means signing up for summer camp or giving the mayor a piece of ones mind.

This article has been adapted from George Anderss new book, You Can Do Anything.

Original post:

The Unexpected Value of the Liberal Arts - The Atlantic

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The turbulent politics of the past year have hinged on a grand historical premise: Theliberal status quo of the West is in crisis. Figures such asPresident Trump swept into power promising jobs for the disaffected, closed borders for migrants and economic protectionism; kindred spirits in Europe preached an even more xenophobic message.

But in thechaotic months sinceTrump's inauguration, Europe's far right suffered electoral setbacks and the president's own agenda provedsomething of amuddled mess. His campaign-trail populism quickly gave way to policies that favored the mega-rich. What has endured are the identity politics the resentments toward multiculturalism and immigration that galvanized his base, which has remained loyal to Trump even while the president racksup historically low approval ratings.

And although the Trump administration tries to distance itself from "white nationalism" and its supposedly fringe adherents, ethnic grievances anchor the West's anti-liberal backlash.It's at the heart of the "traditionalist" Christian nationalism embraced by White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who despite various rounds of West Wingpurges has held onto his post.

"I think Trump was a legitimatizer,"said William Regnery II, a secretive funderof a slew of "alt-right" organizations that champion extreme anti-immigration politics in the United States. Speaking to BuzzFeed News, Regnery said that white nationalism has gone "from being conversation you could hold in a bathroom to the front parlor."

Over the weekend, a group of committed white nationalists, including some figures directly connected to Regnery's funding networks, held a conference in Tennessee, debating everything from Trump's record on race tothe prospect of fashioning some chunk of America intoa whites-only "ethno-state."

Jared Taylor, the founder and editor of American Renaissance, the far-right website that staged the event, spoke to the Guardian about the millennials turned on by his message. "These young white guys," Taylorsaid, "they have been told from infancy that they are the villains of history. And I think that the left has completely overplayed its hand."

A similar argument ismade by considerably more powerful people in Europe.Last week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban delivered a speechin a leafy Romanian town where a majority of the population is ethnic Hungarian. Not many international outlets covered the event far-right website Breitbartwas an exception,gleefully quoting the right-wing premier at length for his call to stop a "Muslimized Europe."

This rhetoric is familiar coming from Orban, an outspoken leader among the European statesmen railing against immigration and the challenge ofMuslim integration into Western societies. (No matter that the E.U. refugee quotas Orban resists would do little to change his nation's demographic composition.) But this time, he offered a shout-out to Trump, whose nationalist speech in Warsaw in early July clearly thrilled the Hungarian leader.

Orban quoted from Trump's Warsaw address, in which the president warned of anexistential threat facing the Westand appealed to a narrow Christian cultural identity in the face of enemies at the gates. "Our freedom, our civilization and our survival depend on these bonds of history, culture, and memory," Orban said, echoing Trump. (Absent in either of their remarks were similar paeans to Western ideals such asdemocracy and the rule of law.)

The Hungarian prime minister also celebrated the fact that such statements are being made in public at all: "These words would have been inconceivable anywhere in the Western world two years ago," he said.

He went on to bemoan what is afflicting Europe. "Christian democratic parties in Europe have become un-Christian: we are trying to satisfy the values and cultural expectations of the liberal media and intelligentsia," Orban said, swatting at the transnational commitments of technocrats in Brussels and growling over his bete noir, Jewish American financier George Soros.

"In order for Europe to be able to survive and remain the Europeans continent, the European Union must regain its sovereignty from the Soros empire," Orbansaid. "Until that happens, we have no chance of retaining Europe for the European people."

Others on the far right are taking matters more directly in their hands. This summer, a group called "Generation Identity" set about trying tochallengethe efforts of NGOs such asDoctors Without Borders that are operating ships in the Mediterranean to rescue migrants whose own vessels have sunk or become inoperable. Hoisting a "Defend Europe" banner, they tried to disrupt rescue efforts and even threatened to tow stranded migrants back to sea. Over the weekend, they were confronted by leftist activists in the Sicilian port city of Catania.

Britishjournalist Rossalyn Warren described Identity Europe inThe Washington Post's Global Opinion section:

"The group is known for its publicity stunts andcreepy promotional videosshowing white Europeans playing sports in what looks like summer camp for fascists. Their reach hasnt just been limited to Europe either. Though the group is small around 400 to 500 members in several countries including Austria, France and Germany theyve since been joined in Sicily by high-profile, far-right activists from Canada and the United States. Theyve also been supported by neo-Nazi leaders, including former KKK headDavid Duke, a vocal supporter of the Defend Europe mission."

Duke, of course, was also a vocal supporter of Trumpduring last year's election. The president may disavow these links, but leading far-right ideologues, including Regnery and Bannon, aremore coy. Bannon, after all, once described Trump as a "blunt instrument" for his agenda. And althoughthe effect of months of bludgeoning isstill hard to measure, it's impossible to ignore the rhetoric that binds politiciansin Central Europe to once-fringe radicals in Tennessee and Washington.

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The West's anti-liberal backlash can't escape its racism - The ... - Washington Post

You're either a liberal or a conservative, right? And once you choose, it governs everything about you. Your political viewpoint. Your bias. Your circle of friends. How awkward your Thanksgiving dinner will be. That's how it's always been, and how it will always be...

Or, at least it's been that way (kind of) since the Enlightenment, which happened mostly in Europe, around 250-300 years ago. In fact, there were many philosophers back in the 1700s, and only a few of them were what we might call "liberals" or "conservatives." On the liberal side, you had a lot of Johns and Jeans (John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau), while the conservatives had good old Edmund Burke.

But there were many other philosophers around the world with wildly different views on politics, ethics, ontology, epistemology, and other philosophical words. In those days, philosophers did it all! Science, ethics, mathematics, engineering, politics, relationships, medicine...you name it, some philosopher had an opinion about it. As we moved into the 1800's, there were more specialists. There were people who really focused on chemistry, biology, medicine, anthropology.. and there were political philosophers as well. We debated, theorized, and tested millions of ideas, theses, philosophies, and perspectives.

We've progressed a lot since the 1700's, but we still hold onto many antiquated belief systems. Some people believe the earth is flat. Some people are afraid of vaccines. Some people are afraid of ghosts (I am one of those people). And many of us (at least in North America) consider ourselves to be liberals or conservatives. Of course, those terms have changed so much over the years that a modern-day conservative might sound more like John Locke than Edmund Burke.

It's weird that we're so beholden to these concepts of liberal and conservative. It's weird that our political parties fall along this arbitrary spectrum.

This false dichotomy has resulted in a lot of acrimony and hatred. There's a real "us vs. them" attitude in political debate, because you supposedly only have two choices.

But we're all amateur philosophers, aren't we? Our belief systems are cobbled together from our religious upbringing, our friends, our parents, our experiences, and what we've read, watched, and listened to. I'm not a liberal anymore, I'm a "Joshist," following the Josh philosophy. It's a mix of Socrates, Chuang Tzu, and Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino. And if I learn something new, that is incorporated into my ever-evolving beliefs.

Donald Trump isn't beholden to traditional conservative values, just as Justin Trudeau isn't beholden to traditional liberal values. Is Xi Jinping liberal? Is Emmanuel Macron conservative? All of these leaders have made decisions that break from these respective philosophies, and their actions can and should be evaluated independently. No matter how you identify, you should be reflective enough to recognize and be critical when someone you like does something you disagree with, and vice versa.

The way it is now isn't how it has always been, and it isn't how it must always be. So be free and break away from tradition. You can be anything you want to be.

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We Have More Choices Than Liberal Or Conservative - Huffington Post Canada

Amarillo Globe-News columnist is being taken to task for the piece he wrote July 29 about the bathroom bill the Texas Senate passed last week.

For background, you can take a second look at that column here.

Tex Kopke of Spearman wrote this letter to the editor that took an opposing view:

Letter to the Amarillo Globe-News editor in response to Saturday, July 29 front page Amarillo Globe-News article by Jon Mark Beilue

Apparently the liberal editorials have now been moved to the front page with the Saturday editorial by Jon Mark Beilue concerning the state transgender bathroom bill.

In his first paragraph of the story Jon Mark states that he is not a liberal, he is a part of a growing group he would call embarrassed conservatives and he wonders what has happened to sane, reasonable conservatism in the wake of the election of Donald Trump and what has drifted down further to the statehouse.

Well I know exactly how he feels, except that I feel I am among the growing group of true area Christian conservatives, the silent majority, who is embarrassed by Jon Mark claiming he is a conservative and that he and the Amarillo Globe-News represents our thoughts.

Yes we wonder what has happened to our sane, reasonable newspaper and editors that we used to have. Have they all been replaced by a news staff from New York, San Francisco or by Austin liberals. Would the Globe-News have dared print such a liberal pro transgender rights and anti parents rights article even five years ago.

Jon Mark says that the bill states that people will be required to use the bathrooms and changing rooms at public and charter schools, and buildings overseen by local governments, based on the sex listed on their birth certificate or state-issued ID card.

What the bill states is obvious common sense to us Christian conservatives but is somehow beyond Jon Mark Beilus understanding.

Would Jon Mark seriously want transgender males using the changing room and showers with his school age daughters if he had any? Yet he wants schools to be able to force your daughters and sons to shower and change with transgenders in order to protect the rights of transgenders, rather than protecting the rights of parents and their children. Very mixed up priorities if you ask me.

Jon Mark goes on to state that transgenders obviously have emotional issues they have confronted to want to change their sex, but Jon can promise us that none of them involve the idea that it would make it easier to assault young girls in restrooms.

How Jon Mark knows what transgenders think I can only guess but I can be sure he is wrong if he thinks most parents want their children exposed to naked or partially exposed transgenders in changing rooms or bathrooms.

The area silent majority voted overwhelmingly for conservative federal and state leadership. If the Amarillo Globe-News cant accept this perhaps they should start selling their newspaper in a more liberal part of the country and stop trying to cram all these liberal points of views down our conservative throats.

Enough with all the liberal stories, editorials and editorial cartoons. Why should we pay for the privilege of having you insult and ridicule our conservative Christian values every day.

Conservatives now is the time to speak up before we get to the point that the Amarillo Globe-News is only fit to use in the bottom of cat boxes and you are embarrassed to even have your neighbors see it laying out in your yard.

Advertisers are soon going to have to start posting warning notices in their ads that the liberal anti Christian views of the Globe-News do not reflect their own values.

Jon Mark ends his article saying that at least as an embarrassed conservative he hopes the Texas House will be more of a voice of reason and respect.

I too hope that they will use a voice of reason and keep transgenders out of our opposite sex childrens restrooms and changing rooms and to respect the wishes of parents.

And finally, Jon Mark doesnt need to be worried about being an embarrassed conservative because he isnt a conservative to begin with.

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Is this the face of a liberal? - Amarillo.com

Liberals have learned that if they attack, attack and attack some more, they can pressure organizations into surrender. Just like France.

That was the case with the Boy Scouts, a group that has repeatedly caved to alt-left pressure. President Trump spoke to more than 40,000 Scouts, leaders and volunteers Tuesday at the National Scout Jamboree in West Virginia and the media and left went insane comparing the Scouts to the Hitler Youth. Anyone who cheers this president gets thrown under the Panzer by liberals.

On Thursday the Scout leadership bowed to the assault. "I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree," said Chief Scout Executive Michael Surbaugh. "That was never our intent."

President Trumps speech caused a media firestorm because the president tying his shoes would cause a media firestorm. He was attacked by liberals, and both news and entertainment media.

The New York Times headlined that Late Show host Stephen Colbert Says Trump Attacked Boy Scouts Belief in Our Democracy. Colbert built his career on attacking conservatives and recently drew criticism for making an obscene reference to President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Compared to that, saying the Boy Scouts were like Hitler Youth was mild for the left. But liberals were angry that the Scouts cheered President Trump. So they compared them to Nazis. That sounds reasonable to no one except libs.

Liberals have been calling Trump a Nazi since 2015 when he first began his race. One of the most obvious examples of that stupidity was ABCs The View star Whoopi Goldberg. In response to Trumps opposition to bringing Syrian refugees to the U.S., she compared the two and said: Hitler was a Christian. She also made a similar comparison to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

That was amateur hour compared to this week. Liberals call Trump Hitler or say hes a Nazi at the drop of a hat. But liberals went from attacking Trump to attacking kids with the same ferocity.

Heres how Newsweek set the order of battle. As the scout law says, a scout is trustworthy, loyal, Trump said, before adding, We could use some more loyalty, I will tell you that. As he spoke, the crowd chanted U.S.A and applauded.

Oh geez, they chanted U.S.A and applauded. The social media battle began. Twitter hashtags filled the space that sanity sometimes occupies. Terms like #Hitler Youth #Hitler and #HitlersYouth were flooded with comments from humans and bots.

Far-left filmmaker Michael Moore cited a famous Nazi propaganda movie in his comparison: I'm an Eagle Scout. Trump using the 30,000 BoyScouts as his props tonight was a scene out of Triumph of the Will. Shocking abuse of children.

John Haltiwanger, senior politics writer for the obscure Elite Daily (The Voice Of Generation-Y) started making comparisons between President Trump and Hitler. Haltiwanger said both wanted loyalty and didnt like the press. But he didnt stop there: Trump is not Hitler. Would be irresponsible to say they're the same. But he did make the Boy Scouts feel a lot like the Hitler Youth today, he tweeted.

Soap opera star Nancy Lee Grahn joined in. Tragically, #boyscouts in 2017 applaud Trump just like the all blonde blue eyed youth did for Hitler in the 30's.

Medium ran a piece by S. Novi headlined: Deranged Trump Emulates Hitler Youth Speech to Boy Scouts.

Igor Volsky, a vice president at the George Soros-funded Center for America Progress, was slightly more subtle. Trump is trying to turn the Boy Scouts into Trump Youth, he wrote. There were so many Nazi references running around on the left, it looked like Joseph Goebbels was running their media machine.

Even the outlets commenting on the trend embraced their biases. Of all of the outrageous and reprehensible things Trump has said and done over the past six months of his presidency, this seems to have really struck a raw nerve with people for a number of reasons, wrote Uproxx. Buzzfeed focused on angry Scout leaders, who naturally made the Hitler Youth comparison.

CNN Editor-at-large Chris Cillizza listed the 29 most cringe-worthy lines from Donald Trump's hyper-political speech to the Boy Scouts. But remember, CNN only thinks conservative media have opinions.

The left has long hated the Boy Scouts, bullying the organization into accepting first gay scoutmasters and now pushing to let girls join the Boy Scouts. Because boys arent allowed to have any spaces where they can just be boys. And every organization must push a left-wing agenda, or be destroyed. Or surrender. And then be destroyed. The left is OK with either.

Dan Gainor is the Media Research Center's Vice President for Business and Culture. He writes frequently about media for Fox News Opinion. He can also be contacted on Facebook and Twitter as dangainor.

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How a liberal blitzkrieg from Hollywood and the press got the Boy Scouts to surrender - Fox News

Political theory lessons have been ignored by the current beliefs of the young liberal left as witnessed by Bernie Sanders popularity and support of the leftist ideas of the Democrats. Their tactics of shouting down any opposing viewpoints and labeling anyone who opposes them discourages debate.

The New Haven Register has assisted in enabling the counter-argument to the misguided thought that socialism is a preferred system to American capitalism. In the July 22 edition, a letter which listed the evils of the Trump extremist agenda contained all the catchphrases that young liberals have spouted since President Trumps campaign and election. In a July 8 confrontation on the Green, a group gathered to resist socialism was labeled a white supremacist, nationalistic, misogynistic, hate group. The writers reiterated the rhetoric of the liberal left verbatim while encouraging resistance to any Trump agenda. The letter was signed: Jahmal Henderson and Joelle Fishman, members of the Winchester-Newhall Club of the Communist Party, USA.

Young liberal left thought prefers socialism. The fact that socialism is a direct step toward communism is ignored. The letter is textbook propaganda that self-proclaimed communists extol. Hopefully, the similarities with the liberal left rhetoric are apparent. Liberals should realize that ultra-left Democrats policies are what Americans historically have fought against. Communism is a failed social and political system. These writers choice of words and phrases correspond to those used by the liberal left youth at rallies and demonstrations. Any policies encouraging a movement toward socialism can only endanger the future.

Sal Squeglia

New Haven

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Letter to the Editor: Socialism, communism, and the young liberal left - New Haven Register

WHITE WORKING CLASS: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America

By Joan C. Williams

Harvard Business Review Press. 180 pp. $22.99

It was only a matter of time until liberal elites obsession with Americas white working class would burn through every possible analytical framework racial attitudes, economic misfortunes, health conditions, political preferences and end up on a subject they find even more irresistible: themselves.

White Working Class by law professor Joan C. Williams is more an effort to puncture the foibles and misperceptions of upper-class liberals than an attempt to get to know the people her book title comprises. Its just as well. The authors personal knowledge of the white working class appears mainly secondhand: Williams cites her eighth-grade-dropout father-in-law, pores over polls and studies, and can quote on demand from Hillbilly Elegy and Strangers in Their Own Land, but thats about it. By contrast, she has a vise grip on the attitudes of her fellow liberal professionals Williams teaches at the University of Californias Hastings College of Law (yes, in San Francisco) and she structures the book around those nasty little questions they mutter about working-class Trump voters at dinner parties or, Ive heard, in gourmet sandwich shops.

Why dont they push their kids harder to succeed and go to college? Shouldnt they move for better jobs? Why do they resent government benefits? Arent they just racist? Sexist? And why do they dislike us so much, even while admiring gauche plutocrats such as President Trump?

Those questions are of recent vintage, Williams notes, because for a long time left-leaning elites were concerned with just about everyone except the white working class. During an era when wealthy white Americans have learned to sympathetically imagine the lives of the poor, people of color, and LGBTQ people, she writes, the white working class has been insulted or ignored. She accuses her tribe of class cluelessness and in some cases, even class callousness.

One of the strengths of Williamss book is the authors willingness to call out such callousness and hypocrisy among her fellow travelers. One of its weaknesses is her reluctance to call out Trump voters for much of anything.

Williams begins with some definitional clarity or confusion, depending on the order in which you typically peck. Even though, in some circles, working class has become a euphemism for poor, Williams uses the term working class for those living a few rungs higher, Americans with earnings above the lowest 30 percent and below the top 20percent, with a median household income of about $75,000. Some might consider this range to overlap with the middle class, but since almost all Americans consider themselves middle class, Williams decided that the latter term is too vague to be useful.

Williamss working-class America, then, excludes the poor. In fact, the white working class, thus delineated, often begrudges government efforts to help the poor, Williams writes. When such programs are limited to those below a certain income level [and] ... exclude those just a notch above, she contends, this is a recipe for class conflict. So if youve ever wondered whats the matter with Kansas, Williams has an answer. Because the white working class resents programs for the poor, to the extent that benefit cuts target the poor, thats attractive. To the extent that tax cuts for the rich hold the promise of jobs, thats attractive, too.

[White Trash a cultural and political history of an American underclass]

The working classs simultaneous fascination with the ultra-wealthy and disdain for the professional class is not only about trickle-down fantasies its about proximity. Most working-class people have little contact with the truly rich, Williams explains, but they suffer class affronts from professionals every day: the doctor who unthinkingly patronizes the medical technician, the harried office worker who treats the security guard as invisible, the overbooked business traveler who snaps at the TSA agent.

Williams chastises the professional-managerial elite, or PME, for the sort of thoughtless and condescending behavior that breeds animosity among the white working class, or WWC, as she dubbed it in the post-election Harvard Business Review essay that inspired this book (apparently youre not an official socioeconomic segment without an acronym). The president, for one, knows better. Brashly wealthy celebrities epitomize the fantasy of being wildly rich while losing none of your working-class cred, Williams writes. Trump epitomizes this.

When passing judgment on the white working class, elites regard their own values about home life (helicopter parenting, constant uprooting) and work life (creativity, innovation) as the norm, oblivious to the fact that others may hold different ones, Williams argues. Working-class families may not choose to relocate for a job because they care more about their community ties. They may worry about tuition debt and see college as a risky investment. They may prioritize stability and dependability over disruption because in working-class jobs, disruption just gets you fired, Williams writes. And they may cling to religion because for many in the working class, churches provide the kind of mental exercise, stability, hopefulness, future orientation, impulse control, and social safety net many in the professional elite get from their families, their career potential, their therapists, and their bank accounts.

Williams thinks she understands why Hillary Clinton lost in 2016. (Dont we all.) Rather than focusing so much on the candidates rsum and on the history-making aspect of a female presidency, for instance, her campaign should have emphasized how Trump routinely stiffed the blue-collar guys working on his buildings. Gender does not necessarily bind women together across social class, Williams writes, noting that for many working-class women, there is little to be gained by giving privileged women access to the high-level jobs now held almost exclusively by privileged men. Constantly invoking that highest and hardest glass ceiling was, Williams concludes, a class-clueless metaphor.

[Washington Post review of Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance]

When discussing racial attitudes, Williams is quick to stress that those lofty liberals are as bad as anyone else. Among the professional elite, where the coin of the realm is merit, people of color are constructed as lacking in merit, she writes. Among the white working class, where the coin of the realm is morality, people of color are constructed as lacking in that quality. And on the sexism so evident in the 2016 race when trump that b- became a slogan and chant Williams is skeptical of straightforward conclusions. Does Trumps victory signal that working-class men are sexist? she asks. Its not as simple as that. Working-class men, she notes, spend more time with their kids than their upper-class counterparts. Moreover, elite men can talk the talk of gender equality because they know in their bones that their careers will deliver them dignity, Williams writes. Economic power, both inside the family and in the society at large, is their trump card. (We see what you did there.)

Williams chastises white elites for always seeking out structural factors to explain the conditions of the poor while denying the working class similar generosity. When it comes to working-class whites, she complains, social structure evaporates. This is a compelling point, but to make it, Williams seems willing to commit the opposite offense, deploying cultural values or equivalences to explain away so very much.

The author calls for a reframing of American liberal politics, a grand statement that feels less grand as it gets specific. Williams wants vocational training for communities undercut by trade and technology, more civics education in schools, and a climate-change debate that stops screaming about settled science and instead enlists farmers to discuss changing conditions on the ground. She wants to boost working-class trust in government with a publicity campaign featuring videos of Americans thanking the feds for highways, sewer systems, schools and the Internet. (Thank you, Uncle Sam! they would say at the end.) At the same time, though, she wants to heighten working-class mistrust in government to boost concern about civil liberties. I wonder how those videos would end.

Williamss book is a quick read and a good-faith effort at cultural and class introspection. I wish it ranged more widely beyond the themes the author raised in her initial essay last year, rather than covering much the same ground with more words. In particular, Id want to know how zealously we need to focus on that first W in the WWC. At times, the author cites the experiences of working-class Latino families to buttress her points, and she notes that working-class black Americans hold many attitudes in common with blue-collar white Americans regarding work, personal responsibility and integrity. Class, more than race, is Williamss crucial divide.

Whether it is the countrys as well is a matter not settled in this book.

Follow Carlos Lozada on Twitter and read his latest book reviews, including:

A Berkeley sociologist made some tea party friends and then wrote a condescending book about them

Yes, Trump is a populist. But what does that mean?

Samuel Huntington, a prophet for the Trump era

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Liberal elites don't have a clue about the white working class. So says a liberal elite law professor. - Washington Post

Sun Chronicle is neither liberal or conservative

To the editor:

The Sun Chronicle is not a liberal newspaper despite what some letter writers say when they are unhappy with something they find in it. Neither is it a conservative newspaper.

The Sun Chronicle is a moderate newspaper and is reflective of the area it serves. If The Sun Chronicle were a liberal newspaper, it would feature stories that would possibly drive the unhappy writers insane because it would present issues only from the Democratic/Progressive point of view and if The Sun Chronicle were a Conservative paper it would do the same for the Republican point of view.

I do not detect any bias, and I have read some truly biased newspapers. The fact that the paper prints letters from both points of view is evidence. If you want to see a truly biased newspaper, look at The National Enquirer. The owner is a friend of Trump and prints total lies just to support Trump. Also, Fox news is clearly a propaganda outlet for supporters of Trump.

If you think those news source are not biased and The Sun Chronicle is biased, you need help. By the way, it is unlikely that most of the media is liberal (as some seem to think) since all of the media are owned by major corporations that are not known for being liberal. Perhaps the unhappy letter writers should consider that just because they do not like an article, the article may still be accurate if there is sufficient evidence behind it. To accuse the paper of being liberal is an easy way to respond. How about addressing the issues with facts?

Al Hannigan

North Attleboro

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Letter to the editor: The Sun Chronicle is neither liberal or conservative - The Sun Chronicle