Since somebody brought up JFK, FDR, and Lincoln... do you think these people were right?

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when they said this:

"A radical is a man with both feet firmly planted — in the air. A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward. A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards. A liberal is a man who uses his legs and his hands at the behest-at the command — of his head. "
- Radio Address to the New York Herald Tribune Forum, October 26th, 1939
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=15828
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"What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal.""
"The only basic issue in the 1960 campaign is whether our government will fall in a conservative rut and die there, or whether we will move ahead in the liberal spirit of daring, of breaking new ground, of doing in our generation what Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and Adlai Stevenson did in their time of influence and responsibility."
- JFK speech to New York Liberal Party
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/35_kennedy/psources/ps_nyliberal.html
"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

"If that remark was original with me, I should be even more strongly denounced as a communist agitator than I shall be anyhow. It is Lincoln's. I am only quoting it; and that is one side; that is the side the capitalist should hear. Now, let the workingman hear his side."
- Progressive Republican Theodore Roosevelt quoting Radical (not conservative) Republican Abraham Lincoln
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=501
shJOlds,

FDR and JFK thought otherwise. Theodore Roosevelt used the name progressive instead. All these people were left of center and were great Americans.

You don't make America great by being for the status quo like McCain is for.
 
who said those men were great leaders, not me!!! kennedy was a run around like bill, those thing are important to me when refering to the leaders of the country, roosevelt the chicken in ever pot and a car in every driveway, robbing peter to pay paul, he wasn't that good he was the start of the socialist era!!! lincoln I do not think he had alot of backbone!!
 
Liberal means nothing good. Liberalism is nothing more than humanism and hedonism. But word liberalism and responsibilies don't mix. They are like oil and water.
 
I think it's a tad oversimplified. There are intelligent and sensible conservatives out there. People who understand that the reason some practices have stood the test of time is that they work well, and believe that one should be cautious in making changes as there are often unintended consequences to new and unproven actions.

Sadly, the term conservatism has been hijacked by groups and individuals who are, for lack of a better term, radicals. The whole concept of neo-conservatism is Chairman Mao's 'political power comes from the barrel of a gun' put into practice. Theocrats take relatively new and radical religious beliefs (fundamentalism is barely a century old) which focus more on the book of revelation (and the cut and paste biblical interpretations of John Nelson Darby) than on the gospels or the rest of the bible in context. While liberals speak of improving opportunity for all, kleptocrats fixate on a division of wealth, and getting as much as they can in the short term without considering long term growth and stability. (coupled with a grotesque misinterpretation of Adam Smith - who advocated people working in a sense of enlightened self-interest, not unbridled greed)

I think some of the points are well taken, though I must point out that we have our own trollish types too. I hope that should they lose this election republicans will do some soul-searching and repudiate the madness that has overcome the GOP since the mid-90's or so.
 
Wow -Thank you -Just when I thought that Amercia had been secretly invaded by WW2 Nazi's (just kidding - I think?).
This was certainly a breath of NEW fresh air. I was beginning to feel hopelessly suffocated by the stale and stagnate attitudes of many of these neo conservatives.
 
Love the quotes.

I am a progressive liberal socially - and that includes fiscally responsible. Pay as you go...take my tax money, spend it properly for the betterment of society and my fellow countrymen, and leave me alone.

Republicans cannot claim fiscal responsibility anymore...not since they've bankrupted the country trillions of dollars and are running on credit that our grand kids will have to pay off.

Didn't Reagan and Bush Sr. do the same thing...run up record deficits?

How can Republicans claim fiscal conservativism?
 
Progression and change is one thing, but when you become Socialistic it's too much...Obama could never step into the shoes of these predecessors...there is supposed to be a balance, and Obama wouldn't do it. Without balance, it's a mess one way or the other. And with Socialism and Communism, our freedom as individuals would essentially be lost to the government.
 
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