Uh oh. I think I'm a liberal.

 I have a good friend who calls me a liberal. I am not a Democrat and that's the "liberal party" so I deny the term.

I'm going to change my reply and embrace the term liberal going forward. 

Here's why.

Democrat is a political term. Liberal is a philosophical term. 

Since we're dealing with terminology I'll share two Dictionary.com definitions.

Liberal is defined as "a supporter of a political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise."

Conservative is defined as "a person favoring free enterprise, private ownership, and socially traditional ideas."

Both fairly innocuous, accurate representation of those words. Interesting that both include free enterprise in their definition. 

I'll point out I am a supporter of private ownership, smaller government, and more restraint on goverment subsidies. From a fiscal perspective, I'm very much a conservative. 

However, when it comes to individual rights, I am firmly in the liberal camp. My conservative friends may even say conservatives promote individual rights. 

So lets talk about rights.

What does the Declaration of Independence and Constitution have to say about rights?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

These are founational American Rights since our inception. This is the bedrock upon which our country was built.

Here's the rub. "Traditional social values" when these documents were written included allowing:

Slavery. 

Subjegation of women. 

A genocide and confiscation of the indiginous people's land. 

The individual rights guaranteed to every American are not the same as social values and norms. If they were, the only people who would have rights today would be white land owners. 

We've come a long way since 1789. You know, we've been "progressive". 

Many won't like that history lesson. Doesn't make it any less true. I'm going to say it again.

Individual American Rights are the Bedrock of America. 

Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness.

Domestic Tranquility. General Welfare. The Blessings of Liberty.

Noble pursuits to be certain. 

Sadly, we have fallen far short of these ideals throughout history for wide swaths of Americans. 

We have been and continue to be a divided nation arguing over individual rights. 

The Civil War ended slavery yet the south remained segregated for the next century.

American women didn't have the right to vote until 1920.

Women could not open a line of credit across the nation until 1974.

Women were given a right to chose in 1973. That right was taken away last year. 

Mixed race marriages remained illegal in most southern states until 1967. I would venture to guess there are "pastors" who still would refuse to perform such a service.

Gay marriage remained illegal until 2015 and based on what's happening in the SCOTUS that right could very well be taken away.

Does that sound like everyone has shared in the Blessings of Liberty? The same rights to Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness, Domestic Tranquility, and General Welfare? 

Sadly today rights, guaranteed in our Constituion and paid for by the blood of hundreds of thousands of Americans, continue to be stripped away.

From women.

From black & brown people.

From immigrants fleeing pursecution, much like our Founding Fathers did in the 17th & 18th century.

From our LGBTQ+ community.

So here comes the politics. 

I am a liberal which is why I absolutely refuse to support the MAGA movement. 

Trump may have coined the term, however, it's the Evangelical right that (along with the fringe nationalists) have fanned the flames of getting back to "traditional values".

The result? Overturning of generational rulings and passing of new laws restricting individual rights whenever and wherever they have the chance. 

Their claim that this is a Christian nation is wrong. We are quite the opposite. 

Our founders fled religous persecution. The First Amendment gives us the right to religious freedom, and that includes the freedom FROM religion. 

The "Bible says!!" MAGA movement seeks to subjegate and persecute who do not align with their 'values'.

I think it's appropriate to end a terminology post by using some of the terminology I hear from the right.

This is AMERICA. Land of the FREE. Because of the BRAVE!

That includes freedom to...

Choose what to do with your body regardless of what you think the Bible says.

Choose whom you want to be regardless of what you think the Bible says.

Choose whom you want to love regardless of what you think the Bible says.

We don't need to Make America Great Again. 

We need to protect our Foundational Rights. 

Being a Christian, I'll wrap with two things the Bible also says:

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. (Matt 7:12)

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Mark 12:31)