Daily Java:

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32)

I have found out recently that I am liberal. I never knew it. I always thought of myself as conservative and in recent years as libertarian. The definition of liberal, according to the freedictionary.com is:

“Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.”

Liberal has come to mean people who are willing to involve government in all aspects of their lives. It has come to delineate a group of people who are willing to throw everything away and change society so that it becomes godless.

But that is not what it is. Classic liberalism in fact is defined as this (by conservapedia.com):

“Classical liberalism is a political philosophy that supports individual rights as pre-existing the state, a government that exists to protect those moral rights, ensured by a constitution that protects individual autonomy from other individuals and governmental power, private property, and a laissez-faire economic policy. The "normative core" of classical liberalism is the idea that in an environment of laissez-faire, a spontaneous order of cooperation in exchanging goods and services emerges that satisfies human wants.”

Classic liberalism sounds more Tea Party than Democrat. Real liberals would advocate for freedom of expression while at the same time keeping structure. It would also hold capitalism up as good.

Why is it that we have moved to such a different definition of liberal? The founding fathers of America were liberal, but not like the President and Democrats are liberal. Those people would enshrine freedom where these people enslave us under the guise of helping us. those people valued individual initiative while these people denigrate it under the aegis of government programs.

A libertarian, under the original definition of liberalism, is liberal.

And so am I.