Conservative: One who admires radicals centuries after they’re dead.
Leo C. Rosten
[There is more than a little truth in this.–Joe]
The View From North Central Idaho
Ramblings on explosives, guns, politics, and sex by a redneck Idaho farm boy who became a software engineer living near Seattle.
I agree that there is some truth to that. On the other hand, wouldn’t that mean that the definition of Liberal would be ‘one who despises radicals centuries after they’re dead’? Hmmm. Can’t say that I could argue against that, either.
Conservatives admire only that small subset of radicals whose ideas have been shown to work. Which takes a while.
Liberals admire the complement of that set.
Conservatives admire radicals who were right. Liberals admire radicals who have been proven wrong, but remain convinced that the theory is sound if only the right people were in charge….
I was going to say something, but James seems to have made the point– in far fewer words.
Damned straight, James. There are radicals and then there are radicals. America was founded by one kind of radicals. Hmm; do you suppose they accused one another of playing into the hands of the British press, what with all the provocative talk, and eventually the shooting? Or did they figure they’d win by showing how nice they could be, you know, to their enemies– enemies perfectly willing to kill them?
I wonder how many people know what we’re up against. I know maybe five. That’s OK; we’ll all learn sooner or later.