I was doing my customary Sunday morning Internet scan, checking out the games from yesterday, the weather, and also the news. Read Rich's column, a must for every Sunday.
Then I spied Kristof's by-line, and checked it out.
Sad to say, I'm not surprised at all by the findings.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
I lean liberal certainly on social issues..I guess that's more "libertarian liberal" if I want to be accurate in my ideological terminology. I don't like government meddling with personal life-choices, whether its gay rights, abortion rights...even gun rights, while I don't own a gun or give a flip about them, other than regulating the commerce of them, I don't want government involved in those kinds of choices, nor in doing things like putting ridiculous labels on movies and video games, or telling restaurants they can't have people smoking inside just because it annoys other people, who can, after all, get up and go to another restaurant.
I prefer, unless someone presents actual verifiable data to the contrary, to leave government out of personal choices on lifestyles.
On the economy, I'm more moderate...whatever works. I always chuckle at the ideological blindness I hear and see from conservative friends who feel that the government somehow regulating business activities in an oversight way causes all of society to somehow fall apart (the same way gay marriage "destroys" heterosexual marriage, I guess) or liberals here on DailyKOS whine and complain about "pragmitism" (i.e. They're not as ideologically pure as we are.)
After 200 years of economic and historical data to confirm it, the economy will not regulate itself, and it won't function well at all with a purely "leftist" approach either.
So, yep, economic pragmatist here, and proud of it.
But the article by Kristof supports something I've been seeing in my life too.
Conservatives donate money to charities more than liberals, and the Left should be ashamed of its collective self.
Now, I would argue in defense of us more liberal folks that a lot of work is done by liberals in a number of causes, and I certainly take that into account, and I wonder if the person whose research this article is written upon takes into account the numerous environmental land trusts, animal protection groups and agencies...civic boards, on and on, that are primarily (I think) staffed and ran by liberal-leaning folks.
Even if it doesn't, the gap between liberal activity in charitble giving should give us pause and motivate us to do better.
So, in between whining about Rick Warren and worrying that Obama has too many Republicans in his cabinet...therefore, he must be some secret GOP plant, I think the reasoning goes...
How about we focus more on the poor and needy?
For all of you (us) involved in a Change is Coming service activity, thank you! We're having a "Service Fair" in the north GA, SE Tennessee area in January, and we hope to raise as many new volunteers to help out with as many organizations (including gasp! Conservative ones!) as we can.
http://my.barackobama.com/... (For those close to my area who want to participate, here's a link.)
I wish all of you who are doing that well! Thank you, God bless you, and have a happy holiday season.
I hope all here will become involved with your communities in some fashion. Myself, I have sat idly by for too long and not helped out when I should have been, and it gives you a new and needed perspective on life knowing that you're becoming part of solving things, instead of just passively observing (and complaining) about them.