What is a Liberal?

What is a liberal in the new sense of the word?

I had occasion to discover more about this recently. My second son was in town. I have three children, all grown. They are intelligent and successful, so that’s not the problem. They don’t all live in California. So, that isn’t the problem either.

I hadn’t been sure my second son was a liberal because he lives in the Midwest and has a religious family. Some of the trappings of liberalism seem to be associated with public school, lack of religion and residence in California. I wasn’t sure. I was hopeful.

But we got to talking and he is definitely a liberal. At first he was being polite. We were having a conversation. I told my son how I was worried about California. I told him how had the California assembly may try to overturn Jarvis-Gann which would raise property taxes significantly. I said I was worried about how the new governor of California Gavin Newsom had expensive socialist ideas which would curb our freedoms. Mind you I wasn’t sure my son was liberal at this point. If I’d known I would have not even tried to talk to him.

It wasn’t until my son threw Trump’s name into the conversation I knew I was in deep water. Suddenly my son was Trump-bashing. I said this wasn’t about Trump. I said that I loved the country and cared about America. I said, “President Trump’s going to only be in power a few more years. I care about the Constitution, freedom, smaller government.”

I shouldn’t have but I tried to reason with my son, saying Trump had done lots of good things for everyone during his short time in office. “I have a list of what he’s been able accomplish. It’s right here on my cell.” I reached for my phone.

“Oh, no, I don’t want to hear it,” my son said.

I put my cell back and I said, “I know we can’t talk politics. I’ll stop.”

Was it. The conversation was over.

As soon as facts were mentioned, there could be no further discussion.

That’s how you can tell if someone is liberal.

No one is allowed to discuss facts.

I asked my son about the book he was reading. I learned in a fantasy. Someone had written a dozen in the series.

I had never liked fantasies.

Not enough information about the real world!