Ban Liberal And Conservative

Please, ban the words Liberal and Conservative when referring to politics. They are symbols of the ridiculousness of a bipartisan republic. I hate them.

I hate them if a person is referring to himself as one or the other, and I hate them when they are used as a political slur against an opponent. I hate them.

Why? Because their political meanings are defined by mindless adherence to party rhetoric.

Liberal=
Death Penalty: No
Abortion: Yes
Military: Eh
Gay Marriage: Yes
Education: More, please
Republicans: Evil

Conservative=
Death Penalty: Yes
Abortion: No
Military: More, please
Gay Marriage: No
Education: Eh
Democrats: Immoral

The use of these words encourages people who feel one way about one thing to subscribe to everything else on the list. Like gay marriage? Better want abortion too. But god forbid you like the death penalty. Feel strongly about building a bigger military? You better not be gay or into higher education for poor people.

Each of the above-mentioned issues and many more are important and need to be discussed intelligently by the entire country. But using conservative and liberal to describe any position on any of them means confusing all the issues and jumbling it all up until you have hicks on one side and hippies on the other having a name-calling match. What about those of us who aren't hicks or hippies? What about those of us who think about each issue and learn about the different opinions on them and come up with our own ideas about what is best? We do not conform to the label of Liberal or Conservative, no matter how we feel. Because those labels have been bastardized beyond recognition, to the point where I consider them both to be offensive.

Why do we need a label for our political opinions at all? I can't think of a single label that does not box a person into a particular stance on everything.

My political orientation is Thoughtful.