Wrestling with my Inner Liberal

I consider myself a practicing conservative. I may not agree with everything my fellow conservatives do, but I tend to lean more in their favor on the overall issues. My problem comes from what I refer to as my inner liberal. This is that tiny voice in my head that play’s devil’s advocate and causes me to question my own conservative values. This is frightening. Because the more I learn about the world around me the more I am in danger of becoming a liberal!

The benefit of being a conservative is that there are a lot of us. It is rare for one of us to find ourselves in a room full of liberals. The liberals are like the other guy. They are those we talk about, but really never see. If we do see a liberal, then he is typically the quiet minority in the room. We conservatives have our perception of what liberals are. My work typically, places me face to face with real liberals. And it is becoming harder for me to be conservative when I see the issues from their side of the fence.

I counseled a young single mother with three young children struggling to survive and facing the prospect of losing those children. I am not oblivious to the fact that I was hired for this part-time position as a result of my conservative views. My mental conservative handbook clearly states the young woman got herself into this mess. But I cannot help but to feel compassion for her. My inner liberal says that not all situations are so clearly defined.

The next woman I met would have faced the same fate as the first, but made a difficult choice that she is struggling to live with. Again, my conservative handbook is very clear. Yet my inner liberal references the heartbreaking struggle of the young mother who will surely lose her children.

Although I may not agree with their decisions, I begin to have compassion for those who must make difficult decisions. I guess I am coming to terms with my inner liberal. I secretly refer to myself now as a hybrid conservative. No longer do my freedoms begin where your ends.

I’m not sure who coined that phrase. I have found that the issue is not always simply about freedom of choice, but more often about consequence of choice. I still have my conservative views, but I now have a great deal of respect for liberals. I may not agree with their choices, but I have learned their choices are often very difficult and not taken lightly.

Image Credit: Trish Steel [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons