How to tell if you're liberal or conservative

I think there is an easy way to tell if you are a liberal or a conservative - at the gut level.  Which song would you like to be our national anthem? "America the Beautiful" or the "Star Spangled Banner"?

America the Beautiful has as its top words - "good" and "brotherhood."

The Star Spangled Banner has as its top words - "free" and "brave."

These words speak to the emotional heart of each ideology.  

To liberals, brotherhood, doing good, being part of a beautiful community is what America is all about.

To Conservatives, freedom and bravery are at the heart of what America is all about.

Unfortunately, we have entered a time when the brotherhood and caring of community so valued by liberals, and the freedom and bravery of individualism so valued by conservatives are seen to be in such distant poles that they no longer seem to be in the same country.  That is why both those on the extremes of liberals and conservatives are always trying to win their country back from the alien beings who seem to have stolen it from them.


It seems to me that caring and freedom can coexist, that community and individuality are both needed, but at the extremes they look to be mutually exclusive.

If the flag were to be raised at the Olympics, which song would bring a tear to your eye?  the song of Brotherhood, or the song of Freedom?