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posted by [personal profile] eftychia at 06:11am on 2004-08-13

"Really, US political denominations have names that are very much figments of your collective imagination." -- [livejournal.com profile] thette, 2004-02-26

There are 5 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
zenlizard: Because the current occupation is fascist. (Default)
posted by [personal profile] zenlizard at 07:00am on 2004-08-13
Now, which political denominations is the speaker referring to? The Demlicans? The Republicrats?
 
posted by [identity profile] anniemal.livejournal.com at 07:16am on 2004-08-13
Heard a good political commentary on the use of "liberal" and "conservative" by Fred Fisk (sp?) on "Metro Connection" last week. Ultimately, would you rather your bartender were liberal or conservative in pouring?
 
posted by [identity profile] acroyear70.livejournal.com at 08:00am on 2004-08-13
Yeah, so you have a Conservative bartender, who pours less and less with each drink, but doesn't charge you for the occasional or simply holds the prices down on the whole (however, the business itself eventually goes in debt anyways because holding prices doesn't support the raise in prices they get from their distributors). also, in doing so, the place cuts back heavily on its food menu items 'til eventually all you can have are fried appetizers -- if you want real food, you'll have to go cook it yourself.

then you have the liberal bartender who pours generously, but as such the business notices how expensive alcohol consumption is and has to eventually raise the price per drink. The liberal business recognizes the value in a diverse menu in providing customer satisfaction...

take your pick -- either get less for less, or more for more, but neither side simply will stick to something that works and leave it alone. both sides are trying to make you happier, either by generous portions or lower prices.

my problem with the conservative approach is that their drink selection is so small -- they only go to those distributors who are friends and give THEM a supplier-side discount (for the sake of a relative monopoly). in fact, some drink distributors [like haliburton] managed to get an exclusive contract without anybody shopping around for a better deal, or other distributors even knowing the bar was buying.

the liberals on the other hand like to supply you with every possible brand of drink to give you a choice. their eventual goal is to create a very complete and generous open bar, at a fixed-price per person. of course, the fact that some people drink FAR more heavily than others makes non-drinkers rather mad at paying for such abuse...

so does either work in the end? likely not.

where is the balance? where is the moderation that will find an optimal solution among these extremes?
 
posted by [identity profile] anniemal.livejournal.com at 09:12am on 2004-08-13
Yes, that's the long view. But assume for a moment that you're average (shudder) normal. You are not thinking in terms of anything more than "What's it gonna cost?" In terms of financial loss and social gain. "Hey, look at me; I can afford it."

I never thought of this as a be-all type of metaphor, merely a good finish to a good commentary I'd have written had I the talent. I do not always agree with the man, but I have the same reaction to the current usage of the words. As political barbs, they don't fly far.

With complaints I always just looked at what happened and dealt as appropriately as I could, with advice, of course. But I defended my employees, mostly, and was fair even to those customers who weren't happy with my decisions.

And I haven't been to a bar in 12 yrs. maybe, so I'm not sure what goes on now. Food (except for pickled eggs and peanuts) didn't happen then or there. You sang Irish or Scots stuff. Food was down the street. Moderation was exercised, or Fitzie'd toss you out. (No personal experience). The "England Get Out Of Ireland" banner was fairly plain. We got freebies. Maybe the pipes. England should get the (bleep) out of Scotland, too. And Canada.

I think I might be a *whisper* liberal sort. In some ways. Hey, health care on the house. Damn international issues, and...ohh...they're coming to take me awaay.

See ya.

 
posted by [identity profile] thette.livejournal.com at 01:05am on 2004-08-14
Oooh! I've been quoted!

Although, to be fair, I live in a country where "The People's Party" got 13.3 percent of the votes in the last election, and that's 8.7 percentage points more than in the one before that. The "Moderates" are the far right*, and the "Social Democrats" are neither socialists nor very much democrats.

*For Swedish values of far right.

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