Do you think the drinking age should be 18 again?

[mainbutter]

Nope I am a liberal. Being liberal means that I believe that individual liberty should be the most important political goal

I'm pretty sure that is more libertarian than liberal thinking.

and further that all people should have equal opportunity to things like education and health care oh and yeah food. Liberal is not a dirty word. I do go as far as to believe that government should try to help those in need.

This is more liberal thinking. Take it to a bigger extreme and it's socialist thinking(everyone has an equal opportunity because everyone shares everything through taxes). Take it to the biggest extreme you can think of and it's communism(everyone has an equal opportunity because there is no opportunity to be had.. lol). It all depends on what you consider "equal opportunity".

But that does not mean that I believe in a nanny state. Remember that Jesus thought it was a good idea to help out the poor too.

And where does that leave non-christians? Just a question out of curiosity.

Please do not judge all liberals based on a few radicals. I certainly do not lump all conservatives together.

I don't I'm not trying to argue with what you said, but I just wanted to clarify how the word "liberal" is used. The original use of "liberal" used to mean simply being open-minded to new ideas and change, and "conservative" to mean opposed to change and preserving things as they are. This has since become more atheist vs religious fanatic, pro-taxes vs anti-tax, banning guns vs 2nd amendment.. and numerous other issues that people talk about all the time.

The majority of people who call themselves "liberals" nowadays lean towards bigger federal government, smaller state and local government, favor high taxes, and want to restrict many liberties such as the right to bear arms while at the same time providing rights for gay couples and women wanting abortions

They are by no means in favor of increasing any and all civil liberties.

That is more the libertarian ideology(specifically just with regard to social issues, economic libertarianism is a little big seperate)

I am a pretty strong libertarian(almost anarchist.. but I sure do like them paving my roads) who is willing to compromise on some issues since I have never met a person who agrees 100% with what is important to me. I'm an atheist heathen to boot, which surely has shaped my views. When it comes to laws about drinking, drugs, sex, gambling, and other "vices", I'd love to see every single darn one of them repealed. In fact I'd love to see laws put in place to protect such rights.