Liberalism is not communism

Liberals believe in liberty, the word "liberal" being derived from the Latin libre, meaning freedom. The Federalists were liberals. We believe in a strong central government, but we also believe in individual freedom. Thus, socialism, "single payer health care" etc., are not liberalism, as they detract from the freedom of the individual.

Liberalism is not communism. These two words are not interchangeable. People who are communists do not speak for all liberals.

Communism is left wing extremism, the left wing equivalent of the Nazis. The governments of China, Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea are examples. International ANSWER is another example. So are Workers World Party, Communist Party USA and the Green Party.

If you say "George Bush is the ultimate terrorist", not only are you anti-American, but you are definitely not a liberal.

I did not support the war in Iraq -- though I did support our actions in Afgahnistan -- but I am clear on who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. Osama bin Laden is a terrorist. George Bush is not. George Bush is the properly elected President of the United States of America, a right glorious and civilized Republic. Osama bin Laden deliberately targets non-combatants, including the 2,000+ non-combatants who were callously murdered in The City of New York on September 11th, 2001. The United States, as a general policy, does not deliberately and knowingly target non-combatants. Furthermore, our President cannot go to war without the consent of the Congress: it is a civilized and democratic process. Osama bin Laden kills Westerners because we do not wish to live by his theocratic, fascistic ideology.
Hence there is a clear distinction between the President of the United States, the tactics of the United States Armed Forces, and those of terrorists.

Any sympathy for Al Qaeda or their motivations cannot be associated with liberalism. Their theocratic fascism is a threat to freedom and thus an enemy of true liberals.

People who claim to be liberals but are actually communists often claim that there is something wrong or immoral in profit or corporations. As Karl Marx said in The Communist Manifesto, "In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property." Yet, a true liberal supports individual liberty, one expression of which is the accumulation of private property. Hence, criticism of capitalism and the suggestion that somehow things would be better were the State to own all property are not liberalism but communism.

As John Locke, one of the founding philosophers of the philosophy fundamental to Western civilization, said, the ultimate aim of government is protect three things: life, liberty, and estate (or as they worded it more eloquently in the Declaration, "the pursuit of happiness"). Chevron, being an owner of oil and a seller of petroleum, has a right to sell said property at whatever price the market will bear. To suggest otherwise is to intrude upon their private estate and is associated with communism, most definitely not liberalism.

As we expect right wing philosophers to reject fascism from the Christian Coalition et al., left wing philosophers should reject communism from the Green Party, Communist Party USA, International ANSWER et al. It is best to be moderate, not to fall into extremes.