Are we all born liberal but some never grow up? Is Peter Pan a Liberal?

This guy has written a book and has this article as a tickler. Interesting hypothesis.

America is raising liberal crybabies
Posted: November 17, 2008
1:00 am Eastern

By Reb Bradley
© 2008

Barack Obama certainly beat the odds.

Not just by becoming president, mind you. But by staying out of jail, by not becoming a chronic drug abuser or alcoholic, by not dropping out of school, by graduating Harvard Law School and by getting married to, so far at least, one woman.

The odds were against him.

And not because he is black.

The odds were against him because of his childhood.

Barack Obama was very much a child of the '60s sexual revolution. He was raised, in part, by a teenage single mother and, later, by his pre-hippie, highly unconventional grandparents – a couple steeped in leftist politics, pot smoking and unorthodox ideas about child-rearing.

In a world where even many so-called "conservative" parents are raising "liberal" children – in other words, children who never really grow up – Barack Obama, indeed, beat the odds … in some respects.

But in another way, the coconut did not fall far from the Hawaiian tree.

Barack Obama is, politically speaking, just what one would expect from such an upbringing. He is very much a product of his social environment – not to mention his natural state, "born liberal."

Why are so many Americans raising liberal children today? Why did Barack Obama overwhelmingly win the youth vote and, particularly, the support of first-time voters?

As the author of the new book, "Born Liberal, Raised Right: How to Rescue America from Moral Decline – One Family at a Time," here's my hypothesis: All humans are born with the same predisposition toward life. We may each be born with our unique personalities, but we have the same bent: by nature we are all born liberal.

I propose that liberalism is, in fact, the natural condition of the human heart. For us to grow into conservatives, we must be trained against our nature.

In this age of technology, one might say that liberalism is our "default" operating condition. Throughout our childhoods, our parents must work hard and change our settings to keep us from operating in our default mode. If parents are successful, we enter adulthood with our new settings fully locked in. Left untrained, all children would grow up liberal in their outlook, which is something government schools seem hell-bent on ensuring.

I researched more than a dozen dictionaries in preparing my book, and I believe it is accurate to say that to be politically "liberal" is to be freed from restraints, liberated from moorings, ever-changing, having an evolving basis for values, not bound by tradition or orthodoxy.

In American politics, this means that pure liberals have an expanding view of the Constitution – a "living document" they call it – that should not be bound by the intent of its framers.

Does that sound familiar?

Why, it's a portrait of Barack Obama and the constituency that made him president.

But, knowing what I know about the excesses of liberal child-rearing techniques, I suspect there is more to Barack Obama than meets the eye.

That's because undisciplined, self-worshipping kids grow into liberals driven by the same narcissistic, over-emotional, passionate, "I-want-it-now" worldview they had as toddlers.

How might those characteristics manifest themselves in a president of the United States?

Well, let's see. We certainly have Bill Clinton as a recent case study.

But could this narcissistic worldview be dangerous for the country?

I suspect it could. But, then again, I believe liberalism is dangerous for the country, too. And that's why I wrote "Born Liberal, Raised Right" – because it's not inevitable that the future of America is liberalism.

The problems begin at home with indulgent parenting. But a little understanding, patience and courage are all it takes to change the parenting, the family … and the nation.