Amos,

I agree. I don't suppose self-reliance, or hard work, or ANY virtue belongs exclusively to conservatives, or exclusively to liberals. There is a difference, though, in which virtues each group tends to emphasize.

Appreciation for diversity is, for example, a virtue not limited to liberals, yet it is a virtue that liberals especially praise. I realize that real liberals don't always possess that particular virtue, just as I realize that conservatives don't always live up to their ideal of self-reliance.

I certainly didn't mean to imply that liberals aren't self-reliant or hard-working. That would be silly, as silly as if, for example, someone were to imply that conservatives didn't care about the poor.

Kent