Heartless or Brainless?

I was thinking this evening about a bumper sticker I saw; I'd heard the saying before but I suppose it stuck what with election fever going on everywhere. The quote is something like: "If you're not liberal when you're young, you're heartless. If you're not conservative when you're older, you're brainless."

I pondered this while I prepped strawberries this evening. Does this mean that my Republican friends are heartless? (Yes, Nina, I do have friends who are Republican. Forgive me.) Does it mean that my parents and their friends, who are Democrats, are brainless? I think the answer on both counts is no. However, I do think it makes more sense to be liberal when young, because we're not making any money, so of course we want the government to use taxes for social programs to make the country a better place! I'm sure that when I'm older and actually making a living I'll be less comfortable with having money I earned diverted away from me to take care of someone who doesn't work. However, I highly doubt I'll ever be a conservative. (Strike that. I KNOW I won't.) I think that whoever came up with tonight's saying must have been working off of a strictly economic base. The other issues behind liberalism/conservatism, such as reproductive rights, foreign policy, environmental issues--those aren't so much pocketbook related (although everything comes back to money eventually) as they are social conscience. So, in the end, I think the bumper sticker is wrong.