No longer a dirty word? More Democrats call themselves 'liberal'

[applegrove]

No longer a dirty word? More Democrats call themselves 'liberal'

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/no-longer-dirty-word-more-democrats-call-themselves-liberal-n958106

By Dante Chinni and Sally Bronston

"SNIP....

WASHINGTON — American politics is full of second acts, but the biggest rehabilitation in 2019 may be around the word “liberal.” For years, even Democrats shied away from the moniker. But new data show that L-word has emerged from its exile, and is being embraced again by those who once shunned it.

This week Gallup released data showing that, for the first time since 1994, more than half of Democrats, 51 percent, identified their political views as “liberal.”

Another 13 percent call themselves “conservative,” while 34 percent call themselves “moderate.” Those numbers stand in stark contrast to 1994; when Democrat Bill Clinton was president.

In 2018, the “liberal” figure is 26 points higher than it was in 1994 when only a quarter of Democrats chose to call themselves liberal. Even more remarkable, back in 1994, an equal number of Democrats, 25 percent, labeled themselves as conservative. Since that time, the number of Democrats labeling themselves as conservative declined to only 13 percent.

......SNIP"

[DURHAM D]

1. I never stopped using liberal.

I refused to use progressive. To me it means nothing except "I'm afraid to call myself a liberal because others might not like me"

[applegrove]

2. We still used liberal in canada as one of our parties in the Liberal Party of Canada.

When we use the term liberal otherwise we say "small L liberal" to denote its use not directly referring to the party. So was always acceptable here. So the brain fever did not get this far north. Though I was taught in high school that the US Civil War was not fought because of slavery. That was in the 1980s in Ottawa. In college on Nova Scotia I was taught for a full class how supply side economics really works including a model where aggregate supply curve is bent. Again in the 1980s. So we did get some propaganda from the right wing to fool young minds here.

[PTWB]

3. Liberal and proud! Liberal for life!

[Glamrock]

4. Wear that label like a badge of honor.

For too long that label was conceded to Rush Limbaugh's definition. I think it's about time we took it back, yeah?

[Poiuyt]

5. Now they're using the word "socialism" to describe Democrats

Never mind that it's a misuse of the term.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

9. They've been doing that for like... forever.

[BannonsLiver]

6. I prefer it to progressive

Which is a word that really doesn’t mean much anymore, or could mean anything. Liberal is a no bullshit term. And it’s old school.

[Hortensis]

17. YES. That's it: No-bullshit liberal identity! :)

I am a proud liberal, and anyone reading honest works about liberal personality and ideology and the liberalism our nation was founded and advanced on will understand why. It's far, far prouder and more important than "progressive."

If "progressive" is confused, though, it's because most who call themselves capital-P "Progressives" these days clearly don't know what it means. Progressivism in government is a very real thing.

Virtually all liberals of course are also progressive. So many, under really intense attack in the '90s (I remember!), fell back on calling themselves lower-case "progressive," but, as said, no matter how committed to progressivism one might be, it's vague bullshit as an identity.

After all, Eisenhower was one of the last conservative leaders who proudly proclaimed himself progressive, but there are many progressive conservatives out there right now. Including those who combine social conservative bigotries with strong progressive ideology to serve themselves. Not a type liberals are ever mistaken for.

And then there are some who call themselves capital-P Progressives these days yet voted against the most progressive platform since the New Deal. !!! What does that make them, aside from clueless tools of course? Political scientists have been divvying them up by true personality traits and motives, but only hostile pundits point to them as examples of liberals, a sure clue to a hit piece.

[RockRaven]

7. It's about time. West Wing had this right in their last season over a decade ago.

The debate scene between Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda (well, their characters anyway)

[rusty quoin]

8. I never knew a difference between liberal and progressive.

I read an article by David Sirota years ago about it. The gist of it was progressives thought the same as liberals but were more concerned about how to pay for it. (It’s been a long time since reading it. I hope I got that right)

But I never was ashamed of Liberal as a label, though in the early 2000s I thought Socialism a bad label. I don’t think that way now.

[GulfCoast66]

10. Read up on the history of the progressive movement, especially here in the south.

Then you will know why so many proud liberals like me reject the label.

[rusty quoin]

13. Okay thanks. I will do that.

[riverine]

11. Progressives attempt to make the world better even if they are wrong

example - Prohibition.

Liberals err on the side of liberalism/freedom. The world MIGHT be better with prohibition but who are they to tell me what to do?

Age old struggle it is.

[StarryNite]

12. I've always worn the Liberal title proudly!

[LakeArenal]

14. I always felt like the most liberal person I know.

I know lots of liberals. Only two of us said it forever.

[Hekate]

15. It was Newt Gingrich who made Liberal a dirty word & taught the rest of them how...

I watched it happen and when their work was done I was just sickened to realize there was nothing accidental about it.

[applegrove]

16. Yes. I was shocked when I first got on a US website and how little the term

was used.

[crazycatlady]

19. I don't remember much of Newt's reign

In fact I wasn't eligible to vote during that time (turned 18 in 1998). Now you have two generations of people who could not vote in his era.

[Hekate]

20. Newt prepared a brief paper on the use of language to defeat the opposition...

In it he had a whole list of suggested weaselly substitutions, which became so ubiquitous among the RW that no one really remembers that it used to be different. In fact I did not know how it happened until I came here in 2002, where it was a topic of conversation. It was very deliberate and well thought out on his part -- that man is truly evil.

Sorry I don't have the link handy but it should still be readily available online. If I find it later I'll edit this post to add the link or add another post.

Edit: "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control" by Newt Gingrich

[Awsi Dooger]

18. 20% self-identified liberals in 2000 exit poll, now up to 27% in 2018

I mention this all the time and have tracked it since 1992. The number of people calling themselves liberal remained stagnant from the early '90s until more than a decade later. It barely inched upward to 21% in 2004 and 22% in 2008.

But over the past decade the rise has been remarkable. Even though Trump fluked the electoral win in 2016 I was immediately shocked and encouraged when the exit poll revealed 26% liberals. There had indeed been an ideological shift, just not the one the media was sloppily reporting. I immediately mentioned it here, during the period this site was hacked but we could provide entries for the home page. Not until early 2018 did one of the major media outlets bother to notice the same thing.

Then it hit 27% in the 2018 exit poll. That was also surprising since the midterm is an more white and older electorate.

I would estimate this could hit 28% in 2020. The Republican nominee has less and less margin for error as more voters describe themselves as liberal. The number of conservatives has also risen, but by basically half the amount. The standard breakdown used to be 20%-32%. Now it is 27%-36%. Moderation is being squeezed from either flank.

Progressive was a cop out, IMO. Submission to fear. Now the fear tactic is socialism, as others have mentioned in this thread. Republicans would still be abusing liberal if it had the same impact as 1988, when Dukakis was almost scared to use the term until the final days.