LIBERAL....wear it like a Badge of Honor

[ProudMNDemocrat]

From the hit show The West Wing, scripts written by Lawrence O'Donnell and Aaron Sworkin, still ring true today.

There are things still worth fighting for.

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[elleng]

1. I KNEW it!

THANKS!

[3catwoman3]

7. That speech could/should be given today, just...

…as written.

[elleng]

8. DAMN RIGHT!!!

Dems MUST repeat it, OFTEN.

[appalachiablue]

9. ++

[whathehell]

13. Exactly.

I'm committing it to memory, and will.be "ready" when some RW fool tries to denigrate the word around me. :

[LakeArenal]

3. Always declared it loudly.

[dchill]

4. Who wrote that? Lawrence O'Donnell? Sounds like him...

[Bev54]

5. TY! I am so happy to get back to the label of liberal

and get away from socialist.

[Beartracks]

11. The Republican cry of "Socialist!" has no meaning in the real world cuz they call EVERYTHING...

... socialist that they don't like. If EVERYTHING is socialist, then NONE of it is socialist.

=========

[ffr]

6. I wear it proudly every day. Not so much for the pounding I give to conservatives.

They're just anti-American and rudderless at the moment. Their only agenda? Stop liberals. Wow, such lofty goals.

[Ligyron]

28. Right, it was "stop"...

Now it’s, “Quick! Throw it into reverse”!

[msongs]

10. ok in keeping with the trend I will CONSIDER it nt

[Phoenix61]

12. My answer is always, "Damn straight Skippy!"

They have no idea how to respond to that.

[niyad]

14. Or my puzzled response, "But you say that like it's a bad thing."

[OldBaldy1701E]

15. Ahh

The wisdom of Senator Organa. (No, the elder one. But, I am sure the younger one would agree)

[liberal N proud]

16. I do!

[ancianita]

17. Thank you. Since the 1600's, with or without democracy, long may we liberals run.

What does lib mean in Greek and Latin roots?

-liber- comes from Latin, where it has the meaning "free. ''
This meaning is found in such words as: deliver, illiberal, liberal, liberate, libertine, liberty, livery.

Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on liberty, consent of the governed and equality before the law.[1][2][3] Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but they generally support individual rights (including civil rights and human rights), democracy, secularism, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion and a market economy.[11] Yellow is the political colour most commonly associated with liberalism.[12][13][14]

Liberalism became a distinct movement in the Age of Enlightenment, when it became popular among Western philosophers and economists. Liberalism sought to replace the norms of hereditary privilege, state religion, absolute monarchy, the divine right of kings and traditional conservatism with representative democracy and the rule of law. Liberals also ended mercantilist policies, royal monopolies and other barriers to trade, instead promoting free trade and marketization.[15] Philosopher John Locke is often credited with founding liberalism as a distinct tradition, based on the social contract, arguing that each man has a natural right to life, liberty and property and governments must not violate these rights.[16] While the British liberal tradition has emphasized expanding democracy, French liberalism has emphasized rejecting authoritarianism and is linked to nation-building.[17]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism

[flying_wahini]

18. A golden oldie.

Love it.

[ET Awful]

19. I'll see your Matt Santos and raise you a JFK . . .

What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label, "Liberal"? If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But, if by a "Liberal," they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people - their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties - someone who believes that we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say that I'm a "Liberal." - JFK 7/14/60

[PatSeg]

31. Thanks, I was going to go look that up!

[lambchopp59]

20. Synonym of liberal: intellectual, informed

Liberals also look forward, show concern and prepare for future generations long after we are long gone.
History will reveal the shameful legacy of "conservatism" in climate catastrophe we're only beginning to experience.
I shut down a Trumper today with the argument that can't be denied: TFG's legacy of climate science denial is shameful, his inarticulate pontificating on "forest management" while continuing to cut funds for such was a slap in the face of hundreds of citizens who just lost their homes. Insurance checks don't replace precious family heirlooms, many not worth a dime to anyone else, but gone. Ashes.
I was one of those who lost all but a handful of photos.
That creepy bastard worked all our last nerve, then may have destroyed our last chance for our generations to flourish.

[H2Oart]

21. thats good.....

I am a Kennedy Liberal, so my favorite is.......

If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties-someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal", then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal.”

― John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage

[wnylib]

22. I have always considered myself a liberal

and never dropped the term when the right tried to demonize it.

[Hortensis]

23. "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal,

that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Preamble to the Declaration of Independence

LIBERALISM

[BobTheSubgenius]

24. That was one of the best moments of the show...and it had many great ones.

[czarjak]

25. But, butthurt? They've feelings too!

[tclambert]

26. Liberals ended slavery.

I know, I know, Lincoln was a Republican. But he was a LIBERAL Republican. There used to be such a thing. Today's Republicans would throw Lincoln out of their party. Hell, a lot of today's Republicans want to bring back slavery. And none of them want to teach about it in schools.

[DFW]

30. "Republican" didn't used to be a political straightjacket

When I was growing up my dad had all sorts of friends who were Republicans--Jake Javits, Everett Dirksen, Charlie Gooddell, even Nelson Rockefeller and Bob Dole. It was his job to work with them anyway, and many of them did become his friends. That didn't stop him from having best friends like Frank Church and Bobby Kennedy, but his job was what it was, and he had to work with who the various states elected, not just those who he thought they SHOULD have elected. I never met Dole, but the rest of them were perfectly OK guys.

For that matter, my very first vote was proudly cast for a Republican. I was in college when 18 year olds were given the right to vote. The first election I was eligible to participate in was between the corrupt and oafish (but Democratic) Philadelphia police commissioner, Frank Rizzo, and a Republican city bureaucrat, Thatcher Longstreth, who came across as a nerdy academic. We college students despised Rizzo, who delighted in seeing his brute cops beat protesters with their billy clubs. My two roomies and I were only too pleased to vote for Longstreth, although we knew we were hopelessly outnumbered. No one beats the Philly Democratic machine, and if they nominate a corrupt asshole for mayor, then the next mayor is a corrupt asshole. And so he was--until he soon switched to the Republican Party, went to hang with Nixon (probably to Nixon's embarrassment), and left office under a dark cloud for contracting for a new house to be built for himself at ten times his salary, with no plausible explanation for where the rest of the money was coming from.

Let there be no illusions--TV is fiction, and reality is something else entirely. Arnold Vinick as the Republican nominee for president is fiction. Republican reality is Donald Trump.

[Martin68]

27. I wear it as a badge of honor. I was stupid to ever have doubted that.

I believe Republicans are beginning to feel the sting to the disgust that drops off our lips whenever we pronounce the words "right wing", "conservative", or Republican.

[lordsummerisle]

29. Reminds me of a joke

Q: How many Republicans does it take to fix a problem?

A: We don't know, it's never happened...