Is "Liberalism" a dirty word?

[da_decider]

I see all these GOP loons running around the country, claiming to be the "real conservatives" running for White House. And not only in their primaries, even during general elections they are not shy about being proud of their "conservative values".
What I never hear is a democratic politician claiming to be a "real Liberal". Why is that? Liberals are for equal right for all, no matter the race/gender/sexual orientation/religions etc etc...We are the big tent party, we stand up to defend Americans gays, Muslims, Hispanics, Blacks, women...Why Obama does not running on being a liberal?
Needless to say, conservative propaganda machine is great at what it is doing; smearing the left and branding liberals as anti-Americans.

[FarLeftFist]

1. Well we do have a Liberal caucus as well as a Progressive caucus, but you make a good point.

For the most part the RW propaganda machine HAS done a good job at smearing the Left. The sad thing is, is what it says about the intelligence of our country to be so easily duped by those smears. If people knew what Liberalism was about or it's policies I'm sure a big majority of people would say "Yeah, I actually do believe in that". All they hear are the RW smears because there is no liberal media, it's almost completely owned by Murdoch and 4 other people.

[izquierdista]

2. I equate "conservative" with "stupid"

As in "I'm conservative and can't learn new things, process new ideas, adapt, or innovate. I just do the same thing that was shown to me by some overbearing authority figure, and if you ask me why, I'll bite your head off."

[da_decider]

4. Agreed

GOP base is made up of bunch of reactionary morons who feed on fake outrage and phony controversy manufactured by Faux 'News' and Radio Talk shows. They hate everything that threatens their backwards lifestyle and way of thinking, especially science.

[csziggy]

3. Liberal is not a dirty word but the GOP has tried to smear it effectively

"Progressive" has a much more positive connotation these days:
"Socialism" Not So Negative, "Capitalism" Not So Positive: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1583/political-rhetoric-capitalism-socialism-militia-family-values-states-rights



But the poll did not use the word "liberal" as one of their questions.

[limpyhobbler]

5. some of my best friends are liberals

I don't like to use the word liberal because it has a different meaning in all the other countries.

It makes it more difficult to dialog internationally.

These are all liberal political parties:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_International

So that's what liberal means in most of the world, and it's not really the politics I subscribe to...

People worldwide associate liberalism with defending capitalism.
I haven't called myself a liberal for about 20 years now because I think liberals support free trade agreements like NAFTA, GATT, WTO, PNTR-China, etc. etc.

There's so much disagreement over what it actually means, and that's part of what makes it challenging to use.

It's not a dirty word it's just that people think liberal means something, and they disagree with that thing.
I think most of us have seen this poll by now.

http://www.people-press.org/2011/12/28/little-change-in-publics-response-to-capitalism-socialism/

I dislike labels. But if I must have a label, I want one that stands for defending labor, environmental protection, consumer protection, class consciousness, anti-fascism, solidarity, economic justice, health and welfare for all the people, blah blah blah.

I don't really think the word "liberal" fits that description. I agree with liberals on a lot of things though.

[Taverner]

6. In a word, NO!!!

[Cherchez la Femme]

7. Hell, to some right here in DU

it's used widely as a negative term.

And supposedly they aren't trolls!

[patrice]

8. They could take more proactive command of the discourse, get ahead of the curve, I don't

understand why they don't!

[provis99]

9. it is a dirty word.

That's why I call myself a commie pinko rat instead.