I am about over LIBERAL being a bad word.

[proud2BlibKansan]

Twice yesterday, I heard co-workers knock liberal ideas and liberal programs. And my profession is dominated by liberals!! (At least it used to be.)

We were at a planning meeting yesterday morning and a co-worker said we need to stop "these liberal ideas" which dillute the effectiveness of a program. Then later in the day a different co-worker accused someone of wanting too many "liberal programs". And they were both talking about programs in an elementary school, not social or political programs.

It used to be an honor to be a liberal. When I think of what the neocon mentality has done to this country I just want to scream. Both of the people making these negative comments yesterday are not at all interested in politics. So they weren't speaking from a conservative viewpoint. They were just repeating a talking point which is creeping through our culture and finding its way into our language.

And damnit I want it stopped - NOW. :grr:

[Moderate Dem]

1. Back when the term "liberal" was respected...

Liberals were guys like Hubert Humphrey. Now they're people like Sheila Jackson-Lee.

Go figure...

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. I know - wasn't JFK a liberal

and Bobby too?

[movonne]

25. Is there something wrong with Sheila Jackson Lee ??? Once I was

a moderate liberal, but now with this crime family and crime administration in power, I have become a far left Liberal and very proud of it...

[proud2BlibKansan]

45. Me too

I move more to the left all the time.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Hell, most of the repubs around here are ashamed to admit they

voted for Bush. One more disaster like NOLA and Repubs are going to be sending cigars to Bill Clinton with their letters of apology.

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. Oh how I hope that is true

:)

[TallahasseeGrannie]

3. I like the word liberal

more than progressive. I think it is more descriptive. It's a good word. We should use it more.

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. I am planning on it.

[Bill McBlueState]

4. public education: one of the great liberal ideas

I wonder how your co-workers would feel if we put a stop to that particular liberal idea.

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. Funny you mention that

All of them are completely devastated by NCLB. They are smart enough to see how it is damaging public education.

[Finder]

5. MEMES....

need to be replaced.

[joemurphy]

6. Liberalism Rules, Dude.

I took this from this site: <http://www.zompist.com/predic.htm>

Liberalism has spent the last twenty years under constant attack... which is puzzling, since it has been right in all its principles and has won all its battles.

Government regulation. People flirt with lunatic libertarianism... but the Fed, the FDIC, and the FDA are still in business. Laissez-faire capitalism is great for making a few people rich and the rest of the country miserable; if 1890s America is hazy in your mind, you can see the results today in Russia.
Liberal capitalism-- with government regulation of banks, financial markets, and product safety, and social nets and progressive taxation to prevent excessive concentration of wealth-- is simply the most successful economic system yet invented.

Conservatives feel most comfortable in an aristocracy. But aristocratic nations are poor nations. (The conservatives who realize this don't mind it, because they are or feel they should be part of the elite.)

A luminous exception: Henry Ford, who doubled the wages of his assembly-line workers-- earning the scorn of the 1920s business community. Ford, however, saw the potential of a huge class of consumers rich enough to buy automobiles. Liberal capitalism thrives because a huge middle class, as in the U.S., is a better market than a small wealthy elite, as in Brazil.


Middle-class welfare. Republicans have belatedly learned that people love their Social Security. Now instead of attacking this little sweetmeat of socialism, they argue with the Democrats over who holds it dearer to their hearts.

Civil rights. Almost everyone today accepts the ideal of a color-blind society-- even conservatives, who enjoy sporting a few blacks among their number. "Racist" is one of the few political terms that anyone on the political spectrum can use as an insult. But conservatives fought the civil rights movement every step of the way. They still hate affirmative action, but their very grounds for opposing it-- that it favors particular segments of society and that color should not be a factor-- is borrowed from '50s liberalism.

Feminism. Gender equality is not quite as accepted; but women are in the workforce to stay, and today's young women grow up expecting to be treated equally in school, at work, and increasingly in relationships; and the sight of women in positions of power and prestige is becoming unremarkable. Again, conservatives opposed everything from giving the vote to women to letting them into "male" jobs to giving them equal pay for equal work.

The environment. In order to discredit environmentalism, conservatives are now reduced to finding the dippiest activists they can dig up (PETA is a good source); they can no longer directly defend belching smokestacks, dead lakes, and toxic waste dumps. The need to protect the planet is one of those things that almost everyone agrees on.

Gay rights. Here no consensus has been reached, but it's another area where conservatives are simply wrong, and what was formerly considered troublingly radical-- acceptance of homosexuality-- now seems like mere human decency. You don't have to like gays and lesbians, but that's no reason to jail them, fire them, beat them up, or deny their civil rights. This battle is not yet won, but it's too late to put the toothpaste back in the tube. We're not going back to classifying homosexuality as a mental illness or a crime.

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. Cool link!

Thanks.

[Armstead]

7. Just keep using the word positively

The more of us do that, the more it will become an acceptable term again.

Most people have a liberal side, even when they don;t realize it.

[OnionPatch]

12. Agree!

I think we must fight to reclaim the positive connotations of the word "liberal". I'll be damned if I'm going to stop using it. I'm proud to be a liberal. Everything that's uniquely good about our country is liberal. I like the name "progressive" as well, but I don't use it in place of the word "liberal." When someone asks me where I stand politically, I tell them I'm about as liberal as it gets, and proud of it!

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. Me too Onion

I mean I guess you can tell from my screen name here at DU.

[globalvillage]

14. I use it all the time

in non-political context, especially at work, and most pointedly when speaking with repubs. Same with "progressive". e.g. "great idea for a new campaign, it's so progressive." or "Be very liberal when you acknowledge employee accomplishments."
I think it subliminally reinforces the positive connotation of both words.

[daninthemoon]

15. Exactly! The truth will always be our most important asset.

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. Will do

good advice.

[joemurphy]

8. What do Liberals stand for?

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 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

[proud2BlibKansan]

29. Wow I totally forgot about that quote

Thanks for posting it.

[mitchtv]

9. tell them " yeah liberal, like your (40) hr. week/ vacation/ overtime/

and a million other benefits like child labor laws, all of which the pukes opposed.

[Liberal In Texas]

11. Good one. Obviously I have no problem calling myself a lib. Just because

the fascists sneer when they say it, it does not make it a "bad" word, or you, as a liberal, a bad person.

Wear it proudly.

[MaineDem]

10. I've never thought it was a bad word

I'm a proud Liberal and it's not our fault the other side made it appear to be a bad thing.

[BobBoudelangFan69]

13. Liberals And Liberalism Set The Agenda, Thank You!

Proud to be liberal.

Let them eat cake? Not a liberal idea.


Bush Lied. People Died. Media Cheered.

[devilgrrl]

16. What are "these liberal ideas" and "liberal programs" that they are...

referring to?

It is the same when I hear the word "feminists" used pejoritively... who are they talking about? Do they have names?

[proud2BlibKansan]

31. We were discussing school programs.

One is an incentive program where our kids are rewarded for good behavior and attendance. Some of the teachers want to stiffen up the requirements. One of them referred to the "liberal ideas" which were causing the program to lose effectiveness.

The liberal idea she was referring to is giving kids a chance to fix their behavior before punishing them. Fortunately, this teacher was ONE voice and no one else at the meeting agreed with her. I was so mad as soon as I heard "liberal" that I didn't even hear what she said after that and I had to ask someone else later what she had been referring to.

[cornermouse]

17. Where does it come from?

It comes from conservative talk radio host whenever they want to dismiss an idea or disrespect a person or literally beat up on a group that they don't agree with philosophically.

It comes from the forwarded RW email that we have all gotten from friends and family how many times?

It comes from think tanks and RW politicians to enable them to achieve a particular agenda.

It comes from the Ann Coulters and Bill O'Reillys of the world who know it can sell a book or make a living for them.

It comes from neighbors, co-workers, and strangers that you encouter during the day who have been so saturated in the lies and hate that they have come to firmly believe it. Its widespread and it has both permeated our society. It has weakened and undermined the two party system that we have historically enjoyed.

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. Right on, CM!

You nailed it beautifully.

[cornermouse]

51. Its about repetition and reinforcement.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

18. sorry that you ever let it be.

:cry:

[proud2BlibKansan]

33. Not me

but many others.

[StellaBlue]

19. I am over about SOCIALIST being a bad word.

That's how far I've been pushed.

[movonne]

30. Me too...

[proud2BlibKansan]

34. I agree

I for one am a proud liberal socialist.

[StellaBlue]

38. ...

FIGHT THE POWER!

[nyhuskyfan]

20. Just about anything good in society was brought about by liberals...

Go all the way back to the Renaissance Era -- were it not for those liberals, we'd still have feudal lords chopping off the heads of serfs for recreation. I tell conservatives that we tried it their way once, and there was a reason they call it the "Dark Ages".

The United States = an extremely liberal concept at the time (democracy, freedom of speech, religion, etc.).

Abolitionists were liberal. Prohibitionists were not, and they failed.

The Civil Rights movement. - very liberal, very positive.

Then there's good music.

[Independent_Liberal]

35. I really don't let this bother me.

I think it's only the kool-aid drinkers and Fox News followers who try to demonize the word liberal. I'm a liberal and I'm proud of it. I'm an independent liberal for that matter. ;)

[proud2BlibKansan]

36. It didn't used to bother me either

But I am a teacher. Schools are comfort zones for liberals. So to hear highly educated teachers use this term in a negative tone when referring to educational programs - I was shocked.

[barb162]

37. do you see the country shifting to the right

like I do. I got questioned about that, someone was denying it and I see a definite shift. You remember when liberal was not a dirty word as I do.

[proud2BlibKansan]

39. Remember when Barry Goldwater

and Joseph McCarthy gave conservatives a bad name?

[barb162]

43. yep.

[Flubadubya]

40. Well, I hope you spoke out...

Did ya??? :shrug:

[proud2BlibKansan]

46. Yes I did

and I made someone mad too.

hee hee :evilgrin:

[Cleita]

41. Did you call them on it?

Best thing to do is ask them why they think it's a liberal idea. Most of the time they can't tell you or they name the source. If they name the source (like maybe Fox News) you can debunk them as a lying propaganda machine. Then explain to them wtf a liberal really is. My favorite is to say, that if you want clean water, clean air, healthy food for your children, then this is what being a liberal stands for.

[proud2BlibKansan]

47. I did but not in front of others

Being a compassionate liberal, I spoke to her privately later.

[Orrin_73]

42. The late Steve Kangas has a good site about

Liberalism, its called Liberalism Resurgent

[proud2BlibKansan]

48. Great resource

Thanks

I love that picture too :rofl:

[Liberal In Texas]

44. Get your "L" patch...

[proud2BlibKansan]

49. Printed that out

and will give it to the appropriate party on Monday.

THANK YOU. :)

[Liberal In Texas]

50. My pleasure. Check that site out at the bottom of the pic. They have

bunches of this type of posters.

Better yet, here's a direct link. I still had it up...

http://www.oldamericancentury.org/gallery.htm

[proud2BlibKansan]

53. ha ha here is a great one !!

[Liberal In Texas]

56. Here's a good one for your co-workers...

[proud2BlibKansan]

57. Wow I love it

I will be putting that in some mailboxes on Monday hee hee.

[Liberal In Texas]

58. I wish I could be there to see their faces! n/t

[SeattleGirl]

52. I've never been ashamed of the word "liberal"

and never been ashamed to identify myself as such.

[tallahasseedem]

54. I love the word....

and flaunt it whenever I can.

[goodboy]

55. FROM ROGET'S THESAURUS:

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/store.aspx?s=political07
<>