Liberal Is Not A Swear Word

[emanymton]

I do not agree with Andrew M. Gracy's underlying assumptions in his essay. "Fighting Back, The Quiet Plot to Steal America, and What to Do About It" published June 15, 2005 by Andrew M. Gracy

(http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/05/06/15_fighting.html)


Liberal is not a bad word. Liberalism does not need to turn back the clock; it must continue to be a positive source of leadership.

The greed, grief and graft that are the RW GOP conservative movement are examples of their failings, not their successes. The people see it. Perhaps the RW noise machine has succeeded in making some believe they are winners. They are not, they're whiners. The snake pit that is Washington D.C. is not what it is all about.

"... task of redefining liberalism and trying to convince your opponents it has some merit."

Why in the world would anyone want their opponents's approval?

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 … 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, September 14, 1960

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Long ago, there was a noble word, LIBERAL, which derived from the word FREE . Now a strange thing happened to that word. A man named Hitler made it a term of abuse, a matter of suspicion, because those who were not with him were against him, and liberals had no use for Hitler. And then another man named McCarthy cast the same opprobrium on the word. Indeed, there was a time--a short but dismaying time--when many Americans began to distrust the word which derived from FREE. One thing we must all do. We must cherish and honor the word FREE or it will cease to apply to us....

-- Eleanor Roosevelt


Bush Lied. People Died. Media Cheered.

[sui generis]

1. I completely concur with Eleanor R.

It's much more American to be "liberal" than to be conservative. How on earth can the "they" hate us for our freedoms if we don't have any?

The truth of the matter is that so-called "conservatives" are really "social conservatives". The original underpinning of conservatism was the idea of fiscal conservatism, which is no where even remotely what "conservatives" stand for.

Today conservatives are pretty much co-equal with bigots, racists, xenophobes, homophobes, and constraining as many personal freedoms as possible. Conservatives are ultra uncool. Even looking at their Very Paleface Pillsbury Doughboy political conventions and "town hall" meetings, you get a sense of creepy small minded mean spirited Everything Fearing fascists.

It would really suck to wake up into a nightmare one morning and discover I'd only dreamed I'd been a Liberal. Liberal with a capital L.

Hope to make it suck even more for them when they wake up one morning and wish they'd been Liberal all along, because they're going to get the blame squarely on their shoulders for perpetual war in the middle east, on going escalating terrorist activity, a united Europe and China crushing our economy, continued job outsourcing, increases in poverty, homelessness, crime, hate crimes, payola, corporate welfare, environmental collapse, fuel, utility and water prices, and no social safety nets anywhere. Also, no minority fillibuster, vastly increased presidential power, and precedent after precedent for quashing political opposition.

Once again, we'll have to clean up the almost irrecoverable mess that the "adults in charge" have left for the real adults, and this time it will be only fitting to assign the blame to them that they so richly deserve.

Being a conservative today just means being in denial, and proud of it.

[salvorhardin]

2. Thomas Jefferson

For as much as right wingers like to quote Thomas Jefferson, I'm always amused since Jefferson often talks of liberal values, liberalism, liberal education, a just and liberal policy towards Native Americans (so much for that one), etc.

This is one of my favorite Jefferson quotes...

"The advance of liberalism... the hope that the human mind will some day get back to the freedom it enjoyed two thousand years ago." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1821. ME 15:308
http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations