This is THE best time in decades to embrace "Liberal"

[SoCalDem]

Our economic meltdown is a direct result of 20+ years of malevolent neglect.

Our crumbling infrastructure & "fall-down" bridges..more neglect.

Our school system has had the life choked out of it by half-assed funding, over-testing, and underpayment of teachers.

We have people with un-addressed health issues, while supposedly having the "best health care in the world".

We looked away as untold damage was/is done to the only environment we have.

We have people forced out of jobs at 40-50, and yet are ineligible for medicare until they are 65.

We have family-supporting jobs eliminated, whole towns decimated, and are offered "teenager-after-school jobs" in exchange.

We have unnecessary wars sucking up borrowed money, like a Roomba on steroids...and killing mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, husbands, wives, children..

We have had a long flirtation with conservatism, and it's only done to us what it has always done before, when we have fallen under its wicked spell..

It enriches the ones at the top who already have more money than they could ever spend.
It shreds any safety net for the majority of the populace
It ends up ruining our economy at worst, and at best, bounces us back and forth between boom & bust cycles...dragging the rest of the world's economies with it.

The co-mingling of faith, values & family, with the term "conservative", has tricked far too many people to into voting against their own best interests for far too long.

Liberal is NOT a bad word..nor is it a bad way to run a country. We all rise together or we all fall together. This may be our last chance to correct our course.

[EFerrari]

1. You bet it is! K&R

[DesertFlower]

2. thank you for a wonderfully written post.

:toast:


K&R

[DJ13]

3. Great photo!

:rofl:

K&R!

[Forkboy]

4. I never stopped. I'm sick of Dems who keep fleeing from the word.

[melody]

5. Damned straight. Nicely put, too. n/t

[Cooley Hurd]

6. Happy to be your rec #5, as always...

:hi:

[polichick]

7. We're always ahead of the curve, a little before our time...

<>

[silverweb]

8. You betcha!

I have a T-shirt that's got the dictionary definition of "liberal" on it* and underneath, in big bold letters:

So Republicans, this is a bad thing?

*lib'er-al, I.a 1. Possessing or manifesting a free and generous heart; bountiful. 2. Appropriate and/or fitting for a broad and enlightened mind. 3. Free from narrowness, bigotry, or bondage to authority or creed. II.n 1. Any person who advocates liberty of thought, speech, or action.

It's a start... since _JFK's definition_ of "liberal" won't fit on a T-shirt. :D

[IowaGirl]

9. Well-spoken!!

:yourock:

[Cant trust em]

10. The idea of "liberal" as the new 4 letter word drives me CRAZY!

The idea that one stupid word can torpedo a candidate is absolutely insane and an insult to all of our intellects.

Yes, I know that liberal has more than four letters. It's just an expression.

[Cooley Hurd]

12. (I believe) it started back in '88...

There was a skit on SNL (hosted by Matthew Modine) titled "The Liberal", in which a Hubert Humphrey-loving liberal was hunted like a dog by conservatives. I wish I could find a clip of it - so relevant to today...

[electropop]

11. I proudly call myself a liberal at every opportunity.

I remember the days before state-controlled media, when "conservative" was a dirty word. To me, it still is.

[enigmatic]

13. I'm a Liberal

I'm not ashamed of the word, and I don't want to be called "Progressive".

Good post.

[frebrd]

14. I always have embraced it!

:banghead:

[Perry Logan]

15. Show me someone who hates liberals, and I'll show you a DEGENERATE.

[SteinbachMB]

16. Liberal

...is not a bad word. But you need good people to give it a good name. If liberals can't follow up after Bush and re-establish the word, with all its good points, all the cheerleading in the world won't help.

[DeepModem Mom]

17. K&R

[Laelth]

18. Beautifully said. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[Brigid]

19. I'm not just a liberal.

I'm a liberal pinko commie peacemonger. :P

Seriously, I try to not run from the label. After years of listening to the yammering of the rightwing lunatic fringe of the Republican Party, I no longer care who knows it anymore anyway. We need to embrace it.

[SoCalDem]

20. I just wish that our "leaders" would stop explaining why they are NOT a liberal

and instead would say.. "Yes.. LET'S talk about being LIBERAL. What has our country become since the abandonment of liberal philosophies?.. We are perceived across the globe as greedy, warmongering , and generally uncaring about the poor, especially our own poor and sick.. We make poor sick people hold bake sales & car washes to try to get the medical care they need (hopefully before they get too sick for ANY treatment to help)..What EXACTLY are we "conserving"?.. we certainly are not conserving the environment, we aren't conserving our national wealth.."

The root of the word, implies the "saving" of something. Conservatives are squanderers who have hijacked the word. They are radical reactionaries who want to return to a mythical time that never really existed, except in the lives of the social darwinists who happened to be at the top of the food-chain.

They call themselves conservatives, but they are just mean-spirited blowhards who want to ruin everything that makes/made American great. They want to co-opt the wealth necessary to run the country, all for themelves..and in return, the rest of us can grovel for crumbs they toss us now and then...when they feel like it.

[Brigid]

22. Do me a favor . . .

please send this to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. :yourock:

[spanone]

21. call me liberal....and proud of it