Who else is proud to be a liberal Democrat?

[LatteLibertine]

Honestly, I get tired of hearing people vilify the label. So kick and rec if you fit the subject line.

Why would anyone be ashamed of promoting empathy, tolerance and social justice?

Ann Coulter calls me "godless" and "brainless". I call her Ann Coulter. See the difference :)

[amyrose2712]

1. Greedy, anti-equality jerks?

[patrice]

2. Empathy, Tolerance, Social & Economic Justice, Understanding, Inclusion, Conservation, Posterity....

PEACE

[Quantess]

3. I remember the days before liberals were vilified.

20 years ago, being a liberal was respected. Then Rush Limbaugh came along. I'm not sure, but I think Rush Limbaugh singlehandedly started the hate campaign against the left.

[Selatius]

17. Personally, I mark the transition where Reagan entered the White House.

Everything post-Reagan was different. Hell, you could argue everything post-assassinations was different. The whole country was torn apart by that war, and then all these leaders were gunned down. If they had all lived, I believe the US would've been a much different place. Frankly, I think America would've been a much better place had they lived.

[barbtries]

34. i look at reagan's presidency as a sea change

for this country as well. the age of "greed is good" and the needy can fuck off. rich getting richer, poor getting poorer. i'm at a loss to explain his popularity; he was never popular in my house.

[CrispyQ]

40. I agree our decline started with Reagan.

I couldn't believe that a moronic B grade actor was president. I couldn't believe that people were turning their back on Carter's message of energy independence & conservation. I often wonder, if we had continued with Carter's policies, where we would be today?

Trickle down economics? What the fuck? Who builds anything from the top down? Why would you build your economy that way? The repubs have been very successful at making the American people fearful of the word 'liberal' & resentful of paying taxes.

[roguevalley]

42. I have always been a liberal and said so. I stand with other out liberals such

as James Garner, my Dad and Mom and the incomparable and outstanding Richard Widmark.

[Bluenorthwest]

52. Ohhh actors!

I have to add Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum and Sterling Hayden from Reagan's time. Liberals who acted circles around Ronny.

[StarryNite]

4. Liberal and proud.

Only ignorant people think being liberal is a bad thing.

[peruban]

5. Can I get a "wah-wah"?

Seriously, can I get one? :hi: :dem:

[patrice]

11. How about a . . . .

YYYYYYYeeeeeeeeeeeeeee - HHHHHHHHHhhhaaaaaaa

:bounce:

[patrice]

24. Upon reading your sig, how about a . . .

Om namah Shivaya!

[Patchuli]

6. Proud to be a lifelong Democrat and a lefty latte-loving

LIBERAL! :dem:

[Lint Head]

I am liberal, progressive, anti fascist and proud as hell!

I own a gun and a Bible and I'm a Democrat!:dem:

[RufusTFirefly]

7. K and R from this proud liberal

The irony is that many of the national politicians today who are vilified as liberal aren't really even all that liberal.

Amazing to think that when I was young there was actually such a thing as a liberal Republican.

[barbtries]

36. there was?

i'm 53 and can't remember that far back...unless you're talking about people like my mother who described herself as politically conservative and socially liberal. she was indeed a die-hard republican who wept when nixon resiged (i'd come over to watch it with her and gloat, and her tears took all the fun out of it for me) and yet on a personal level was one of the least judgmental people i have ever or will ever know.

[RufusTFirefly]

38. Yup.

It may just be a matter of labeling, but off the top of my head, I can think of a handful of people from not so long ago, who were considered "liberal Republicans."

Sen. Charles Percy (R-Ill)

Sen. Charles Mathias (R-Md)

Rep. John Lindsay (R-NY)

Sen. Lowell Weicker (R-Ct.)

[tilsammans]

8. I've always been proud . . .

. . . and always will be.

:kick:

We can thank Dubya's daddy for attempting to make "liberal" a dirty word.

[NorthCarolina]

9. Proud Liberal Here

Move over Ghandi, I'm to the left of you.....

[BunkerHill24]

10. "Who else is proud to be a liberal Democrat?"

Hear, Hear!...I am!

[Chan790]

12. Me.

I am a liberal.

[Indenturedebtor]

13. Liberal just means Compassionate and Intelligent to me :D

Yeah that's right :woohoo:

[IDemo]

45. No better way to describe it

:thumbsup:

[magellan]

14. I'm proud to be a liberal independent

I won't become a liberal Democrat until they get back to championing social causes with a progressive spirit.

[Native]

43. Me too!

[Mabus]

15. I'm just a liberal

who just happens to be a Democrat.

[Granny M]

16. I am. nt

[niyad]

28. welcome to DU

[defendandprotect]

18. ME---!!!

[Sebastian Doyle]

19. Another proud Liberal Democrat

Liberal from birth, Democrat since the age of 14.

[zehnkatzen]

20. Not only yes, but HELL YES! n/t k/r

[Greyhound]

21. K & R.

[ComtesseDeSpair]

22. Who wouldn't be?

It means you're a good person. Everyone should strive to be liberal.

[Middle finga]

23. Now I hope and pray that our side can rescue the country

If the Dems are able to get this country back on the right track, make people feel good and have confident again, we can put the Republicans out of business. The repubs would be the minority party for generations to come.

[bamacrat]

25. Oooh me me I am.

Hopefully conservative can gaina negative moniker. Liberals are realists. as Stephen Colbert said reality has a well known liberal bias.

[libodem]

26. Yes, I am!

I am not religious but I think being 'liberal' means thinking of others in the same way that Christ meant us to think of others. With charity. To take care of the orphans, widows, sick and poor. Not to treat the disenfranchised as if their plight is somehow punishment for wrong-doing. ie If you are down on your luck or health you did something to deserve it...like being lazy. We are only as strong as our weakest links. If we start letting people die in the streets or in prisons because they have no home or can't go to the hospital I don't know how exactly but it will turn around and bite us on the ass. It is much better to be proactive and celebrate lives as worth protecting and assisting.

[wickedweasle]

27. i am

[yellowdogintexas]

29. right here! and proud of it. nt

[goforit]

30. I'm very proud to be a libral. Just hoping that Obama doen't go to the center.

[bananas]

32. I hope he doesn't go further to the right.

I have to keep posting this:
http://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2008
"When examining the chart it's important to note that although most of the candidates seem quite different, in substance they occupy a relatively restricted area within the universal political spectrum. Democracies with a system of proportional representation give expression to a wider range of political views. While Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader are depicted on the extreme left in an American context, they would simply be mainstream social democrats within the wider political landscape of Europe. Similarly, Obama is popularly perceived as a leftist in the United States while elsewhere in the west his record is that of a moderate conservative. For example, in the case of the death penalty he is not an uncompromising abolitionist, while mainstream conservatives in all other western democracies are deeply opposed to capital punishment. "

[bananas]

31. Been a liberal Democrat since age 18. nt

[barbtries]

33. absolutely

bleeding heart here, since i can remember. my son made me take an online political test the other day. "hard-core democrat," as if there was ever a doubt. anti-sexist, anti-racist, humanist, and i believe in love and the transformational power of love.

[Unvanguard]

35. Left of liberal, left of Democrat (but still supportive of Democratic candidates)

and certainly proud. :)

[Cleita]

37. Me.

I gotta go buy some Birkenstocks and start drinking lattes. Ann Coulter is a Nazi. Yes, I can say it. Nazis were infamous for quashing dissent by accusing anyone left of them as being unpatriotic and godless.

[Edweird]

39. I am.

:hi:

[CrispyQ]

41. Proud liberal here!!

Back in early '04, I googled "when did liberal become a dirty word" & the below DU article was the first hit. It was how I discovered DU.

"When Did Liberal Become a Dirty Word?"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/02/11/23_liberal.html

Liberal: adj. 1. relating to or having social and political views that favor progress and reform. 2. relating to or having policies or views advocating individual freedom. 3. giving and generous in temperament or behavior. 4. tolerant of other people. (Collins Concise English Dictionary)

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." So goes the youthful nursery rhyme, but as we grew older we discovered that it really wasn't true, that names indeed can be hurtful. Flex your memory and remember the times you heard (or used) someone use a racial or ethnic slur, and remember the pain they inflicted and the anger they provoked.

Which brings us to the question of this essay. How did the term "liberal" become a dirty word in modern American political rhetoric? In so many Letters to the Editor, on radio talk shows, etc.?

Initiating such a discussion as this may seem a little too academic or pedagogical, but semantics, i.e., labels, are important. Labels are too often used as weapons, used to smear another whose views we disagree with. But it seems self-evident that terms such as "commie pinko" or "femi-nazi" are applied to people only to discredit them and their viewpoints which may be quite legitimately held.

--more at link

===
It's an excellent article!

[Juche]

44. egalitarianism, science, compassion, justice, competence

Yep, I'm proud of that.

[Octafish]

46. Call me 'Liberal.'

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1201078

[BlueCollar]

47. add me to the list..n/t

[Zhade]

48. So liberal I left the increasingly-conservative Dem party YEARS ago.

Proud to be waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more liberal than them.

[mwooldri]

49. I was a card carrying member of the Liberal Democrats.

Still vote for them when I can in UK parliamentary elections.

Thankfully when the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party merged in the 1980s' they didn't go with Liberal Social Democrats... otherwise we would be the LSD Party.

Mark.

[Hepburn]

50. I am TOTALLY liberal....completely!

I am probably a Socialist in many respects ~~ particularly in the areas of medical/dental care and education. Everyone has a right to be healty and pain-free and everyone who would bring excellece to our nation, should be helped getting the education he/she wants and will use for the betterment of society.

:hi:

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

51. Always Have Been And Always Will Be.

To me, I've always associated being a liberal Democrat with simply being a decent human being. I think all truly decent human beings by default are liberal democrats, even if some of them don't even quite realize it. So yeah, I'm damn proud to be one.

[Kansas Wyatt]

53. Late 30's, looks die-hard country, and people would presume I would be republican.

I've always been a liberal and would NEVER ever vote for a republican. When people bash liberals, I promptly tell them to give up all that Liberal Democrats have given them in this country, which usually shuts them down.