A call to progressives of all stripes: Take back the word "Liberal"!!!

Do not do what Hillary did tonight and run away and hide from it. I didn't see the debate, but I just saw a clip of Hillary saying she preferred "progressive" instead.

Fuck that!! The right wing noise machine, propogated by the corporate media have demonized "liberal" and cynically redefined it to scare the unsophisticated vox populi out there that to be liberal means to be a tax and spend, soft on terror, soft on crime, welfare state-loving, card carrying commie, terrorist enabling, American troop hating....oh fuck I'm running out of them....

To me, "liberal" means open minded, fair, even handed and thoughtful. Yes, progressive is a good word too but so is liberal. And that's just a few apt descriptors off the top of my head. I haven't cracked open a dictionary here, but I don't need to.

Anyway...point being...if you run away and hide from that which defines you, and you allow your opponent to define you as suits his purposes, you are running away from who you are and you stand for nothing.

As I said...fuck that! Grow a spine Hillary and anyone else out there who shies away from a wonderful and beautiful word like LIBERAL. To deny it's truth and it's value is to deny your core essence.

Wake up and fight the right wing and media corpocracy and their cynical, disingenuous corruption of a fan-fucking-tastic word: Liberal.:loveya:

Can I get an Amen?

:shrug:

So they could pretend to be Democrats and move the country to the right? :shrug:

HRC is a member of the DLC.

I'm a proud liberal; I'm a proud progressive; I'm a proud Leftie.

Progressive implies actions. I am a liberal with progressive values. At least that's how I look at it.

Amen! I am tired of liberal being a dirty word too. Since when did being liberal and open-minded become something you should ever be ashamed of. We have allowed them to make liberal a dirty word and need to stand strong- Liberal Democrat and Damn Proud! How about that! Personally I support Mr. Edwards. Does he coward when called a Liberal? I know he stood strong in his defense of One America for all of us when they accused of "Class-Warfare" in his statement about Two Americas. (which BTW there are most definately Two Americas and I would prefer One Strong America with One Srong Leader!)

My VERY Liberal Sister tried to call me a Progressive a few years ago, I told her, "No, I'm a Liberal and proud of it!":patriot:

progressives are too scared to call themselves liberals, they believe the Con Hype. HRC was disappointing (again)

I always say I'm a liberal Dem, I prefer that to the newer "progressive".

But at the same time it probably is smart politically to shy away from liberal for now if running for office because the republics have done a good job of making it a dirty word in the minds of people. Hillary is right on this one I think.

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."


http://www.liberalparty.org/JFKLPAcceptance.html

Here's another part of it:

"I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves."

We should be proud to claim that title. I am. "Yeah, I'm a liberal, what the hell are you?!"

"liberal" vs "conservative".

liberal - open, which while it does mean giving could also easily extended to mean things like risk-taker, big-spender, etc.

meanwhile, "conservative" conjures up images of time honored, tried-and true traditional practices.


We need to take the word back, definately. But we also need to poison the word "conservative" to take it out of the fantasy realm of nostalgia, which the GOP thrives on. One thing I have always been a fan of is reminding people that "conservative" beliefs include things like banning interracial marriage, segregation, and sexual discrimination.

...it's only easily extended into these other nonsense realms when we let it be extended. If no one stands up and says "no", you are wrong, then they're just conceding misinformation through implicit concession. That's wrong, IMO. And enough of the corruption of the true meaning of words...whether the word is 'liberal' or 'conservative'. Let's focus on the truth, and not on smoke and mirrors. If we tell the truth about what conservatives/Republicans are saying and doing, we are doing a great service to the rest of the electorate. People who aren't on DU, people who just live their lives and go about their business and who aren't particularly political at all. Those are the people who decide elections. The more truth they have at their disposal, the better informed will be their selections in the voting booth, and the more we all benefit as a whole I believe. Why do so many rural, and lower middle class white voters identify themselves with Bush? They naively think they are being patriotic and supporting a guy who has their best interests at heart. If their best interests include awarding no bid contracts to Bush's corporate cronies, then maybe they know more than I give them credit for.

Anyway...sorry for the lengthy diatribe. I just hate to see Democrats doing a duck and cover every time someone trots out the dreaded "L" word.

It's the policies that matter. If they're good ideas and good policy, then you can call it liberal or progressive. What's in a name?

The term liberal can be confusing to the rest of the world, where it has a different meaning: traditional liberalism espouses laissez-faire economic policy (which would actually be a conservative view here), whereas in American liberalism the government plays a role.

...then there's no need to back away from 'liberal', imo.

Take ownership of the word, reclaim it from those who would seek to demonize and denigrate it's true meaning.