When did Liberal become a dirty word?
Being a Liberal myself, I have noticed for some time that most people consider us the scum of the earth. That we are too stupid to know any better, and that we are two steps away from being Communists, and at best we are already Socialists. But lets stop and examine this further.
Without Liberals, women still might not have the right to vote, which was finally granted in 1920. The fact it took that long is a travesty of epic proportions. And it definitely wasn’t Conservatives who fought to get them this right.
It was also Liberals who pushed through the Civil Rights legislation back in the 1960s, despite Conservative opposition. Are Conservatives proud of this fact? Do they wish to go back to the days of segregation?
And it was definitely Liberals who led the fight against slavery. Conservatives wanted to keep the status quo, and they reached as high as the Supreme Court at the time (see Scott, Dred.)
And Bill Clinton, who presided over America during an unprecidented economic expansion – eight straight years of double-digit growth – was hated by the Conservatives. Nay, he was despised by them, to the point where they spent $60 million trying to prosecute him for an extra-marital affair. (Really, just a BJ.) That is about the time that being a Liberal really became a slur.
But think about it, being a Conservative means your main spokesmen are guys named Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Hannity and Beck. Do people really want these windbags as their mouthpieces? And Beck is particularly odious. This guy claims that progressives have hijacked our country. I guess he considers progress a dirty word, too.
All progress requires change, but not all change is progress.
I believe Conservatives don’t like change. As we have seen, they have fought it tooth and nail through the last two centuries. Hell, I will go as far as to say that without Liberals we might still be a colony of England.
Here are some definitions to ponder . . .
Conservative: adjective. Inclined to keep things as they are or were in the past; opposed to change, especially any change in traditions.
Liberal: adjective. 1. Generous; having or giving freely. 2. Tolerant; not narrow in one’s ideas or views; broad-minded.
Now I ask you, which word do you want associated with yourself. (I can almost hear the Conservatives saying I must be using a commie dictionary. It is the two-volume World Book Dictionary.)
Conservatives have been lashing out at President Obama since the day he took office. And while I have admitted in the past that he has been a failure – I think Hillary would have made a better President, with Bill as an advisor – the lack of cooperation on the Conservative side has not helped matters. (Again, I hear bitching. Liberals didn’t cooperate with Dubya. Ah, but they did early on, as the 99-1 Senate vote to invade Iraq will attest.) No matter what faction you belong to, Obama is our President. Whether you voted for him or not, he is the POTUS. He is not a Socialist, as the Tea Heads often suggest. But he is going to be a one term President, like Carter. I just hope the Conservatives will be happy with President Perry, a religious conservative who makes Mitt Romney look liberal.
breezespeaks 