As you can guess by the blog title, I am a liberal, and a proud one at that. The term has become negative over the last couple decades, a development that is really unfortunate especially since conservative has not received the same treatment. I think the left needs to take that word back After all, as Matt Santos pointed out on The West Wing:
"Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things every one. So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, 'Liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, Senator. Because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor."
It's doubtful that many real life politicians will have the courage of a Matt Santos. Most Democrats running for office seem to spend half the campaign demonstrating as many ways as possible that they are not a liberal, but a moderate. Even on a smaller scale, many people are afraid of what people will think if they admit to being a liberal and instead claim to be a moderate, despite supporting almost every single leftist position. At some point, this has got to stop. Like Matt Santos, I wear the term as a badge of honor and I urge other liberals to come out of hiding and do the same.
I'll end my first post with the following image that provides a perfect definition of a liberal:
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