Call me “Liberal!”

[Octafish]

To Gov George W Bush and all who think “Liberal” is a dirty word:

Call me a “Liberal.” I am proud to be so called.

If by “Liberal” you mean one who is proud to DEFEND the United States of America in her hour of need, from the Revolutionary War to the Cold War, so call me.

If by “Liberal” you mean one who is proud of SOCIAL SECURITY, so call me.

If by “Liberal” you mean one who is proud of EDUCATING every child, so call me.

If by “Liberal” you mean one who is proud of looking after the WELFARE of every child and every senior citizen, so call me.

If by “Liberal” you mean one who WORKS toward the day every able bodied American who wants to work can find a good-paying job, so call me.

If by “Liberal” you mean one who is proud of the right of women, minorities, the poor, the middle class, the rich and every American to be treated as EQUALS under the law, so call me.

If by “Liberal” you mean a person who wants to live in a nation where every man, woman and child has the right to HEALTHCARE, so call me.

If by “Liberal” you mean one finds taxes are the PRICE we pay for a CIVILIZED society, so call me.

That’s why I don’t mind it when a small-minded, self-centered, ignorant, greedy coward who calls himself a “Conservative” finds the nerve to call me “Liberal.” You see, I'm bigger than that.

-- Octafish

P.S. Hey, Fellow Liberal DUers! Please add your reasons.

[tomfodw]

1. If by "Liberal" you mean someone who wants to lower a ladder

to those at the bottom instead of pulling it up after myself, then I'm proud to be a Liberal!

[Octafish]

12. A Liberal is not satisfied until ALL, especially those with the least...

...get on the ladder.

Well said, tomfodw!

[fertilizeonarbusto]

2. call me one

If it means that I respect our troops enough not to lie them into a war.

[Octafish]

14. A Liberal doesn't let someone else fight his or her fights...

...and a Liberal certainly doesn't trick others to fight a war with a nation at peace with the United States. NAZIs do such.

Well said, fertilizearbusto!

[displacedtexan]

3. The Scarlet L

[DaveSZ]

5. If a liberal is...

Someone who believes giving up our civil liberties to fundies and in the name of fighting terror is the wrong...

Someone who believes that selling off our enviornment to the highest bidder at the expense of the health and safety of the public is wrong...

Then call me a liberal, because those are the reasons I oppose *.

[scarletlib]

25. That's me

Note my sig line--I have had it for years and tell people who ask that it has nothing to do with scarlet o'hara.

I proudly wear the scarlet letter of liberal and have for a long time. I am a flaming liberal.

[Wind Dancer]

4. Great list!

If by "Liberal" you mean keeping the air we breath and water we drink free of dangerous toxins, so call me.

[Octafish]

18. Liberals protect the WORLD we SHARE.

Those who believe they are "chosen" feel no hesitation to lord over the world and its treasures, resources and people. Such minds are called psychotic -- and worse.

Well said, FrustratedDemInNC!

[The Traveler]

6. If by liberal

you mean that I hold that the welfare of the nation and all its people is more important than the welfare of corporations and the rich, then call me liberal.

[Octafish]

19. A Liberal cherishes EVERY human life and ALL peoples.

Any person -- even the least amongst us, like the unelected moron, represents an infinite universe of wonder and possibility and all that is holy. If only he knew.

Well said, robg!

[yardwork]

7. I'm proud to call myself a LIBERAL

[Octafish]

22. You are a GOOD Liberal, yardwork!

Y'think and y'vote! Huzzah ferya!

BTW: Here's a great definition:

"A conservative is a man who is too cowardly to fight and too fat to run." -- Elbert Hubbard

EDIT: TiPop in Ttlei

[ET Awful]

8. John Kennedy said it best -

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."

. . . . . .

This is an important election -- in many ways as important as any this century -- and I think that the Democratic Party and the Liberal Party here in New York, and those who believe in progress all over the United States, should be associated with us in this great effort. The reason that Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and Adlai Stevenson had influence abroad, and the United States in their time had it, was because they moved this country here at home, because they stood for something here in the United States, for expanding the benefits of our society to our own people, and the people around the world looked to us as a symbol of hope.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/35_kennedy/psources/ps_nyliberal.html

(one of my favorite Kennedy speeches)

[Octafish]

27. JFK, RFK, MLK were LIBERALS!

And so, to the Reich-wing, they were dangerous and had to be "eliminated." How small such evil men are, who believe taking a life kills a man. The ideas these LIBERALS stood for live on FOREVER inside the minds and hearts and spirits and lives of ALL who knew them and what they stood for.

Excellent quotes, ET Awful. Those are a couple of my favorite all-time. Here's one from Robert F. Kennedy:

Day of Affirmation Address

Senator Robert F. Kennedy
University of Capetown
Capetown, South Africa
June 6, 1966

EXCERPT...

"There is," said an Italian philosopher, "nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things." Yet this is the measure of the task of your generation and the road is strewn with many dangers.

First is the danger of futility; the belief there is nothing one man or one woman cando against the enormous array of the world's ills -- against misery, against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New /world, and 32 year old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. "Give me a place to stand," said Archimedes, "and I will move the world." These men moved the world, and so can we all. Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of the events, and in the total of all these acts will be written the history of this generation. Thousands of Peace Corps volunteers are making a difference in the isolated villages and the city slums of dozens of countries. Thousands of unknown men and women in Europe resisted the occupation of the Nazis and many died, but all added to the ultimate strength and freedom of their countries. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage such as these that the belief that human history is thus shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

"If Athens shall appear great to you," said Pericles, "consider then that her glories were purchased by valiant men, and by men who learned their duty." That is the source of all greatness in all societies, and it is the key to progress in our own time.

CONTINUED...

http://www.jfklibrary.org/r060666a.htm

How different from the pipsqueak Poppy who, at his inaugural, said: "We have more will than wallet."

[Amich]

9. Great list....

[Octafish]

28. Thank you, Amich!

Anyone who agrees with that feels the same way, I'd wager.

A hearty welcome to DU, Amich! I bet you're a Liberal! And a good person!

[RevCheesehead]

10. Octafish, you're a Liberal!

And so am I!

[Cyndee_Lou_Who]

15. LOVE the photo, Rev!

Very inspirational! And from a fellow Cheesehead, yes, he WILL win WI!

[Octafish]

30. RevCheesehead, you're a Liberal, too!

Feels good, doesn't it?

And like Cyndee_Lou_Who said, "Great picture!"



John Kerry, left, sails with President John F. Kennedy
aboard the 62-foot Coast Guard yawl Manitou
in Narragansett Bay on Aug. 26, 1962

EdiT: Tipo

[Technowitch]

11. I've been a proud Liberal for years

I never abandoned the term, wearing it proudly, even when the Repugs tried to turn it into a curse-word.

I am a Liberal.

[Octafish]

31. Technowitch, You Are a LIBERAL!

Liberals are proud, because they CARE about their world and -- most of all -- their fellow human beings.

Well said, Technowitch! Words matter. Ideas matter. They are where the future comes from.

[peppersnick]

13. Great list! Liberals Unite!

[Octafish]

32. Thanks, peppersnick! You Are a LIBERAL!

Just because you care enough to say so, you are making a difference in the information environment. The pukes spend billions each year forming the propaganda that people take in. We have something better -- the Truth. And it's free!

BTW: A hearty welcome to DU, peppersnick!

[cynatnite]

16. Proud to be a liberal

If being a liberal means that equality extends to everyone no matter their race, age, sex or sexual orientation, I am proud to be a liberal.

I posted as such to a few on another list who tried to use it as a dirty word. It didn't work.

[owenthewonderdog]

21. "liberal"

Amazing how the word "liberal" has been turned into a pejorative in this country. Having grown up in England in a staunch Labour household the Liberals were always the middle of the road moderates, a bit wishy washy if you will.

Having said that my mum is voting Liberal-Democrat next year since "Our Tony" has done the dirty on many of her long-standing beliefs.

And a big up to Our Juney :loveya:

[cynatnite]

24. Welcome to DU! n/t

[owenthewonderdog]

26. gosh

thanks!

Awfully civilised you people. :thumbsup:

[Octafish]

33. cynatnite, You Are a LIBERAL!

You also are a True Democrat -- one who KNOWS all people are created equal. IMO, Liberals also recognize that each person represents the spark of God and are entitled to live free and deserve all the good that life gives.

[Endangered Specie]

17. If being liberal means investing in science and the environment...

then you may call me a liberal.

[Shopaholic]

20. Liberal and damn proud of it

and will never, ever, apologize for it!

[Pump Man]

23. DID YOU SAY SOMETHING ABOUT A BALANCE BUDGET

vote----http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6092749

[calimary]

29. The Human Heart Hangs to the LEFT. Any anatomy book will tell you that.

It is in our very nature to be liberal.

It is part of our humanity. It is a part of our most fundamental physicality.

If being a liberal means I care about more than just the confines of my own little pocket or my own little corner of the world, then so call me.

I wrote something about this on www.democrats.us earlier this week.

There is NOTHING bad or shameful about being a liberal.

I am a PROUD liberal.

I am a NINJA liberal.

I am an in-yer-face liberal.

Always have been.

Always will be.

And I make no apologies for that.

[LVdem]

34. If by “Liberal” you mean...

I am an open minded soul who LISTENS to and THINKS about new ideas to better our country, so call me.