Yes, I'm a liberal if..

[mvd]

Liberal means protecting our civil liberties (the terrorists REALLY won when the Patriot Act was enacted)

Liberal means tax fairness (NOT thinking of ways to gouge the middle class)

Liberal means eliminating poverty is a more noble goal than making Halliburton richer

Liberal means everyone having access to health care

Liberal means keeping a religion from controlling everyone else

Liberal means standing up for the worker

Liberal means making sure that corporations don't have free reign to make your life miserable

Liberal means not going to war over lies and false intelligence

Liberal means protecting a woman's right to choose, and therefore also some lives

Liberal means equality for all races, both sexes, and people of all sexual orientations

Liberal means protecting our natural habitat and keeping our air and water reasonably clean

So next time you are called a liberal by a right winger, tell him/her what it really means! Feel free to add to my list.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

1. Hear Hear!!!!! And

For the record, Any time a rw'r calls me a liberal I say "Damn fucking right I am, You fucking Parrot"

[mvd]

2. Good one

And Kerry should have had a retort when told he was a liberal in the debates!

[ET Awful]

3. I'll just quote Jack Kennedy

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." JFK 9/14/60

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

[mvd]

5. That's a good contribution to this thread!

Why look to the past when things never worked in the first place?

[HillDem]

17. AMEN

Its a shame its become a dirty word.

Lets make it a compliment!

[CrispyQ]

23. That is such a wonderful speech.

I printed it out & sent it to my mother, who supported & loved JFK, but has since turned into a fearful, racist repub who loathes liberals, sometimes, I suspect, including me.

[niallmac]

4. Very good list. I have written a list like that. Many DUers have

pointed out the liberal moral code you so clearly itemized. My question; Why can't our own party state our principals as easily as we the plebes can?

[mvd]

7. They think people are hopelessly scared of the word

But it's not too late to educate when liberal means the things it does.

[Just Me]

6. I always thought those things did mean "liberal".

:hug: Then, the RW radicals came along and maligned the beauty of "liberal".

[Conker]

8. It's a shame that being a liberal is looked so down upon these days.

It just shows you how conservative the country has gotten.Bill Maher mentioned that "liberal" is used now as a derogatory word.

[Nitrogenica]

9. Smearing Liberals is the worst tragedy of our age.

How does one fight and try to be balanced when IMBALANCE rules our country.

[OKNancy]

10. Very nice mvd!

Recommended and I'll save this too.
Thanks

:hi:

[mvd]

11. Thanks, OKNancy!

Glad you liked it. I want to prove how being liberal does not mean being extreme.

[Just Me]

16. "Liberal" means open to solutions, understanding, progressive,...

,...compassionate, mindful, tolerant, balanced.

Only EXTREME right-wing fascists could take something so positive to humanity and malign it.

I have to say, though,...I sincerely believe the RW radicals abuse of the word "liberal" is betraying their ambitions. Unlike the neocons, I do believe in the American people's wherewithall, albeit seemingly slow but mindful of the intentional wager of manipulative scheming against them.

[mvd]

18. I can't believe that we..

haven't tried to tag RWers as extremists. Kerry did it in the primaries, but not much in the GE.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

12. I also feel strongly

that being liberal means protecting the weakest & most fragile among us.

best

[I Have A Dream]

13. I always think of Atticus Finch of "To Kill A Mockingbird"...

where he refuses to allow other people to define a term for him. I know that being a liberal is an extremely honorable thing to be, and I aspire to be a good liberal.

(I have a conservative co-worker who refuses to believe that I'm a liberal because he likes me, and he can't imagine that he could like a liberal.)

[chknltl]

22. My suggestion to you I Have A Dream:

and I love the name btw.
Sounds to me like there is potential for some honest dialog here between you and your conservative co-worker. Might I suggest that you invite him out after work for a beer and further discussions.
As a member of the Democratic Underground you have access to the information needed to deprogram this co-worker. If he comes up with spin that you have difficulty with let him know that you will look further into the matter and get back to him with the results of your research. Then bring it here, somebody in the DU will have the facts that you can take back to him. Basically you are starting out with the moral high-ground, the knowledge high-ground and the truths that your co-worker does not have access to. When it is all said and done you may not have totally deprogrammed this person but you may be able to start him down that road.

Why go to all this trouble you ask? First off America is broken. The republican leaders WANT us to remain divided, it provides a further smoke screen to hide some of the crap that they are getting away with. The more folks we can unite behind fixing America, the more votes we may find in Democratic coffers. Shouting and screaming at someone is never gonna swing a vote but calm steady dialog and presenting the truth and the data to back up these truths can. If everyone in the Democratic Underground could try this tactic and attempt to deprogram just 1 conservative then think of all those votes we might swing away from the republican side.

You might get nowhere with this character but it sounds like you have your foot in the door with him already. I feel that the pendulum is swinging back toward us liberals. I think it is important that we help that swing along. With a bit of work I feel that we can regain Democracy in America. There will be a lot of healing necessary after we reveal to the all just what ugliness has been perpetrated upon the world by those who have hijacked the republican party. My suggestions here may help in that healing process. That co-worker of yours is not your enemy, it sounds to me like he is noticing this same thing about you.

I am considering creating a thread on this topic. I would love to hear your thoughts on it.

[I Have A Dream]

24. Thanks, chknltl. This person is a really good person.

He has a very different definition of liberal than what I have, and I don't fit his definition. I need to find out more clearly what his definition is. I don't know that we'll ever agree on what the definition is, but I'm working every day to show him how someone who considers herself to be a liberal acts to improve the world; I've noticed that he really notices things like this. This man, for some reason, still really supports B* and his cabal. I suspect that it's a family loyalty or something like that.

I will definitely think about what you said. It's a very good idea. We do have a wonderful resource in DU.

In reference to your idea of creating a separate thread on the topic, I think that this is also a good idea.

Thanks for your efforts in reference to replying to my post.

[SomewhereOutThere424]

14. How about...

Liberal means respecting freedom, not using the word like a cheap ho in a dark alley?

[mvd]

15. Yes, and..

being REAL patriots, not blind nationalists.

[kweerwolf]

19. I just love it when wingnuts accuse me of being a "lib'rul"

I proudly proclaim, "I sure am!"

I had one Repug tell me in response to that: "Well Ronald Reagan made 'liberal' a dirty word."

To which I answered: "Maybe. But Dubya turned the word 'conservative' into an obscenity. ... So go conservative yourself!"

[NMMNG]

20. Wonderful list

I love when somebody calls me a liberal, as if it's supposed to be an insult. I smile and thank them. :-)

[Festivito]

21. Liberal from liberty, freedom.

And, if both, CONs and LIBs, lie:
Libs lie to protect themselves and their family.
Cons lie to protect themselves and their family money.

Clinton lied* to protect himself, his family, and our country from prurient revelations.
Bush lied to Congress to protect his job money, his family military-industry money, and his benefactor's(Haliburton/Bechtel/..) money.

*Clinton clearly misled a foolish, antagonistic, lackluster prosecutor(who failed to adequately pursue questioning) but did not actually lie, using the Washington D.C. definition of "sexual relations" while testifying over TV from Washington D.C., since he did, indeed, NOT have "sexual relations" as he testified, with Monica Lewinsky as remains all too clearly outlined in the Ken Starr report. He did, later, correct the impression he made to the American people, that he did indeed have an inappropriate relationship, but he did not, would not, and could not in honesty, say he had "sexual relations."

[raccoon]

25. Great post. Those were important points you mentioned,

but I think the MOST important one, as far as what "liberal" means to most Bush supporters/freepers is:

"Liberal means equality for all races, both sexes, and people of all sexual orientations"

I believe a lot of people who deride "liberals" and "liberalism", if they were to be totally honest (assuming they could), what's in that sentence is what they really have a problem with--equality for all races, both sexes, and people of all sexual orientations. They want the blacks and Hispanics back working in the fields, women back in the kitchen, and queers back in the closet. They want to return to the rigid, dogmatic, bigoted thinking and legislation of yesteryear.

[mvd]

26. Good point, there

Makes me think that many right wingers must have insecurity to believe this way..