Why has the label "liberal" taken on a negative connotation?

Question

Liberal means:
1.Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.
2. Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.

Miss D allready asked, but I wanted to ask too.

Answer 1

When the hippocritical right-wing used abortion,gay rights,and other personal freedoms as a platform to make anyone who supported those individual freedoms seem weak and anti-christian. I am sick of hearing conservatives complain about the "liberal" media,every time I turn on my television I see lunatics like Sean Hannity,O'Reilly,Pat Robertson,etc. etc. etc. The title for a movie about the Bush administration should be "The brainwashing of America". If people only knew what this country is really up to...I think a civil war would not be out of the question. I am a liberal and proud. I am not ashamed to say that I support everyones civil rights not just people like myself. Variety is what makes life great. If the conservatives had their way,everyone would dress the same(boring),worship the same god,have sex only in the missionary position,and do only things that their preacher tells them to. I will die before living the way the conservatives want me to live. I hear conservatives call liberals "bleeding hearts" . That is amazing,since when was it a bad thing to care about others? I thought that is what their bible tells them to do....oh thats right...they only talk about the bible,they dont live it. What a bunch of moronic hippocrites. Yeah,I am liberal and damn proud of it...nothing any of you conservative a******* can do about it either!

Answer 2

It is a tatic....that has been going on for years and years.
Modern politics is like selling a product, the stupid hear liberal in negative context over and over and eventually become convinced not because they can reason but because of marketing stratagies...my favorite example is the war hero Senator Max Cleland... they associated him with Osma...he lost three limbs serving our country.

The most intellectual answer i can give you involves the conservative roots and ideolgoy based on the the Peter Viereck writings. Basically the term and movement came to represent a backlash to the 1918 revolution in russia and the bloodshed. An educated person can tell you what happended in Russia wasn't liberal, progressive, or power to anyone of the people....but with the help of McCarthism and fanatics....Russia and Liberal became associated....
if you look at some of the dumber posters they will associate communism and socialism in their insults...the funny thing is i don't think they could tell you the diffrence between the two terms.

Answer 3

I don't think there term liberal has negative connotations per se, it is just that in America's recent past, the 'Liberal' politicians have not been good capitalists. They have not understood how to create wealth, only tried to 'redistribute' wealth, and make society more 'fair.' In carrying out their policies, they have often made the economy suffer, and the end results were the opposite of what they had hoped for. Most people want a more fair society, and more equality - economically - for all the people.

But, in fact, life is tough and competitive. The smarter, more talented, harder working people usually make more money than less intelligent, less talented and less hard working people. A social safety net is 'fair' up to a point, but at the point at which a net encourages people to study less, work less hard, expect society to take care of them, instead of them being a productive part of society, then it has passed the point of positive benefits. It is what is called the 'back side of the power curve.' If you increase effort at that point, the results will be less, not more.

Liberals have not been able to sense the power curve in economics, and only seem to want to do more, when doing less would actually be more productive.

The political trials and tribulation of the last 50 years are beginning to produce a citizen who can think this out from experience, and no longer believes that the government should always do more for the people. Unfortunately, there are already millions of people who depend on government help in order to survive. The 'Liberal' politician is sorely tempted to appeal to this group to get elected. The appeals are obvious to everyone, and many people attach negative connotations to the term liberal because of it.
;-D Go get a job young man. Experience the real world. Work hard for your money and see how your ideas change.

PS. As the minimum wage has gone up, American jobs have been exported over to countries where people will work for less. This is an example of the back side of the power curve. If you raise the minimum wage, more workers will lose their jobs. The cost of living is high, and workers want more money. That is understandable. But now, American workers, who are as productive - or more productive - than any workers in the world, are losing their jobs to the world labor market. When you call for tech support, and a guy with a strong accent says "Welcome to tech support. I am you tech support technician. My name is George. I help you pretty soon ok? Please call me George. You service request will be handled in the order it was received. You query will be answered in about 45 minutes. Please hold." ... You know that tech support has been shipped over-seas. Just like millions of other jobs. I am sure there are many Americans who can do that job better, and would be willing to do it for less than the minimum wage. But they are out of work, and some of them make more from social aid than the minimum wage. So the workers who are still working have to support those who are not working. And it is only going to get worse until Americans dig in and get tough re the world labor market.

;-D Sorry for the rant.

Answer 4

capitalized : a member or supporter of a liberal political party or an advocate or adherent of liberalism especially in individual rights

If you are looking for an actual answer, which I don't think you are, Liberal became a term with negative connotations when it became synonymous with defending the President of the United States lies concerning his sexual misconduct. You can use your favorite news archive to look at the word Liberal before and after.

Answer 5

I'd like to know, as well. The term simply implies progression. Whoever thinks negatively of liberals, thinks negatively of moving forward, and progressing. Things change with time, it's natural.

Answer 6

That is funny...because the only time I have ever heard anyone take offense to the word, is when some one calls someone who is liberal...a liberal. You tell me when liberals decided they didn't like the label.

Answer 7

"Liberal" takes on a negative connotation because being "liberal" is not being patriotic, being "liberal" is apparently against the government, and being "liberal" goes against everything it means to be "american".
Also many liberals are for gay rights, and that's very "bad" as well.
Just my two cents, though I'm "sorry" if my "opinion" sounded a bit sarcastic.

Answer 8

When liberal stopped meaning "liberal" and started meaning "socialist", "communist", "drug-addict", "baby-killer", "godless anarchist", "gangbanger", "sodomist", and stopped being a rational point of view. Why do liberals hold candlelight vigils for mass murderers, and then flush aborted babies down the toilet?

Answer 9

C'mon. That's obvious. Once that became the term of the political left, which most people believe to be out-of-touch cornballs.

Answer 10

When Rush Limbaugh and Anne Coulter started spouting their vile nonsense.