Has "liberal" become a dirty word?

Question

I live in Tennessee and, of course, the midterm elections are coming up. One of the candidates, a conservative Republican, keeps mentioning that the Democratic candidate is a liberal (he is more of a moderate), as if that is a bad thing. I think one of the worst things that has ever has happened to liberalism is that the liberals have become more moderate or don't call themselves liberals for fear of being slandered. Those who are liberals should be proud to call themselves liberals. Why? We liberals are and believe in:

Clean Air and Water.
Civil Rights.
Free Speech.
Pro-choice.
Pro-Environment
Progressive Taxation
Separation of Church and State.
Social Security.
Universal Healthcare.
Workers' Rights.

These are just a few issues, and having these ideas is in no way bad.

But, anyways, do you think that liberal has become a dirty word? Please give me your thoughts.

Thanks.

As a liberal, I believe in civil rights for everyone. Gay, straight, black or white; I think everyone should be equal under Law.

As a liberal, I believe in free speech for everyone, including conservatives or even Nazis. We cannot have a free society until people can say what they want.

We do not have separation of Church and State as much as I'd like.

Social Security is one of the best social programs we have had in the history of America, at least that is my opinion.

Universal healthcare would lower medical costs for everyone, not to mention EVERYONE would be insured.

Outsourcing is not the fault of unions, but of corporations who want to pay less just so they can get a couple more dollars. Talk about sick. And the unions have also stopped child labor and a large portion of the American population into the middle class. Not really a bad thing, eh?

Answer 1

Looking on from the other side of the Atlantic, I find it incredible that so many liberal(=Latin for "freedom loving" or "generous") thinking people are afraid of being called that.

They seem to have given in to those who use the word to denigrate political opponents. That is totally wrong. A lie does not become truth only because it's repeated over and over, but that seems to be the very successful strategy of the enemies of freedom everywhere, but especially in today's USA.

I think it is about time that you reclaim the word and start calling yourselves proudly Liberals again.

Answer 2

“Liberal” is not a dirty word at all but I can see what you mean. Most of the big mouths here don't have a clue about any group they just like screaming the BS they hear on the radio and television by the idiots on faux news. They actually think these neo-cons care about them while cheering them on while they pi** all over them. It must be an alternative universe most rational people will never understand. Always been a liberal and always damn proud of it.

Answer 3

For how many people?
Liberals and Conservatives alike keep harping on what they are doing for everyone, but the reality is that they can't do these things for the number of people we have RIGHT NOW in perpetuity.
The 'Progressive' tax system is nothing but a corporate handout. The cause of everything we need taxes for is consumption. Taxes should be based upon our level of consumption only.
Universal Healthcare is a grand, lovely idea to talk about, but nobody wants to pay for it because it doesn't exist as anything to do with HEALTH. What we have is two sides arguing over who gets to make money on all of the sick people created by our overconsuming, industrialized food advertising industry. (WE no longer have a farm economy at all: 90% of the money goes to marketing and packaging and pesticide companies like Monsanto)
Pro-Environment? No, the Organized Liberals are in favor of Environmental Groups, not the trees, the fish, or the air.
Free Speech? Bull. The Intellectuals and Democrats don't want anyone telling THEM that they are wrong about anything in History, Science, or Religion any more than the Conservatives do. As long as the tenured teachers can be provided with a health/life insurance program that also happens to be thier retirement fund and is paid for by 'the public', then the Liberals will keep pushing for increasing the cost of education, not the quality of it.
Workers Rights? Not in a minute. The only reason the Liberals use this as a talking point is because it fires up the Corporations to do even more spin on how we need more Free Trade to compete with other countries. The more fired up the Conservatives get, the more hush money is available to Democrat politicians.
Pro-Choice is just another term that means you want to solve the population problem, but not by SAYING you want to solve the population problem. Have the guts to stand up and say you want the right to kill babies. The Republicans want the right to torture prisoners, too. Babies are just prisoners without 'yard' time.
Separation of Church and State?!! You have GOT to be kidding me!! Try going to your local soccer game and telling all those soccer moms to stop damning the public school soccer coach. Liberals are all for separating the religions from the state as long as we don't stop worshipping their coercive 'me too' statistical control of children and forced education of kids too young to know better. OR their constant efforts to separate children from 'bad' parents who don't turn their kids into college-bound automatons.
You people, Liberals and Conservatives, are so brainwashed into thinking that you have any specific agenda that you don't realize how gullible you are to the cashflow of the corporations and how much money you are spending trying to be who you think your group wants you to be.
The money you spend IS the agenda. When you buy your hemp shoes, your pink freakin' ribbons, your 'support our troops' magnets, you are just enslaving even more people to the corporations who own your souls.
What will it take to wake you people up? Poison in every mother's breastmillk? Sea levels rising by 9 feet? 40,000 people dying on highways every year, driving to jobs to make more money to buy another car to drive to a job to advertise or design or manufacture or sell more crap that nobody needs?
WHAT WILL IT TAKE?
"Liberal" hasn't become a dirty word because it doesn't really MEAN ANYTHING!
"Conservative" is just a marketing word for a religion that worships the image of the false impression of America as some kind of bastion of hard working people.
The reality is that the people who claim to be Liberals are actually conserving their own *** in their particular environment (usually an urban enclave of coffee-sniffing, unskilled anorexic vegetarians), and the people who claim to be Conservatives are trying to cover their butts in their environment (church-going posers who SAY they believe in some kind of magic skybuddy while using every tool of science to coerce and steal money from anyone they can).

Answer 4

This is something that started with Ronald Reagan, in a speech to the repuglican (yes I know) convention in 1979 just after he was nominated. It seems to work and the less informed have bought into the word liberal as being dirty. I think he said something like that four letter word, liberal. It is a shame to me that something as shallow as this has become so prominent. I think to be a liberal is to be progressive and move things forward for the country.

Answer 5

Definitely. People say that Liberals are "whiny" or "bleeding hearts" because we actually care about things. They make it sound like we want to wrap terrorists in swaddling clothes and feed them cookies, when all we are saying is don't TORTURE people and hold them for years with no trial.

Why people would be so against any movement that wants to protect human rights and the environment is beyond me.

Remember, all of the laws and rights enjoyed in this country are because of radical liberals who protested and broke the mold! Our founding fathers left a land where they were opressed and started a new country. Damn liberals!

Answer 6

Liberals look for positive solution, therefore the conservatives think that "Liberal" is a bad word. A lot of us see that it is VERY positive, not negative. NeoCons like to simplify things for their addle minded followers, and if you have a different way to do things, you are bad/negative.

Answer 7

I see preferential civil rights
Only their speech should be free
We already have separation of Church and State, so I guess you must be referring to communist type destruction of church.
The democrats are the ones that put social security in the general fund and they've been spending like sailors ever since, and now they want to open the program up to the illegals too!
Universal health care is a socialist program that I do not want to pay for.
Workers rights- .....if you haven't noticed yet, the unions are what have driven all the jobs off shore.

They are also anti American, weak on defense, pro-Illegals pro higher taxes, larger social programs, failed education programs. And they whine alot too.

Answer 8

No, the word "liberal" has not become a dirty word. The people who keep insisting that "liberals" are bad, are the dirty Republicans!

Answer 9

Clean Air and Water. -- conservatives agree
Civil Rights. -- conservatives agree
Free Speech. -- conservatives agree
Pro-choice. -- the purest form of evil (murdering your own child is something to be proud of???)
Pro-Environment -- conservatives agree
Progressive Taxation --Progressive as in fair? or Progressive as in steal from the rich?
Separation of Church and State.-- conservatives agree
Social Security. --Slavery was dead, untill FDR brought it back.
Universal Healthcare. --More proposed slavery, lets keep fighting it.
Workers' Rights.-- conservatives agree


Liberals and Conservatives agree on many things. However, there are a few very important disagreements. The whole murdering of your own children and enslaving the population in social programs. These things are very, very, very bad ideas and are what make liberal a dirty word.

If you want the government to steal all of your money and run your life, that's your choice. Just don't try to force it on the rest of us.

Answer 10

Liberals represent Liberty, the opposite of what conservatives want.