What does it mean to be a liberal?

Question

I am a liberal. I am proud of that fact. I fear however, that few know what it really is to be liberal. The dictionary defines liberal as "Favoring or premitting freedom of action esp. with respect to matters of personal belief or expression". It is further defined as "Free from bigotry or predjudice, tolerant". However I have noticed people instantly jump to the conclusion that I as a liberal wish to demoralize this country to attack families and countless other ridiculous untrue assumptions. why? What is wrong with liberal as the dictionary defines it? I realize that many people simply make the mistake of lumping me in with the extremist liberals, but why? Liberal has become a foul word spoken with contempt. Yet it's very definition is favoring freedom and being tolerant. Wasn't this country founded on the ideal of freedom? I ask you what does liberal mean to you? Is it really so horrible?

Answer 1

The main issue those that use liberal as a "bad" word fear most is the loss of control. They say words they don't mean. They use the word "tradition" but they mean support of the current/past status quo, times where people "knew their place", where women were subservient and stayed home, where children did what was expected of them without question regardless of what dreams they had, where you were told what sort of people you did and did not associate with, and so on. They represent stagnancy and death.
Liberals. What "we" represent is freedom to dream, to strive for a better life for ourselves and others not shackled by things like "role" and "gender". Realizing that a female mechanic is perfectly acceptable, not questioning her femininity for taking a role that was traditionally male, looking beyond the gender of a couple and seeing that their hopes and dreams for themselves are the same that all people have, the desire to protect and provide for each other and work for a better life together, not worrying about irrelevant, silly things like "who is the woman" or "who washes the dishes and does the laundry", seeing a man cry and instead of thinking "he is weak" you realize he is in pain and try to comfort him.

Liberal. I can't think of a more noble thing to be.

Answer 2

A liberal is a person who is open to new ideas. This is very threatening to people who were cursed with closed minds and those brought up in orthodox religions and cults. The basis of these religions is that someone magical made rules thousands of years ago which we should still obey today.
Does it make any sense not to eat pork when trichinosis is pretty much non-existent in modern Ameirica?
Does it make sense to not make "graven images"?
How about honoring your father if he is a pedophile?
The other issue with liberal vs. conservative is that in some issues,their roles have reversed. One example is national debt. The "liberals" used to be accused of causing this. Yet, under Clinton we were well on our way to eliminating the national debt.
Under right wing conservative Bush, it has skyrocketed.
In summary, be proud you are liberal. It is a sign of an intelligent, open mind.

Answer 3

Do you really think the powers that be who have an interest in maintaining the status quo give a shite that you believe in any sort of fairness or social progress, and that they won't call you whatever type of idiot they can hope to make stick if it's in any way to their benefit?

Answer 4

There is a difference between a liberal and a liberator.

Answer 5

Anything goes...no matter how perverted, politically incorrect, corrupt, unAmerican, illegal, adulterated, and contradictory it is. Is it horrible to be that way? Only you can decide.

Answer 6

to be free