How come eveyone who opposes bush and his policies is labled as a liberal?

Question

When did liberal become an insult and a reason to render an opinion as null and void? Are all Democrats liberals? Are all the republicans who oppose Bush's handeling of this country liberals? Or, is this another linguistic ploy? (i.e global climate change, instead of global warming.. etc)

Answer 1

It is what is known as propaganda. I know Republicans and even some conservatives who oppose the Administration but in the simplistic minds of the people who support the Administration they would all be liberals.

Hermann Goering, second in command of the Third Reich and key founder of the Nazi party, said; “Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger”.

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else"
- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States

Ben Franklin quote
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
New Bumper Stickers
That's OK, I Wasn't Using My Civil Liberties Anyway

And finally a few new bumper stickers

Let's Fix Democracy in This Country First

If You Want a Nation Ruled By Religion, Move to Iran

Bush. Like a Rock. Only Dumber.

If You Can Read This, You're Not Our President

Bush: God's Way of Proving Intelligent Design is Full Of Crap

We Need a President Who's Fluent In At Least One Language

Answer 2

The truth is there are basically two political philosophies in America. There is the Conservatives that lean to the right and Liberals that lean to the left. Liberal was never a dirty word before. What happened is some very vocal democrats bought into a far more socialist philosophy and moved too far left. The took the label of Liberal with them.

Well, that philosophy was so resoundingly rejected by the American voters during the Reagan years that many democrats abandoned the label and re-named their philosophy "Progressive". The problem now for the democrats is that they have been reluctant to jettison the far left socialists in their party and that has allowed the far left to dictate to the more moderate progressive democrats and the blue dog conservative democrats.

The conservatives refer to anyone who has a view contrary to the conservative view, a liberal.
I has always been so and no one had a problem with it until the socialists made off with it. Now most democrats find the word to be poison and try to avoid it's use. For the Republicans, the title of conservative is as it always was so they have no problem referring to themselves as conservative. No problem at all.


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Answer 3

First of all, what is a Liberal? Does this mean a Liberal person is a sane person, willing to see that the right things are done for all people? If so, then count me as a Liberal. I hate for the United States to be at the beck and call of someone who makes decisions that costs others their lives. Bush's decision to keep this war going has cost us many young men's lives. This is not what should be happening.

Answer 4

There are so many who oppose President Bush's policies that there are sure one heck of a lot of Liberals in this country! If Liberal means Democrat, where does that leave the Republicans?

Answer 5

Asami, you are wise, I only hope more people ask the same question.

The answer is that corporate interests control the media, and use the media to distract the general public from their true agenda by continuously keeping a ideological argument going where there really is no argument. It's not a ploy, it's a distraction from real issues and a means of directing attention away from their real objectives.

Divide and conquer, it works as well in politics as it does in war. So long as the general public appears to be divided, elections can be rigged with the semblance of legitimacy. Policy passed through Congress without notice or dissent.

Answer 6

By setting up an "us versus them" mentality, the Bush administration hoped to maintain popularity by ostracizing anyone who disagreed with the general consensus. What they didn't anticipate was that their plans were be so poorly thought out that the American public would realize how corrupt and incompetent they were, and thus the tide would turn against them. The term "liberal" as a pejorative only exists in the rhetoric of the far right, and the rest of reality is going to proceed without them.

Answer 7

It really is just a ploy to try and discourage people. The Bush camp is not at all open to any suggestion that does not further his interestes in oil.

Anyone who points out the illegal activities of Bush and cronies is labeled by the administration as an enemy. No doubt, y posts here ad at my own forums and blog are monitored (see Patriot Act).

Answer 8

It's just hate rhetoric from the Bush bots. Everyone who has a problem with the mismanagement and chaos of this war gets called a liberal. It's funny to me because I guess they think 70% of the population, who oppose this war, are all liberals. Apparently even Sen. John Warner, a staunch Republican, who has publicly voiced his opposition to Bush's new surge plan. To them, if you don't have to wipe the brown stinky stuff off of your nose every night you must be one of those damn liberals. It's getting more ridiculous every day.

Answer 9

Linguistic ploy & why people fall for it, is beyond me.
I'm very proud to be liberal & one of the people who
sees liberals as knowledgable & caring about humanity.

You'll notice I don't resort to name calling as in the
answer below me. Another person who thinks she knows
how I think. Geez!

Answer 10

Liberal is not a bad word, nor is Conservative..it is the extreme, left-wing, radical Secular progressives& the extreme, radical, right wing, Christian Conservatives that you might be thinking of....there are very moderate Liberals as well as moderate Conservatives & it's it's within this group of people whose opinions have a tendency to be more reasonable...but, not always!