What is a Liberal?

Question

On this board I see people saying liberals are anti-education. I see people saying liberals are determined to keep people poor and destroy the middle class. Liberals are actually communist. Liberals are supporting terrorism. Liberals are rich and arrogant. Liberals are poor and stupid.
So now I am curious. What do you think a liberal is? What do you think they advocate or stand for?
Now I am going to ask a real tough thing of some of you. Try to back up your answer with a verifiable fact or at least a generally accepted source.
If you want to say what conservatives stand for or advocate, as a comparrison, thats fine too.

From the small slice of people who have commented here I think I begin t see the problem. So far no one but Roy has provided even an attempt to support their definition of liberals. And while I think you Roy I have to say yours is simply a quote by Kennedy that really doesn't answer the question so much as glorify liberalism.
Were all guilty of this. Truthiness as Colbert would call it. Were so certain that we understand what liberals are that we don't bother to find out. If you ask someone what a Nazi is they might say its a bad person. If you pressed them on the issue they could probably summon a fact or two to back that up. They killed allot of people, they started a war. they had skulls on their uniforms. But ask why a liberal is bad or good and all you get is an opinion or a rumor. Some of us are hating liberals without the slightest clue as to why and others are supporting them for the same reason. I think ideas can be liberal and people have opinions on those ideas.

Answer 1

Here are the wikipedia definitions of liberalism and conservatism:

Liberalism refers to a broad array of related ideas and theories of government which advocate individual liberty. Liberalism has its roots in the Western Age of Enlightenment.

Broadly speaking, liberalism emphasizes individual rights and equality of opportunity. A liberal society is characterized by freedom of thought for individuals, limitations on power, the rule of law, the free exchange of ideas, a market economy, free private enterprise, and a transparent system of government in which the rights of all citizens are protected. In the 21st century, this usually means liberal democracy with open and fair elections, where all citizens have equal rights by law.

Conservatism is a relativistic term used to describe political philosophies that favor traditional values, where "tradition" refers to religious, cultural, or nationally defined beliefs and customs. The term is derived from the Latin, conservāre, to conserve; "to keep, guard, observe". Since different cultures have different established values, conservatives in different cultures have different goals. Some conservatives seek to preserve the status quo, while others seek to return to the values of an earlier time, the status quo ante.

Answer 2

A liberal is essentially a globalist, same with the conservatives...with the exception of Ron Paul. Both liberals and conservatives care only about a world government. Why haven't the liberals stopped the war? Why haven't they impeached Bush?

You should check out Ron Paul, you will like him.

Answer 3

In a nutshell, liberals believe that the government is better suited to deal with society's needs and problems than any other enterprise.

Conservatives believe the government only screws-up most of the tasks it tries to undertake.

Liberals aren't anit-education, but conservatives believe their methods of dealing with education are counter-productive.

Answer 4

Liberal = The best thing in the world

Answer 5

They are the people who care more than you about everything. They have a monopoly on caring. Usually you can measure the amount of caring in a liberal by how many ribbons he/she is wearing.

Because they care more than you, they're going to confiscate your money and give it to others who didn't earn it.

They're going to redistribute the wealth so that everyone is the same, nobody is more successful than anyone else because it's not fair. So you'd better not get too attached to that paycheck, because you have no right to keep that money when someone else earns less.

They are totally against success, unless it's a liberal who is succeeding. Anyone else who makes a lot of money is automatically branded as greedy, uncaring, and just plain evil. But if you're rich and you happen to be liberal, they shower you with praise because you're so caring (i.e. Barbara Streisand). Hypocrisy at its finest.

They are the people who scream "Racism!" when someone suggests equality for all races. Liberals don't want equality--they want special treatment and quotas. And if you're white, you're automatically a racist...of course.

They are the teachers in our schools who would rather teach kids to feel good about themselves instead of those boring ol' essentials like math and reading. They try to eliminate competition by doing away with grade systems and rewards for achievement. And we wonder why our country is academically one of the dumbest on the planet.

They think you're stupid. They don't think you can do anything for yourself, that you have to have a government program to succeed in life. If you are black, they think you're incapable of succeeding on your own without racist quotas.

They think you want dirty air and filthy water if you don't agree with federal land-grabs and radical environmentalists.

To sum it up: you're worthless without them, so just bend over and take it. =)

Answer 6

A "Liberal" is any scapegoat a Conservative can find- to blame our Countries problems on.

Answer 7

Liberals base their economic and social philosophy on emotion. Conservatives on rational thought.

Answer 8

What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But 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."

This is my political credo:

I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves.

I believe also in the United States of America, in the promise that it contains and has contained throughout our history of producing a society so abundant and creative and so free and responsible that it cannot only fulfill the aspirations of its citizens, but serve equally well as a beacon for all mankind. I do not believe in a superstate. I see no magic in tax dollars which are sent to Washington and then returned. I abhor the waste and incompetence of large-scale federal bureaucracies in this administration as well as in others. I do not favor state compulsion when voluntary individual effort can do the job and do it well. But I believe in a government which acts, which exercises its full powers and full responsibilities. Government is an art and a precious obligation; and when it has a job to do, I believe it should do it. And this requires not only great ends but that we propose concrete means of achieving them.

Our responsibility is not discharged by announcement of virtuous ends. Our responsibility is to achieve these objectives with social invention, with political skill, and executive vigor. I believe for these reasons that liberalism is our best and only hope in the world today. For the liberal society is a free society, and it is at the same time and for that reason a strong society. Its strength is drawn from the will of free people committed to great ends and peacefully striving to meet them. Only liberalism, in short, can repair our national power, restore our national purpose, and liberate our national energies. And the only basic issue in the 1960 campaign is whether our government will fall in a conservative rut and die there, or whether we will move ahead in the liberal spirit of daring, of breaking new ground, of doing in our generation what Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and Adlai Stevenson did in their time of influence and responsibility.

Our liberalism has its roots in our diverse origins. Most of us are descended from that segment of the American population which was once called an immigrant minority. Today, along with our children and grandchildren, we do not feel minor. We feel proud of our origins and we are not second to any group in our sense of national purpose. For many years New York represented the new frontier to all those who came from the ends of the earth to find new opportunity and new freedom, generations of men and women who fled from the despotism of the czars, the horrors of the Nazis, the tyranny of hunger, who came here to the new frontier in the State of New York. These men and women, a living cross section of American history, indeed, a cross section of the entire world's history of pain and hope, made of this city not only a new world of opportunity, but a new world of the spirit as well.

Answer 9

misguided person needing a third party