Why do Republican insist in assuming the word Liberal is a dirty word?

Question

The dictionary meaning of liberal is:"Generous in giving, bounteous, abundant, lavish a liberal reward, of or based on the liberal arts, a liberal education. Characterized by or favoring policies of reform and PROGRESS and generally opposing conservatism or reaction. NOT BIGOTED or PREJUDICED: BROAD MINDED. Not restricted to the liberal meaning: a liberal interpretation of a rule. One favoring a liberal policy or doctrines as in politics, religion, etc.

In my opinion a "Liberal" is an open minded person, and how can that be bad? To "hate" such a person would imply the person is a bigot and not in favor of reform? Too many people just go with what they have heard without bothering to look into, or open their minds to what being a liberal really means.
A conservative by meaning is opposed to change, and if this were the true American way we'd still be hanging witches and black people and women wouldn't vote. Perhaps some fear changes in society out of ignorance?

Answer 1

It's just an indicator of how partisan the USA has become. That conservatives treat the term 'liberal' as an insult and dismiss any 'liberal' issue is very sad. Global warming, for example, is treated as a 'liberal' issue and thus dismissed by many conservatives despite quite possibly being the most important issue in the history of mankind.

Answer 2

The world is made what it is by liberals. Think about the formation of the USA as an example. If it wasn't for liberal thought (in favour of change - to put it bluntly, flipping our finger to England) the US would probably still be under British rule. Liberalism is in favour of looking at options, rather than blind acceptance of the social quo. Liberalism is progress, liberalism is progression. Conservatism is staying as-is, the acceptance of things as they are, even if they are wrong. Like you said, if Conservatism was taken to the extreme, we'd still be burning "witches." (Or whatever one wants to use as a scapegoat). Too long liberals have let Conservatives paint the word "liberal" to mean immoral, or blindly accepting of everything. Which it isn't.

The only type of conservatism I like is fiscal conservatism, there is nothing wrong with being frugal, in conserving money. However many of the "great conservatives" of our time (the Bushes, Ronald Reagan, etc) have been too fiscally liberal, driving us into debt. Who was the last president to get the US a surplus? Oh yes, that dastardly liberal; Bill Clinton.

Answer 3

I do not know about the generalizations of most folks concerning liberals. Hanging labels on folks is getting rather out of hand.

I do think that change just for the sake of change is not always desirable. Being open minded is not a fault, but one must listen to ALL sides of a debate, by definition of being open minded. Being open minded does not, itself make one evil. Being able to be decisive does not make one evil either. Being narrow-minded is not necessarily evil, but can be problematic.

Narrow-minded goes in BOTH directions, as well. I have seen "liberals" who are so militant, I just avoid any contact with them. This hold true for "conservatives" as well. I am labeled conservative, but I choose to say that I am a sensible American, who does listen to well discussed debates, and enjoy exchanging ideas, and even hearing opposing ideas. I guess that would be labeled "moderate".

Answer 4

What a stupid generalization you've posited.
I also noticed that in your stupid bigotry, you only bothered to look up the one word - "liberal" without looking up the other word you seem so threatened by - "conservative". This kind of half-as*ed effort only serves to strengthen your own predjudice. Since you can't educate yourself, allow me to recite the definition for conservative: "Favoring traditional views and values; moderate." Nothing scary or threatening or wrong there. Just a different point of view.
How dare you lecture others about being open-minded when you post a stupid question like this. Who's the bigot here really?

Answer 5

They are liberal with everyone else's money but their own. They don't mind telling me to walk or ride a bike as long as they can fly their leer jets and drive their Suv's.
I am not opposed to change, Let's put GOD back in the school's, quit murdering innocent babies, and put into law that marriage according to GOD is between a man and woman. We do these things Our country will be where it needs to be. Right on Morals and Right on GOD~
Have a good day~

Answer 6

"conservatism or reaction. NOT BIGOTED or PREJUDICED: BROAD MINDED."

Where in the definition of Conservatism does it say this ?

You need to stop jumping on the liberal band wagon and look this up for yourself. You WILL be surprised at the definitions you find:

look up:
Conservatism
Liberalism
Democrat
Republican

In the political ideology, You WILL be shocked at what you discover.

Answer 7

Because people who:

Kill babies
Want to surrender to terrorists
Approve of using race to discriminate
Punish the successful
Reward the lazy
Hate America's leadership and history
Selectively legislate morality

are claiming the title of liberal. It seems to me the leftie loons are the ones who have given the term "liberal" a bad name...

Answer 8

I see it this way, if you want to call yourself liberal, be sure to accept everything that comes with it, that means you'll be liberal about everything including guns, abortion, education, etc...but today's liberals are hardly liberals, they are more like statists hiding under the liberal term. Conservatives are just that. They do not like change or anything of that sort, that is why they are called CONSERV(E)-(atives).

Answer 9

They spent years and thousands of propaganda dollars making "liberal" a dirty word. And Karl Rove has instructed his operatives, high and low, to continually call Democrats "liberals" this election season. That's why you see it here, all the time in the trolls questions and answers.

Answer 10

That's not all. To many of them, "moderate" is a dirty word. When Colin Powell was considering running for President, some of his fellow Republicans criticized him for being "too moderate." I think that's hilarious! That's like being "too sane" or "too rational". That's why they're steadily losing support. They think being extreme is a good thing, and most people don't agree,