Say it out loud, I'm Liberal and I'm Proud
Does anybody else on this side of the spectrum get tired of the relentless march to the word, “progressive”? It’s not that I have anything against it per se – indeed it’s a good word for what we stand for. No, it’s just that it so totally signals fear of being called – Heaven forbid! – “liberal.” John Kerry, a good man neutered by his hand-wringing consultants, treated the word like fightin’ words when he was “accused” of being the fourth most liberal Senator.
Why can’t anybody in power within the powerless Democratic Party recognize that we need to resurrect that fine word, “liberal,” to describe policies like, oh, let’s see, Social Security insurance against poverty in the non-working years of old age, medical insurance to protect anyone and everyone from being financially wiped out by a health crisis, or a reasonable minimum wage within shouting distance of the poverty line. Or maybe keeping PCBs out of your favorite river? George Soros, you want someplace to use your money productively over the next couple of years? How about weekly, prominent full page ads, in every Red State newspaper with a circulation over 50,000, aggressively challenging the mythology built by lying scoundrel right wing extremists? “Think you know what is a liberal is? People who want to destroy Social Security are not liberal. If you believe in not destroying Social Security, maybe you’re a liberal, too?”
A new “What is a liberal?” message, short and sweet, 5-letter Anglo-Saxon words or less – please, no Washington consultants or policy gurus need apply for writing them – could be done every week: over 9 or 12 months, scores of them week-by-week destroying the false edifice the right wing has constructed. Affordable? Yes. By 2008, the Democratic candidate should be ready to say, in Debate No. 1 for max impact, “Thank you for the compliment, Mr. Republican idiot. Damn straight I’m a liberal, and nobody who’s not liberal, which we can assume includes you, deserves to be President.” O Happy Day – Here Again!
Why can’t anybody in power within the powerless Democratic Party recognize that we need to resurrect that fine word, “liberal,” to describe policies like, oh, let’s see, Social Security insurance against poverty in the non-working years of old age, medical insurance to protect anyone and everyone from being financially wiped out by a health crisis, or a reasonable minimum wage within shouting distance of the poverty line. Or maybe keeping PCBs out of your favorite river? George Soros, you want someplace to use your money productively over the next couple of years? How about weekly, prominent full page ads, in every Red State newspaper with a circulation over 50,000, aggressively challenging the mythology built by lying scoundrel right wing extremists? “Think you know what is a liberal is? People who want to destroy Social Security are not liberal. If you believe in not destroying Social Security, maybe you’re a liberal, too?”
A new “What is a liberal?” message, short and sweet, 5-letter Anglo-Saxon words or less – please, no Washington consultants or policy gurus need apply for writing them – could be done every week: over 9 or 12 months, scores of them week-by-week destroying the false edifice the right wing has constructed. Affordable? Yes. By 2008, the Democratic candidate should be ready to say, in Debate No. 1 for max impact, “Thank you for the compliment, Mr. Republican idiot. Damn straight I’m a liberal, and nobody who’s not liberal, which we can assume includes you, deserves to be President.” O Happy Day – Here Again!
posted by KISSWeb | 12:05 AM
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