Posted on 07/29/2007 9:27:12 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
The greatest triumph that conservatives ever achieved is to make liberals embarrassed to call themselves "liberal."
That thought came to mind as I watched Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton rhetorically wriggle her way, as so many liberals do, right out of using the "L-word" to describe herself.
During the CNN/YouTube debate by Democratic presidential candidates, Clinton was asked, "How would you define the word 'liberal' and would you use this word to describe yourself?"
Briefly she showed off her knowledge of the word's various meanings over the past, oh, century or two.
She pointed out how the word used to mean that "you were for the freedom to achieve, that you were willing to stand against big power and on behalf of the individual."
She lamented that the word "in the last 30, 40 years" has been "turned up on its head" and "made to seem as though it is a word that describes big government."
So, she said, she would rather call herself a "modern progressive" who "believes strongly in individual rights and freedoms" and "working together" to "find ways to help those who may not have all the advantages in life get the tools they need to lead a more productive life for themselves and their family."
Nice speech. Historically accurate too. Early liberals were opposed to the oppression brought on by big government. Adam Smith, a founding father of free-market "invisible hand" capitalism, was a classic liberal in that sense.
E-mail: cptime@aol.com
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
BTW, their preferred word "progressive" conjures up memories of Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, and Mao, to me anyhow.
Around 1948.
When the Communists hijacked the word.
Doesn't her latest scheme include indoctrinating 3-year-olds? Throw out liberal and go with hardcore leftist...
“Liberal” became a dirty word in the 20s when Progressives tried to hide their connection to Progressivism by adopting the name “liberal” in a typically sleazy PR attempt to connect themselves to America’s long liberal tradition as epitomized by the philosphy of America’s founding fathers.
Maybe the DNC can have a ceremonial burial of the L word like the NAACP did for the N word...
About the same time they wanted us to believe that Pro-choice was a clean word?
About the same time gay became a dirty word.
When “moonbat” became too hard to spell...
During FDR's reign... and certainly no later than his pick of Henry Wallace for VP.
> “Liberal” became a dirty word in the 20s when
> Progressives tried to hide their connection to
> Progressivism by adopting the name “liberal” ...
And they’re hoping we’ve forgotten that “progressive”
was itself just another euphemism for political tribalism:
collectivism, socialism and communism.
Being mostly government-school-damaged,
liberals may have no clue about the history
of their attempt to disguise their agendas.
_________
That doesn’t mean the rest of us are fooled.
“Liberal” is a fine term with me. It describes all leftists who are not dedicated Marxists.
Ms. William Jefferson Clinton’ progressive movement started in her college days….it is just another way to say Socialism or Communism, devoid of Republican values or capitalism.
When the truth about Liberal became known. Now they hide behind other words like Progressive to mask their communist ideology.
Their communist utopia in the Soviet Union put a Bloody Stain on Liberal so now they run from the word like Pacifists from a War.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Ever since I always started putting the word in “quotes”.
“Liberal” just means smug, arrogant, condescending, self-righteous, intolerant, nanny fascist to me. That’s what “liberals” are.
The GOP refers to them as "Liberals".
There hasn't been a GOP pol with guts since Joe McCarthy.
Now, we have to call ourselves Libertarians, a word which used to mean "Anarchist."
In regard to #14, I meant to say “devoid of the values that are those of a Republic, also the freedom of capitalism.
A better question might be... “WHO dirtied the word liberal?”
Answer: FDR, the Kennedy’s, Jabob Javits, Jimmy Cater, Dukakis, the Clintons.
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