Reclaiming liberalism

By The (liberal)Girl Next Door

There has been a distinct shift in political rhetoric over the last decade or so, and liberalism has taken a beating for sure. But is that really because, as a society, we made a conscious decision to reject liberalism, or is it a result of a targeted effort by the GOP to sully the word “liberal” and distort its meaning?

Michael wrote a beautiful post here last week about liberalism, and he makes a good argument that the United States has always been a liberal society. Regardless of the gains made recently by neo-conservatives and the religious right, we are already in the process of swinging back toward our more natural liberal center. I hope he is right, but what I got most out of his post is that liberalism is worth reclaiming. The bastardization of the word liberal that we on the left have allowed to go unchecked for so many years, must finally be countered, and the first step is claiming it for ourselves, loudly and proudly.

There is a reason that the word liberal reminds us of words like liberty and liberate. To be liberal is to give freely, as in “be liberal with the whipped cream on my all-American apple pie.” We exemplify the best of what this country has to offer and are responsible for the history most choose to embrace as the basis for what truly defines us as Americans. Liberal is defined as favorable to progress or reform. We want to continue to move forward, make progress, and reform what is wrong. In other words, we want to be liberal.

Even those who claim the label conservative most likely are not interested in stopping progress. Yet they have disdain for a political movement that, at its core, is about moving us forward and instead embrace an ideology that is all about stagnation. While Democrats have allowed the true meaning of liberalism to be forgotten, the GOP has been very effective at tying conservatism to tradition, as in traditional values. But to be true to our traditional values as a country, we would have to embrace liberalism, progress, and change.

Traditional, as far as the definition of conservative goes, means unchanging. Should we have held on to the tradition of denying women the right to vote? Should we have kept the tradition of segregation going? Traditional, when it comes to America, means being true to our founding principles. We have traditionally righted wrongs, we have traditionally striven to make a more perfect union, and we have a long tradition of being liberal, giving freely, and leading the way toward progress.

To be conservative is to be cautious, moderate, controlled, guarded, unimaginative, undaring, timid, and opposed to change. That doesn’t sound like America, but it also doesn’t sound like the Bush Administration. There is nothing moderate, cautious, or controlled about this president, and that is because he isn’t a conservative but rather a neo-conservative. In order to accurately describe this administration, we would need synonyms for neo-conservative, such as imperialist, grandiose, domineering, shortsighted, belligerent, elitist, corporatist, arrogant, obstinate, and preemptory. Again, these are not words that come to mind when we think of America.

We are advanced, enlightened, free, rational, reasonable, tolerant, big-hearted, and generous, all synonyms for liberal and all perfect descriptions of what America stands for. We are a liberal country, and it's time we started acting like it again.