In 1964, it was considered a virtue to be a liberal. FDR's legacy was strong. Liberals brought us victory in World War II, social security, voting rights for African-Americans, a tough stance against Communism, and Camelot. On the big issues, the liberal agenda was dominant.
But the divisive Vietnam War, the race struggles of the '60's, women's rights, and finally, the presidency of Jimmy Carter brought an end to the time when being considered a "liberal" was a badge of honor.
Liberals became associated with being soft on crime and softer on defense. Liberals burned bras and loved abortion, they wanted to save the spotted owl at the cost of real jobs, they were welfare queens who took every penny they could from the government while having more and more kids, and most of all, liberals became associated with higher taxes - so that welfare queens could have more kids and get more money from hard working, middle-income Americans.
Today, candidates run from the term "liberal." Liberals want to be known as liberals as much as they want to be referred to as pornographers, which conservatives would say is how liberals prefer to be known.
Today's liberals have found peace with the term "progressive." There are no liberals anymore. There are only progressives.
Conservatives used to be on the fringe, but Ronald Reagan changed all that. He was sunny, optimistic, morning in America after Jimmy Carter's malaise. He brought Democrats to the Republican Party - "Reagan Democrats," the people who voted against their own interests to support a political party that did not want them to have health insurance, good wages, or equal education. The country that voted for Reagan overwhelmingly never sided him on the issues; they sided with Reagan because of his charm.
Reagan and the conservative agenda were considered winners. Conservatives could crow that the Cold War is over, tax rates are at historical lows, welfare queens have traded in their crowns for a paycheck, and Republicans have been in the Oval Office for 20 of the last 28 years.
But today's conservatives, armed with victories, had to find a new agenda. Without Reagan's affable personality, they had to try to settle on winning issues. Conservatives instead settled on an agenda that represents an incredible misreading of where the country stands on the issues. Conservatives went from talking about low taxes, fiscal responsibility, and a strong defense to irresponsible spending, irresponsible wars, ignoring global warming, creationism, big oil, neglecting the basic services of government and, finally, conservatives are now the group that promotes torture.
In the Republican primaries, Mitt Romney determined that he needed to sell his soul to appeal to the conservative - the Rush Limbaugh - wing of his party. It turned out, he was many years behind the times because the talk show hosts do not represent the real Republicans out there, any more than Al Sharpton represented my parents and their view of liberalism.
Real conservatives - real conservatives want to keep taxes low, government responsible, and maintain a strong defense. And there's no reason for conservatives to abhor the environment and distrust science. Those views are products of this very political moment, and many conservatives know it. But those conservatives cannot be heard, because they do not have the power in the Republican Party. Ann Coulter speaks for conservatives.
You can't be a proud conservative anymore, because being a conservative does not mean what it meant 20 years ago, when Reagan's second term ended. George W. Bush destroyed what Reagan built. If W is a conservative, then the word "conservative" is a going to be a four-letter word for a long time, and to confirm it, we just not George Carlin to put in his "Seven Dirty Words" stand-up routine.
John McCain cannot run as far to the right as conservatives want him to run, because if he runs that far right, he will fall off what the right-wing believes to be a flat earth.
Soon, conservatives may not want to be known as conservatives at all. Perhaps they'll be non-progressives. I don't know. I'm not a conservative, so I can't coin the term that best describes their views.
But conservatives are about to enter the long, dark political wilderness. If Senator Obama becomes President Obama, as I expect, the political fights of the last 20 years will recede. There will still be fights, to be sure, but they won't have the same venom they have had for the last couple of decades. Progressivism will rise. The Republican Party will have a fringe on the right, but it will gradually move back toward the center, where it was 30 years ago.
Eventually, conservatism, if it wants to return, will have to enter a political rehabilitation program and emerge with a new identity. It won't look to Ronald Reagan for answers, for the aforementioned reason that much of the country did not agree with Reagan on the issues, but they did agree with his charm, which the far-right (Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter) has none of right now.
If they are smart, conservatives will instead look to Teddy Roosevelt. Pro-business, pro-defense, pro-environment.
But that rehabilitation is years from now. Today's conservatives are yesterday's liberals. And today, there is no such thing as a liberal.
The big difference ...
"Liberal" got tarnished due to an intense, prolonged smear campaign by the Right, lasting about 30 - 40 years.
"Conservative," however, got tarnished due to a prolonged period of ascendancy of the Right, lasting about 6 years (going on 8).
In both cases, it was the Right who were responsible for making the label a term of derision.
Conservatism is smallpox blankets, segregation, immigration quotas, the kkk, the cofcc, the silver shirts, "traditionalism" (which really has nothing to do with tradition), bent up coat hangers, prohibition (synonymous with "conservatism"), unchecked greed in the form of deregulation, child molestation, death penalties, oh, the list goes on and on.
Liberal is the new Black.
It's time for liberals to use the word as a badge of honor. Liberalism founded this country and made it great.
Hiding behind the word "progressive" because pollsters and media consultants says the word "liberal" is bad branding has not helped the left in this country or the Democratic Party.
The media and the general public use the word liberal. Trying to get them to use the word progressive against their natural inclination to use the word liberal isn't working.
Word switching has been tried. A much better approach and it is one that will have to be done anyway is for Democrats to rally around the word liberal, but remind people what liberalism is. If one believes in freedom of religion, speech, and though, he is a liberal. If one believe that the separation of church and state benefits them both, he is a liberal. If one believes in empowering citizens over institutions, that person is a liberal. If one believes is equality, diversity and variety, that person is a liberal. If one believes in civil liberties, due process, inalienable rights from the Great Creator, and equality of everyone before the law, one is a liberal. Conservatives fought all these things throughout history.
Remember, in the 1960's, liberals were arguing for civil rights while conservatives were arguing for "states rights."
We've let conservatives define the word "liberal" too long. Running away from the word hasn't worked. Let's take the word back and then shout it to the heavens, then let us stand up and be counted.
Conservatives don't even like conservativism.
Progressive = Liberal = Socialist = Green. You make up whatever name sounds better in the public sphere.
Anarchist = Libertarian = Conservative. The name Libertarian was made up in Victorian-era France when the word "Anarchist" was banned from public discussion. You, sir, are an anarchist.
Neoconservative = Fascist. Can you imagine how the public discourse would flex if George W. Bush just came out and told you he was a fascist? Liberals have no problem calling people fascists but they take a lot of heat for using "watch words," but that's what the neocons are.
We're all having the same discussions, we're just changing the words around.
This progress is nothing new. Your ideology, no matter who you are, is an old ideology and part of an ever ongoing back-and-forth in public discourse. We'll hate the ideas just as much or love the ideas just as much, we'll just look at them differently because the name changes.
Look how quickly Bush seized power under an expressly fascist ideology by using the exact same arguments Mussolini and Hitler used. No wonder Europe hates us.
The first neoconservative was Richard Nixon. I'm not sure about Gerald Ford's ideology, but Ronald Reagan was just another neoconservative no matter which way you slice it. Modern conservatism is "the Reagan Revolution," that is to say, it's plainly and simply fascist.
...and yes, reagan, in principle was a conservative. but the alzeimer ridden puppet never followed through with sound money or a reduction in government spending. in fact, he rolled out the red carpet for neocons.
and i agree with the other poster. neoconservatism and neoliberal are the same animal, decided upon on the Hill. It is an elite plutocracy all the while they shovel the red and blue pills to us to keep us divided. they are cfr globalists. we have no national, constitutional statesmen anymore...either party....save kucinich or paul (in fact they are respectful friends).
people really don't get it. "change", "experience" blah blah blah....its all a ruse. look at their records, ALL of them save the two mentioned are voting to end the U.S. period.
The conservative south began the Civil War. A conservative president ran us into the Great Depression. Conservatives wanted a non-aggression pact with Germany. A conservative president has alienated the entire world from us, added 50% to the nation debt, burned our military out, made it a personal goal to destroy the US Constitution, and failed to capture the man responsible for 9/11.
Conservatism may sound good, but fails every time in reality. No conservative country is wealthy, no conservative country remains conservative without a secret police to put down dissension.
said the living Urban Liberal, who has spent his time in the wilderness... Enjoy yours.