Liberal Definition of “Liberal”
By Anthony | February 13th, 2006 | 11:23 pmWhat does it take to be considered a “liberal”? Not that much these days – it’s very easy to qualify. As Glenn Greenwald writes, a large number of self-proclaimed conservatives will bestow the liberal label on someone for nothing more than expressing disagreement with George W. Bush:
It used to be the case that in order to be considered a “liberal” or someone “of the Left,” one had to actually ascribe to liberal views on the important policy issues of the day – social spending, abortion, the death penalty, affirmative action, immigration, “judicial activism,” hate speech laws, gay rights, utopian foreign policies, etc. etc. These days, to be a “liberal,” such views are no longer necessary.
Now, in order to be considered a “liberal,” only one thing is required – a failure to pledge blind loyalty to George W. Bush. The minute one criticizes him is the minute that one becomes a “liberal,” regardless of the ground on which the criticism is based. And the more one criticizes him, by definition, the more “liberal” one is. Whether one is a “liberal” — or, for that matter, a “conservative” — is now no longer a function of one’s actual political views, but is a function purely of one’s personal loyalty to George Bush.
Greenwald provides several specific examples of this cult of personality in action, and talks about how many of Bush’s supporters have seemingly abandoned traditional positions of conservatism in their defense of the President. Read the whole article.
(Via DailyKos)
February 14th, 2006 at 5:55 pm
“What does it take to be considered a ‘liberal’?”
Well, reading Daily Kos is your first clue. LOL. 😉
Happy V-Day to you and the missus.
February 14th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
“Well, reading Daily Kos is your first clue.”
Heh heh … Maybe so. Some might say scoring somewhere near Gandhi on the political spectrum is a good indicator as well. 🙂
“Happy V-Day to you and the missus.”
Thank you, and the same to you and your family!
February 28th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
completely disagree with you on that
i’ve taken numerous amounts of test and i am a liberal..but i support bush 100 percent.
bush is for the environment, for the well being of ppl…as are liberals…
i luv bush but i luv my liberal views at the same time
March 1st, 2006 at 12:26 am
Hi Emily… thanks for the comment!
“completely disagree with you on that
i’ve taken numerous amounts of test and i am a liberal..but i support bush 100 percent.”
That’s not really at odds with what Greenwald is saying though. He’s saying that people who don’t support everything Bush does are being labeled “Liberals” without regard to their actual stance on any of the typically defining issues. If I’m not mistaken, I don’t think Greenwald says that you can’t be liberal and still support Bush. Though I personally would question what you mean by “support”. If you mean that you support his conservative policies (100% of them, no less), then that sort of makes you a de facto conservative.
What “liberal views” of your own do you love, and how do those views square with the conservative actions of the Bush administration?
July 12th, 2006 at 7:30 am
What Greenwald fails to mention (what a shock!) is that the same also applies to liberals who accuse anyone who doesn’t bash Bush on a regular and ongoing basis as a “Neo-Con” or conservative.
I have been accused of being conservative on many occasions, based solely on my support of Bush in matters of National Security. It’s kind of ironic, when you consider the fact that I disagree with Bush on practically every other issue. Abortion, Gay Marriage, “Morality”…
So, this affliction of accusing someone of some affiliation simply based on disagreement is not the sole perview of Republicans or conservatives. Many on the left do the exact same thing.
Strange that Greenwald fails to mention this, eh??
Michale
July 13th, 2006 at 12:54 am
Hi Michael, thanks for the reply. I’m sure it does cut the other way too. I would guess that Greenwald focused on the issue the way he did because, A) With Bush’s approval ratings as low as they are, there are probably quite a few more Bush-disapproving-conservatives getting labeled “Liberal” than there are Bush-approving-liberals getting labeled “Conservative”, and B) Greenwald’s personal experience involves being labeled as a liberal for his criticisms of Bush.
July 15th, 2006 at 9:24 pm
Like all labels that get volleyed around the ones mentioned have no validity at all. People have opinions and most people are so-called liberal in some areas and so-called conservative in others. The only people who fit the mold smoothly are non- thinkers. Of course, sadly we do have a lot of those.
Well I’ll be darned, I just demolished my supposition didn’t I? Lot of non-thinkers= people who smoothly fit mold= lot of liberals. Or, lot of non-thinkers=people who fit mold=lot of conservatives. Or, lot of non-thinkers=people fit mold=lot of people who wear brown shoes. Wow! I think I hit on something here. We could keep this up and get everybody categorized in nice neat little groups!