Remember this and embrace it: We are ALL Liberals!

Clarkie1

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Sat Mar-04-06 08:19 PM
Original message

Remember this and embrace it: We are ALL Liberals!

Edited on Sat Mar-04-06 08:37 PM by Clarkie1

Folks, the conservatives are wounded and running scared. Yet, we are still acting as if WE are ashamed of who we are and what we stand for. WE ARE ALL LIBERALS. I don’t care if you’re what part of the political spectrum you find yourself….”moderate,” “progressive,” “far-left,” third-party, whatever. Anyone who posts on DU as a part of this community (in other words, everyone except the trolls) is a LIBERAL by definition.

We must reclaim our heritage, and be proud of it. The conservatives have redefined the word because in it’s original, true meaning is their greatest nemesis and greatest fear…fear of enlightenment. We need to take back the power, and take back the word. “Liberal” is NOT a political platform; it’s a way of thinking, a philosophy of life, an ode to reason, and a longing for truth. It’s the only hope for the survival of the human race. We have to be very clear on this: liberals are and always have been the only hope for the survival of the human race. Only if we truly understand this truth can we transform our society and our planet. Words have power. If we run away from this word, we do more than run away from ourselves; we castrate ourselves. The term “progressive” is nothing more than a castrated, timid redefinition of who we truly are. It’s dangerous, and we ought to do away with the term except in a context defining correctly the word "liberal." If we once again embrace the word "liberal," it will tranform into a word and force more powerful than all than any of the right-wing talk-show or t.v. hosts can possible imagine. It will disarm them.

A Liberal Definition by John F. Kennedy:
Acceptance Speech of the New York ?Liberal Party Nomination
September 14, 1960

What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."

This is my political credo:
I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves.

I believe also in the United States of America, in the promise that it contains and has contained throughout our history of producing a society so abundant and creative and so free and responsible that it cannot only fulfill the aspirations of its citizens, but serve equally well as a beacon for all mankind. I do not believe in a superstate. I see no magic in tax dollars which are sent to Washington and then returned. I abhor the waste and incompetence of large-scale federal bureaucracies in this administration as well as in others. I do not favor state compulsion when voluntary individual effort can do the job and do it well. But I believe in a government which acts, which exercises its full powers and full responsibilities. Government is an art and a precious obligation; and when it has a job to do, I believe it should do it. And this requires not only great ends but that we propose concrete means of achieving them.

Our responsibility is not discharged by announcement of virtuous ends. Our responsibility is to achieve these objectives with social invention, with political skill, and executive vigor. I believe for these reasons that liberalism is our best and only hope in the world today. For the liberal society is a free society, and it is at the same time and for that reason a strong society. Its strength is drawn from the will of free people committed to great ends and peacefully striving to meet them. Only liberalism, in short, can repair our national power, restore our national purpose, and liberate our national energies. And the only basic issue in the 1960 campaign is whether our government will fall in a conservative rut and die there, or whether we will move ahead in the liberal spirit of daring, of breaking new ground, of doing in our generation what Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and Adlai Stevenson did in their time of influence and responsibility.

http://www.liberalparty.org/JFKLPAcceptance.html

I am a liberal. We live in a liberal democracy.... You know, this country was founded on the principals of the Enlightenment.... It was the idea that people could talk, reason, have dialogue, discuss the issues. It wasn’t founded on the idea that someone would get stuck by a divine inspiration and know everything right from wrong. I mean, people who founded this country had religion, they had strong beliefs, but they believed in reason, in dialogue, in civil discourse. We can’t lose that in this country. We’ve got to get it back. -Wes Clark

Edit:

There is something else re-embracing the word will do for our nation and our world. It will help us unite. What divides us is petty; what unites us is strong. "United we stand, divided, divided we fall" is more than an old cliche.

It's the truth.

So, when in the coming months and years the "sibling rivalries" start to intensify, remember we are part of the same family, a LIBERAL family.

Thanks :-)