Res Publica: Public Policy why is it so popular to demonize liberals? Part 1

Just why do you suppose the compassionate conservative religiosities rail against what they term “liberals?”

Is it a lack of knowledge of the meaning of words? Is it that those who demonize liberals don’t realize that some of the best known individuals in history were not just liberals but counter-culture revolutionaries and radicals? The Christ and the founders of this republic come to mind.

There are many misused words in the English language, for example love, liberal, democracy and so on.

How many times have you heard someone say they just love---you fill in the blank, pizza, a certain movie, a color for example?

However, for the religiosities in particular, used in the classic sense love is defined as the willingness to lay down your life for someone. Contrasted with today’s common use it seems way out of place and there’s nothing of equal value to replace it.

This begs the question---How are you defining “love?” The word as used today is almost without meaning. It has become synonomous with “ really like.” In that sense I suppose it is possible to love popcorn---but it would have to be really good popcorn! I might really like you but wouldn't lay down my life for you, necessarily.

Using the classic definition makes the notion of loving pizza seem trite if not unlikely.

So it is with the term liberal. Even those who the press, the right and compassionate conservative religiosities, of course, term “liberal” aren’t. Our elected representatives, with the exception of Dennis Kucinich, are all more self-interested and concerned with fulfilling the wishes of their benefactors, the special interests. No one in public life is more in line with things considered “liberal” than Ralph Nader.

“Liberalism (from the Latin liberalis, "of freedom"[1]) is the belief in the importance of liberty and equality.[2][3] Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but most liberals support such fundamental ideas as constitutions, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights, capitalism, free trade, and the separation of church and state. These ideas are widely accepted, even by political groups that do not openly profess a liberal ideological orientation. Liberalism encompasses several intellectual trends and traditions, but the dominant variants are classical liberalism, which became popular in the 18th century, and social liberalism, which became popular in the 20th century.

Liberalism first became a powerful force in the Age of Enlightenment, rejecting several foundational assumptions that dominated most earlier theories of government, such as hereditary status, established religion, absolute monarchy, and the Divine Right of Kings. The early liberal thinker John Locke, who is often credited for the creation of liberalism as a distinct philosophical tradition, employed the concept of natural rights and the social contract to argue that the rule of law should replace absolutism in government, that rulers were subject to the consent of the governed, and that private individuals had a fundamental right to life, liberty, and property.

The revolutionaries in the American Revolution and the French Revolution used liberal philosophy to justify the armed overthrow of tyrannical rule. The 19th century saw liberal governments established in nations across Europe, Latin America, and North America. Liberal ideas spread even further in the 20th century, when liberal democracies triumphed in two world wars and survived major ideological challenges from fascism and communism. Conservatism, fundamentalism, and military dictatorship remain powerful opponents of liberalism. Today, liberals are organized politically on all major continents. They have played a decisive role in the growth of republics, the spread of civil rights and civil liberties, the establishment of the modern welfare state, the institution of religious toleration and religious freedom, and the development of globalization. Political scientist Alan Wolfe wrote, "liberalism is the answer for which modernity is the question".[4]