Reclaiming Liberalism

For the past several decades, the far right in American politics has preempted the dialogue and redefined the terms of the debate. They have done this with enormous success, largely because we on the left have allowed them to. Now days, the term “Liberal” is used as a four-letter-word, a pejorative invoking numerous connotations (“tax and spend,” “welfare state,” “morally degenerate,” “godless,” “weak-on-security,” “elitist,” “communist,” etc.). A few of these depictions had just enough basis in reality to become believable when they were repeated loudly enough and often enough.

It’s past time for us to take control of the debate! We need to “own” the term “Liberal” and rob it of its power over us, much as the gay rights movement took the term “queer” and defanged it. It’s time to put the far right on the defensive; after all, it was under their watch that we’ve seen crumbing infrastructure, skyrocketing health care costs, widening disparity between the wealthy and the poor, the collapse of Enron, the mortgage/housing crisis, preemption of the media as an arm of the government, the largest government bureaucracy in the history of the nation, astronomical national debt, amoral and illegal preemptive war, subversion of the Constitution, recession, and on and on.

We should be vocal about the need for a social climate in which we are brought together as Americans acting like rational, mature adults rather than pulled apart by petty name calling and finger pointing like sniggering cliques in junior high. We should talk about how far the billions of dollars being squandered by no-bid contracts to KBR and Halliburton without any accountability could go toward fixing our aging highways and collapsing bridges. We should talk about how the government should be leading the way in promoting public transportation initiatives and sources of renewable energy rather than meeting with the CEOs of the oil and gas industry behind closed doors deciding how to best keep America dependent upon fossil fuels. We should be discussing ways to make education affordable and effective and make jobs pay a living wage once we graduate. We should push for adequate support systems for members of our military rather than spouting empty rhetoric about “supporting our troops” while slashing their benefits and increasing their tours of duty. (A bumper sticker never has and never will provide medical care for a soldier with a head injury from an IED or provide for the surviving spouse and children of a soldier killed in battle. And it certainly won't bring them back when their lives are taken). We should be advocating for accessible health care and bargaining with the pharmaceutical companies for affordable prescriptions. We should allow the agencies entrusted with our public safety—food inspectors, workplace safety inspectors, scientists researching the effects of the poisons in our air and water and of climate change—to do their jobs rather than redacting, refusing to release, refuting, or simply not opening the studies they provide.

And we should be ready and willing to say, “If holding these positions makes me a Liberal, then damn it, I’m a Liberal!”

We’re here. We’re LIBERAL. Get used to it!