"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'.
John F. Kennedy
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Unfortunately Mark, I believe that today's definition of a "liberal" is quite different than the one quote from JFK. At least in the way in which today's conservative defines it (or drools it when they say it), the "liberal" has been marginalized, much in the way that "neo-conservative" has marginalized conservatives.
ReplyDeleteLook back in history...Barry Goldwater wouldn't qualify today. Neither would Sen. Jim Buckley...frankly, neither would Jack Kemp...all conservatives. Look back in history...Allard Lowenstein (the great Liberal Democratic Congressman from Long Island), as anti-war as Lowenstein was back then, I don't think he's be marginalized today. The great Liberal Republican Senator Jacob Javits...
Defintions, labels and times all change.
Just my 2¢.