Liberal identification already on the rise
Published by punkass marc October 12th, 2006 in Liberal DemocratsIt seems U.S. Democrats are becoming a lot more comfortable with the L-word. And that could bode well for their hopes to take control of Congress in next month’s mid-term elections.
Being called a “liberal” has been an insult in much of the United States for decades, even when there was a Democrat in the White House.
President George W. Bush used it to good effect in 2004 to tar presidential rival John Kerry as a spendthrift who’d raise taxes to pay for all sorts of new government programs.
But now, says the Pew Research Center, Democrats are so frustrated and angry with Bush that they’re willing to go out on a limb in a country where people prefer words like moderate and mainstream.
Surveys during the first nine months of 2006 suggest the number of Democrats who think of themselves as liberals has been rising, said Michael Dimock, Pew’s associate director.
Before we go and get too excited, I should note the percentage is still in the 30s. So we still have lots of work to do. But it’s up almost 10% from 2004, and that’s with everyone from Kos to Kerry shunning the label and bleating the conservative tropes about it. I like our odds of helping the Democrats and Democratic voters see the value in reclaiming our identity.
Hurrah!
Often, owning a label is a defensive move, so I suspected this might happen. It’s a great thing, though. Conservatives began to own the word as a retaliatory move, and we can do the same, with the same effectiveness.
Further good news: Mark Warner drops out.
http://ezraklein.typepad.com/blog/2006/10/warners_bows_ou.html
Wanna win? Gotta be a liberal. People are clueing in.
Another thing to note: The stereotypical Tax-and-Spend Liberal and the Hard-nosed Fiscal conservative haven’t been a part of the political landscape for at least 15 years (assuming they ever were).
The Republicans happily torpedoed a balanced budget created partly by a Democratic President, and have shown no particular interest at all in curtailing government spending.
One of the negative connotations of the word “liberal”, as pointed out in that article, is that liberals happily spend your money, but it’s turning out that “conservatives” these days are just as happy to blow gargantuan wads of cash on programs that don’t really accomplish anything.
If anything, a liberal Democratic congress would probably curtail a lot of wasteful spending.
So right there a huge chunk of the stigma on the word “liberal” is dissapearing.