What did liberals do?

Still marathoning West Wing. Still the best. Show. Ever.

What did liberals do that was so offensive to the Republican Party? I’ll tell you what they did. Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things, every one. So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, ‘Liberal,’ as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won’t work, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor.

Comments

[Cheryl]

Right on, Christie!! I get so irritated when I hear right wingers whinge about how the liberals are destroying America but in the next breath they squawk about how no one better touch their SS or Medicare or do anything that infringes on their rights.

[Molly]

So so so true!!!!! Love it!

[Suzie]

Yes. To all of it.

[rienrah]

You are so right. My parents (who are in their 70s) are dyed-in-the-wool liberals and brought me up right. My mom always says "why should we allow republicans to define the term 'liberal' as equivalent to 'poison'? Be proud to be liberal!"

We need to take back the term!

[retrieverman]

I don't personally use the term.

I use the term progressive or populist-- something more akin to a Scandinavian Social Democrat, just an American version.

To me, Liberal doesn't mean Social Democrat. It means something like Libertarian, although maybe a bit more socially conscious. I associate this term more with the Gladstone wing of the Liberal Party.