‘Liberal’ is a bad word?
Wednesday, January 12th, 2005(I’m waiting for my SPAM blocker to start picking it up!)
Here’s more proof in this AP story…
Kennedy: Democrats Need Progressive Agenda
Here’s my take: Knowing that most people don’t have time to follow politics very closely, politicians hope they can succeed on first impressions or emotional appeals. ‘Liberal‘ must have been studied or poll tested and found to have bad political connotations - in regards to positive opinion and electability. The word ‘Progressive‘ gives the first impression of ‘moving forward’, or ‘getting better’ - as opposed to the status quo, or worse - a backward, timid clinging on to simplistic theories of the past. After all, who wants to be stuck in the past instead of growing and moving on to better things?
I don’t care about all that superficial stuff. I care about what people believe and why. Labels serve a purpose (in the sense that we don’t have to define something by all of its attributes) but they can also be used to hide a reality, by not forcing a deeper look at those core issues of what people actually believe - and hence what they are most likely to do.
