Are You A Liberal?
In the past decade or so, as politics has become polarized, positions on cultural issues have become more and more the hot-button topics that identify who we are, individually as well as politically. We hear of right-wing political groups, lately lumped together under the acronym MAGA (the campaign slogan Make America Great Again that launched the Trump phenomenon) who make provocative statements designed to outrage those with more progressive views in hopes of achieving what they call “owning the libs”. “Lib” is, of course, a shortening of the word liberal, which students of political science will discover was once a respected political category, but is now a term fallen from grace that is slowly making its way back to respectability. It is fair to point out that Donald Trump and his delusional acolytes are doing to another formerly respected term, conservative, what they did to the term liberal, leading one to the conclusion that if they reject both, then these politically paranoid belong in a category all their own. But before we can ask someone if they “identify” as a liberal, we need to examine the word’s original meanings to find out how it came to be appended a political ideology.
The word liberal (as an adjective, as in “liberal minded”) can be defined as “willing to respect or accept behavior or opinions different from one’s own.” Here is the political definition (as a noun, as in “A liberal”): “a supporter of policies that are socially progressive and promote social welfare and political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise.” Well, who wouldn’t want that? Conservatives, that’s who. Let’s look at how the word conservative is defined, both the adjective as well as the political philosophy. Conservative: “averse to change or innovation, and holding traditional values.” The political definition, of a conservative person: “A person who is averse to change, who holds traditional values, and favoring free enterprise, private ownership and socially traditional ideas.”
So there it is: Liberals like change; conservatives like things the way they are. If this were simply about wealth this would explain why young people tend to be more liberal; they would like to change things so that they have what conservatives have; and conservatives want to keep things just the way they are, which is to say, “Keep your hands off my stash.”
When you take a political quiz to determine where you fall on the political spectrum, the questions practically reveal for you what you are. For example, in the Pew Research Group’s Political Typology Quiz, You may be asked if you would rather have a small government providing fewer services or a bigger government providing more services. Liberal-minded people tend to go for the big government answer. Why? Maybe they are poor and need help. Conservatives would say, “Get a job”. The poor would say, I have three jobs, and the pay still isn’t enough to feed my kids. I need Food Stamps. To which the conservative replies, “You should have thought of that before you were born into a broken home, and why did you have kids if you can’t afford them. Look at me. I didn’t have kids until I graduated from college and bought a home with the money my parents loaned me.” This also explains why not all young people are “liberals” or “socially progressive”. This also explains why some people think inherited wealth is at least antithetical to, if not inimical to, the values that suggest hard work and determination bring success, not being born on third base and thinking you hit a triple.
Liberal and conservative are two terms that, almost by tradition it seems, find themselves in diametric opposition; but they are not the only categories that people identify with. There is a whole garden full of political terms, “isms” to consider: progressivism, radicalism, socialism, communism, libertarianism, fascism, to name a few of the more common ones. There are also different governments, such as democracy, monarchy, theocracy, dictatorship, republic, anarchy, to name some of the more recognizable. We hear politicians toss these terms around—and at each other—as if they were hacky-sacks, in some cases calling out contradictory terms in the same sentence. It is as though they have no appreciation for the nuances of political discourse. Is it any wonder the average voter is confused?
Earlier in this essay, the promise was made that we’d get to the word socialism. And we will, in the next essay in the series. Socialism has often been linked with the term liberal. If you think you are a liberal, or at least think you are liberal-minded, you will want to read more. It is characteristic of the broadly curious mind to also be liberal-minded. Yep. Really. It’s okay to be liberal-minded.