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...was because liberals cringed and whined and caviled as the right (which is not conservative these days, so I refuse to call it that) turned it into a swear word. If liberals had stood up and said, "Yes, we are liberal, and we're damn proud of it, and Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter can just go pound sand," then they would not have lost the nation's respect. As it was, every time some talk-radio Goebbels invoked what has come to be called the 'L-word', liberals scurried to prove that they weren't what they were. Pusillanimity.
In so doing, they--you--were complicit by inaction in the right's destruction of just about everything good that the United States once stood for. You were too afraid of right-wing taunts to fight a good a political fight. In us swing voter types, who by default think both sides are pretty unsavory and who first hunt the presidential ticket for a sane third party to receive our votes, your cowardice excited contempt. And why not? It was obvious you were unwilling to slug it out for your principles. If you let the right steal your very label, then what wouldn't you let them have?
I can't qualify as a liberal due to numerous political positions, but in these past eight years I often wished I did, just so I could justly come out and call myself a liberal right in the face of the neocon spin artists. It would have been fun to demonstrate that at least someone wasn't afraid of them and was ready to tell them where to stick their un-American hypocrisy, theocracy and profligacy. So now--now that you have a president that somewhat represents your values--only now you have the guts to cop to what you always were?
Mighty brave when the majority of the guns are on your side. Had you been brave when you seemed outgunned, history would be very different, for you would not long have been outgunned.
Ralph Nader might be almost a self-parody these days, but at least he's not afraid of what people call him. He'll take on anyone, for better or worse. I suggest liberals take that lesson from him, going forward, because that's why I voted for him in 2000. And while I voted for Obama this time, it wasn't with any enthusiasm; all the third parties on the ballot in my state seemed too delusional to support. If you don't develop some fighting spirit to defend not merely your principles but your very label, it is voters like me who will turn away from you in 2012, even if we have to hold our noses and vote for the Linuxbertarians.
