I AM A LIBERAL!

How did liberal come to be an epithet in modern politics?

It wasn't always so, but I was too young to really know what it was like when liberal wasn't spit like something foul from your mouth by so many people. I've always thought it was a kind of fear. Conservatives - by definition - try to keep things in stasis; they like the way things are or were. They look to the past for a better time, for better behavior, for a better life. Liberals tends to look to the future and to believe that government and technology (generally) and intellectualism can lead to a better life.

For most people, even liberals, the future is frightening with all of its unknowns, with its problems and opportunities unseen. Our primate brain, evolved on the predator filled savannahs of Africa, still tend to look with suspicion and fear at the shadows and places we cannot see clearly. Those who can see the past clearly and with longing, would be most afraid of a future seen at best through the haze and gauze of time so they fear not only the future, but those who would welcome and speed the coming of the unknown. And what conservatives and reactionaries fear, they hate.

I welcome a better future. I have learned from the past, yes. But I do not long to remain there. I am a liberal. Proudly so. But in this dangerous time for our country, how liberal is liberal enough? Steve Bates at The Yellow Doggerel Democrat asks that question today. It's what got me thinking about liberalism.

Go read the post, it will make you think, too.