Everyone but you understands the meaning of “liberal.” Communist. Fascist. Socialist. Democrat. Liberal. They’re all the same.
“Liberals” are warm and cuddly.
Leftists are hostile enemies.
I agree with cgbg here, but it is also true that I did indeed understand what you meant.
I have made a clear distinction personally between “Liberals” and “Leftists” for years. I view the distinction as a necessary degree of granularity, but in “conservative to conservative” discussions, I rarely feel the need to point out that distinction.
I don’t think it is worth getting angry about or losing sleep over. Like I said, I knew just what you meant.
LA, respectfully disagree. Words do matter, else why has the Left spent the better part of two centuries “changing” the words meaning, to one suiting their own antiChrist, antiFreedom narrative?
They’re progressives (meaning since we oppose them, we are “regressives”). They “defend Democracy” - meaning we “attack” democracy. And the Biggest Lie of them all, actually two of them - that we are the Fascists (they are) and that Republicans are the party of slavery.
Put another way - and you probably know this, I am not presuming you do not, but in discussion such as this, it serves us all to be explicit in where our thoughts lie...
The definition of a liberal, a “classical” liberal:
A political tradition, core belief, based on maximum freedom for the individual, on limited government as our founders intended and enshrined in our sacred documents. Free market, laissez-faire economics, full John Locke & Adam Smith, sharpened by Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises, brought home to us by Thomas Sowell.
Civil Liberties under the Rule of Law = Liberty and not License (the latter which the godless Left practices and defines as liberty). Limited Government - and yes I say it twice here, for added critical emphasis. Political Freedom. Freedom of Speech. Freedom of Worship. RKBA.
All the above, these are the ideas and beliefs which a Liberal holds, which he believes in.
Now, LA, I ask you - is the left “Liberal”? Yes they do believe in all those “isms” - but are they really liberal? Of course not, but they are quite good at marching through our institutions, and changing all those words to mean the same thing, the thing that they define... that are not defined truthfully because you, cgbg, me and everyone here on FR knows how full of shit they are.
So yeah, Lou, I disagree with you. Cgbg is right; words do matter - and just like Trump is going to clean house at the federal government, rename military bases to their old names, put back statues of American heroes like General Lee, etc., we’re going to bring back truth to the words so that they not only do matter as cgbg sez, but that they also speak to the truth.
v/r
CGVet58