Posted on 05/11/2004 4:07:55 AM PDT by Lance Romance
REPUBLICANS picked the wrong lattesipper when they tried to run Howard Dean and his liberal freak show out of Iowa on a rail. Instead they got John Kerry, the duck-hunting, affirmative-action debunking, gay marriage-opposing war hero determined not to let the opposition pin the Massachusetts liberal label on his Navy blues.
Kerrys long-awaited campaign ads, unveiled last week and intended to blunt the thrashing he is taking from the Bush campaign in the battleground states, highlight his years as a tough prosecutor,his support for victims rights and a balanced budget, and, of course, his military achievements. He leaves it up to the women in his life wife Teresa and daughter Vanessa to utter L-words like generous and heart.
At a luncheon of the American Society ofNewspaper Editors inWashington last month, Kerry was asked by a sympathetic woman from a Southern newspaper whether his campaign might nally help rehabilitate liberalism’s good name. Kerry was having none of it. I think the American people are looking for something different from the traditional liberal and conservative monikers, he said. He declared it is a mistake to waste time with phony labels. So allow me.
Websters New World Dictionary labels liberal as tolerant of views differing from ones own; broad-minded. And favoring reform or progress, as in education, religion, etc; specically favoring political reforms tending toward democracy and personal freedom for the individual; progressive. And giving freely; generous.p>
Wow. Who knew Webster drove a Volvo?
Seen in this light, liberalism even the Massachusetts variety; doesnt seem quite the benighted political philosophy the Republicans would have us believe. Liberalism has been bashed so energetically for so long that many have internalized the message. But what is so bad about being a Massachusetts liberal, really? I rather like living in a state that doesnt tax groceries. Where there is free universal immunization for children. Where the infant mortality rate is lower than Denmarks.
Massachusetts liberals opened the first public school, the first public libraries, and the first public transit system in the nation.We like our polity public. Public parks, not two-acre private yards ringed with no trespassing signs. Public hospitals, not private boutique medicine for the rich and the free care pool for everyone else. Public debate, not private deals behind committee room doors.
Liberals who live in Massachusetts cherish civic participation, historic preservation, and environmental conservation. We have fostered revolution, abolition, suffrage, and the political empowerment of immigrants, whether Irish or Cape Verdean.
Without much in the way of natural resources, we treasure our states glorious human resource and dont believe that the potential of any individual should go unrealized. That means keeping faith with children, the sick, the aged, and people who found themselves caught in a vise of drug addiction, homelessness, or poverty.
Almost 20 years of derision and Limbaugh-ism notwithstanding, we refuse to consider those ideas corny or quaint or uncool.
Of all the definitions in Websters dictionary, only one could be said to be unflattering: excessively free or indecorous in behavior; licentious
Thats the image Kerrys opponents want to hammer into red state America: that people in Massachusetts are all a bunch of immoral swingers, squishy about our ethics, with no spine or stomach for personal responsibilty. Liberal; as in libertine.
I dont recognize myself in that caricature, and I dont think people in this state should stand still for it. I know theres not much call for those "proud to be a liberal" bumper stickers anymore. Theres not enough room on the back of Kerrys Harley, and it doesnt really fit on the family SUV, either.
But the Massachusetts I know inventive, caring, educated, diverse proves it is possible to have both a bleeding heart and a working brain. So bring on the limousines, the brie and chablis, and NPR. All things considered, its good to live in the state where the revolutions start.
Renee Loth is editor of the editorial page. Her e-mail address is loth@globe.com.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
This lady, apparently, had too much NPR, cheese and wine before writing this moronic Op-Ed.
However, this stream-of-consciousness rambling screed certainly explains Derrick Z. Jackson's employment.
Almost 20 years of derision and Limbaugh-ism notwithstanding, we refuse to consider those ideas corny or quaint or uncool.
This lady is delusional, I bet she lives in Newton.
LOL, talk about spin. Sure he duck hunts for photo ops, but Kerry is still a gun grabber. OK, he says he 'opposes' gay marriage, but Kerry calls any attempts to ban gay marriage as bigoted. A war-hero? Kerry did much more damage to our war-efforts by protesting than he ever helped, even if you assume he earned his tossed-away medals (or ribbons)....
This represents an amazing historical evolution, at least in the case of liberals. Over the last 100 years, liberals have adapted the complete diametrically opposed opposite of their original philosophy and positions.
Kerry doesn't need no trespassing signs because his private yard is 5,000 acre Naushon island.
Get your lips off that "nuanced" crack pipe! Get real! The clown is a shameless liberal. So a few fits of duck hunting means this joker is not a liberal? LOL!
This "war hero" who then proceed to smear and disgrace the men he left behind in Vietnam with his treasonous anti war activities.
So much so her brains have leaked out.
A prize-winning Rose and the bush it grew on
I hope Massachusetts' transit systems have better signs than their roads do.
Massachusetts liberals have developed a fine sense of spin, out of necessity, from having to deal with their poorly marked roadways.
Ask Ted Kennedy what he thinks of the signs along the roads in Massachusetts.
One can only hope that there is a resurgence, and the dims start sporting "proud to be a liberal" stickers again.
Nothing like knowing your enemies.
but hasn't a clue where to stick her apostrophes.
Todays Democrats are anything but tolerant of others, they are not progressive thinkers, they are socialists. Socialists have become "liberals", bastardizing the label to include themselves. The traditional "liberals" of the deep, well buried past of the Democrat party are no more, replaced by socialists, who have used that name to cover their tracks.
Now that "liberal" doesn't cut it anymore, they have tried to distance themselves from that label, and are now using the term "progressive".
Socialism, by any other name still stinks the same.
What's in a name? When it's used to hide your true nature, a lot.
As far as I'm concerned, we should call a socialist a socialist, and let the chips fall where they may.
LOL! This writer gets her facts WRONG right from the first sentence. The fact is that Republicans WANTED Dean to win the nomination.
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