The Political Spectrum - How The Word "Liberal" Has Been Redefined Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1932, redefined the word liberalism. Prior to 1932, liberalism meant "a belief in individual liberty." He gave the word a new meaning: "a belief in paternalistic government and trading individual liberty for state-sponsored security" by redefining what he called "the forgotten man." In 1932, FDR talked about helping someone he called "the forgotten man." This phrase came from a book that had been written decades earlier by William Graham Sumner. However, Roosevelt redefined Sumner's definition of "the forgotten man." Sumner defines "the forgotten man"...
