"Liberal" Cool? Of Course It Is (and always has been)!

In concert with this morning's post about an article in Salon about "The L Word," I also stumbled upon this story from Public Radio International's The Takeaway: "Is the Word 'Liberal' Becoming Cool Again in America?"



As with the article in the last post, both reassessments of the word were prompted by the Democratic Presidential Debate on CNN on Tuesday night -- a debate which was not (except for Jim Webb) running away from liberal ideals and chasing the Republicans toward the Right.

Restoring Lustre to “Liberal”

I found "The Resurrection of the “Liberal”: How the Right Tried to Destroy American Liberalism — and How It Came Back from the Dead" by Heather Digby Parton in Salon fascinating, but that may only be because this blog was started in 2004 in disgust at the way Kerry and Clintons and other Democrats were all running away from a proud label that they were letting conservative Republicans define.

Even if restoring lustre to "Liberal" is not your raison d'être, it's worth reading.

Liberals on the Rise.

Following up on last January's post about the upward trend in self-identifying liberals, the trend continues this year, with the Gallup poll finding 24% of Americans applying that proud label to themselves in 2014 -- another all-time high since this poll started in 1992.

In the twelve years between 1992 and 2004, the percentage of liberal Americans rose two points from 17% to 19%. In the ten years since TrueBlueLiberal.Org first opened for business, this percentage has increased FIVE points from 19% to 24%. We don't take all the credit, but it can't be just a coincidence.

You're Welcome!

R.I.P. Lauren Bacall 1924-2014, True Blue Liberal

Lauren Bacall passed away at the age of 89 in her apartment at the Dakota on August 12. This quote comes from the end of an article by Clancy Sigal I read on Salon this morning:

"All her life Lauren Bacall stayed a true-blue, New York, left-of-center, liberal Democrat lobbying for Adlai Stevenson and Bobby Kennedy. Or as she proudly boasted in a late interview, 'I’m anti-Republican. A liberal. The L-word!' "

I knew there was a reason other than her looks and "The Look" that I loved her in To Have and Have Not, Key Largo, Slick Hare, and The Big Sleep (and anything else she appeared in). I didn't have to dig too much deeper to find the transcript from "the L-word" interview with Larry King on CNN from May 6, 2005, when many liberals were renouncing that label.

KING: Have you always been politically motivated? 
BACALL: I have. I have. I come from a...
KING: You go back -- In fact, I saw you.
BACALL: I saw you? 
KING: I saw you speak for Adlai Stevenson. 
BACALL: You did? 
KING: In New York. I believe Bogey was with you. 
BACALL: Yes. 
KING: In '52. 
BACALL: '52. That's when my -- two of my greatest friendships began with Arthur Schlesinger and Alistair Cooke, 1952. 
KING: And what a man Stevenson was. 
BACALL: Oh, what a great man. (INAUDIBLE) you see this country. Please. Don't get me started, as they say. 
KING: So we missed a good opportunity. I think, even his critic was say that Adlai Stevenson was a great...
BACALL: He was a brilliant, brilliant man. But no one had heard anyone except Roosevelt speak with wit. You know, they couldn't figure out what that was all about. Couldn't be serious. 
KING: He had a great wit. 
BACALL: He was brilliant. 
KING: Are you big a "D" Democrat? Do you...
BACALL: I'm a total Democrat. I'm anti-Republican. And it's only fair that you know it. Even though...
KING: Wait a minute. Are you a liberal? 
BACALL: I'm a liberal. The L word! 
KING: Egads! 
BACALL: I love it. Being a liberal is the best thing on earth you can be. You are welcoming to everyone when you're a liberal. You do not have a small mind. Little picayune things. You want to welcome everyone. Liberal, little picayune thing. 
KING: You're open to...
BACALL: You want to welcome everyone. Liberal, I'm a Roosevelt. I'm a -- and I hear anyone say anything about FDR... 
KING: You're a new dealer, fair dealer. 
BACALL: I'm a total -- and I was a kid and I'm total, total, total liberal and proud of it. And I think it's outrageous to say "the L word". I mean, excuse me. They should be damn lucky that they were liberals here. Liberals gave more to the population of the United States than any other group. 
KING: Well, Social Security. 
BACALL: Everything.

*** 

KING: Very well said. Spoken as a true liberal.    BACALL: Don't knock the liberals.   KING: I'm not.    BACALL: Yes, you are. You secretly you do.   

The Quote of the Day About "Liberal"

Part of the reason Americans consider liberal an epithet [...] is because they mostly hear it used as an epithet.
When Obama disavows the term, he perpetuates that dynamic and allows conservatives like O’Reilly to continue tarring Democrats with a label most Americans consider negative, even if they’re no longer entirely sure why. It might be wiser, at least in the long-term, to explain why the specific policies many Americans support are liberal. And thus begin to reclaim the term.

--Peter Beinart, The Atlantic, 2/5/2014

Please read the rest of the article "'Liberal' Is Good" on theatlantic.com. I couldn't have said it better myself.

Our raison d'être justified: Self Identification as "Liberal" Hits New High.

When TrueBlueLiberal.org was started right after John Kerry's defeat in November 2004, a large part of my initial impetus for doing so was to show some pride and restore some luster to a word the conservative government and press had hurled as an insult and which liberals themselves (like the cowardly Kerry) and all establishment Democrats had run away from. Who? Me? Liberal?


Fuck yeah I'm a liberal. It may not have been much of a rallying cry or a blog's raison d'être, but it was mine.

According to this Gallup Poll today, in 2013 "liberal identification edged up to its highest level since Gallup began regularly measuring ideology in the current format in 1992." 23% of all Americans describe themselves as liberal (up from 19% in 2004), but among Democrats the rise was more dramatic, from 33% to 43% in the decade we've been beating the True Blue Liberal drum. Don't be fooled by the fact that less than a hundred people visit this blog on a normal day. Our influence is obviously enormous.

You're welcome.

What Type of Liberal Are You?

I just discovered what type of liberal I am (other than "True Blue" of course) by taking this super scientific online test:

My Liberal Identity

You are an Eco-Avenger, also known as an environmentalist or tree hugger. You believe in saving the planet from the clutches of air-fouling, oil-drilling, earth-raping conservative fossil fools.

Take the quiz at
About.com Political Humor

I prefer "tree hugger" to "Eco-Avenger", which sounds sort of comic-bookish.