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More stuff here on why the liberal label is coming back into fashion

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Last month, I wrote HERE about evidence that Americans generally have become as likely to call themselves liberal as conservative these days.

There are two basic causes for this phenomenon. Demonization of the L-word by Republicans has lost much of its effectiveness, and Americans increasingly are embracing liberal views on the political and social issues of the day.

There’s more on the matter in THIS COLUMN  by Dana Milbank published yesterday in The Washington Post:

It used to be assumed that “the public doesn’t like the word liberal,” said Frank Newport, who runs the Gallup surveys. “But that’s changing now. The public certainly finds it more acceptable, when we ask them to put a label on themselves, to use the word liberal than in the past. It would seem that the word liberal is back in vogue.”

And it’s not just a matter of nomenclature. Other Gallup polling finds that Americans are moving in a more liberal direction across the board on social issues. The movement is most striking on same-sex marriage, but it has also occurred on issues such as out-of-wedlock birth, divorce, stem-cell research, suicide, abortion and even polygamy.

(Snip)

[T]he nation’s moral pendulum has always been swinging through history, and modern opinion polling is simply capturing the latest swing toward the libertine. This would also explain why confidence in religious institutions has been on the wane.

(Snip)

It’s healthy that the liberal flag, hidden for a generation, flies proudly again. If those who have been calling themselves progressives use their growing numbers as a counterweight to the other side but don’t imitate its excesses, they can keep the liberal label from again becoming an epithet.

 

 

 

 


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