I listened to McCain and Hukabee and they both courted

[DUlover2909]

their "conservative" base and called on "conservatives" to unite, etc. blah blah blah. They say out loud and proudly that they represent true "conservative" values.

When are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton going to say "I am a liberal and I support liberal causes and I represent liberal values and I want to unite liberals all over the country to unite and take back our country!"

I never even heard Kucinich, Edwards, Biden, Richardson, or Gravel ever use the term "liberal" at any point in their campaigns.

Liberal is a dirty word now? Doesn't it have it's roots in the word liberty?

We need an ultra left wing (damn near communist) swing in this country to reverse the crapload of Nazi-esque policies that Bushco has forced down our throats! Liberal is modest compared to what I would implement if I had the power. I would order our navy to sink whaling vessels and start wars to stop the destruction of rain forests. Call me a tree hugging nut but if we don't stop global species extinction and habitat destruction the capitalists will ruin everything worth living for.

[MannyGoldstein]

1. George Washington Says...

"As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality."

[Demagitator]

2. There actually is a whole military policy about this...

created by Quaker pacifists; which is to transform the Military forces into non-violent institutions; fighting the causes of Nuclear stockpiling, and basically going to war against militarism, pollution, and global warming, etc.

And, just using the non-violent forces to prevent the escalation of violence to get bigger, with trained non-violent forces -- that use non-violent weapons, such as guns that do not shoot bullets -- but rather shootout a large web like weapon to stop a violently uncontrolled person, or group of people.

You won't read about this much in the MSM; but the military actually has departments that work on these "non-violent" tactics.

[KharmaTrain]

3. It's Their Loyalty Oath...

They have a language and codespeak all their own. It's been honed by years of right wing media propaganda and manipulation thus that they now have words that only they understand and any politician who courts their vote must speak in the same "tongue". It's very tribal as they're looking to prove their the biggest, baddest and strongest, thus invoking their conservative "cred" is like puffing up their "balls".

Democrats have had to face nearly 30 years of demonizing of the term "liberal" that indoctrinated many in thinking negative of this word...including many Democrats. Few have ever taken a good look at what the word means and just accept the right wing characterization. For many years, many of us couldn't be bothered in confronting the lies and distortions...and because of that, there was little push-back as right wing hate radio spewers all but codified the false images many of us have had to fight against...even among fellow Democrats.

Also, the political pendulum has swung so far right that moderate became liberal and liberal became radical. We're starting to see things swing back in the other direction. The big thing many are hoping for in this election is a move back to the middle...and from there the concept of liberal takes on a whole new perspective. Also, with all the failures and corruption, the term "conservative" will be redefined as well...and I have a feeling its one that won't be invoked in a positive fashion for many years.

[Glorfindel]

4. I totally agree; being a liberal is something to be PROUD of

all progress is made by liberals. Conservatives basically only know one word: "No!" And the only thing they do well, in the long run, is die with confused looks on their faces after years of oppression and greed have driven the people to revolt. I'm confident that Louis XVI, Nicholas II, and Nicolae Ceauşescu (to mention only a few) actually believed they were innocent martyrs who NEVER had anything but the best interests of their people at heart. And give communists their due: the best single government policy of the 20th Century was China's "one child" program. Every nation on earth should implement one, thereby solving many problems.