In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Dana Milbank gushed that labeling oneself liberal is no longer frowned upon and is fast becoming the preferred adjective on the Left.
His piece is titled "Americans Reclaim the Liberal Label," and in it Milbank writes, "Liberal is no longer a dirty word." He points to new polls showing that for the first time since 1999, people who identify as social liberals has equaled those who identify as social conservatives. Whereas for years many liberals abandoned that label for the preferred "progressive" identifier, Milbank says Republicans are shying away from "conservative" and using the term "moderate." (Of course, these shifts in both categories, outlined in his piece, show a very small change of around 3 or 4 percent -- certainly not a windfall trend.)
Milbank quotes Gallup's Frank Newport who said of the recent data, "It would seem that the word liberal is back in vogue." This is based on the changing tide with regards to same-sex marriage, out-of-wedlock birth, divorce, stem-cell research, suicide, abortion, and even polygamy, Milbank states.
The big question is why? Though he admits the need for more research, Milbank has some theories brewing. Besides same-sex marriage, as mentioned above, he points to a second possibility: the waning of "confidence in religious institutions" and the "moral pendulum" swinging "toward the libertine." But what the proud liberal journalist finds most "compelling" is a third theory that suggests "the rise in liberalism is a backlash against the over-the-top conservatism displayed by the tea party movement" -- one he hopes becomes so strong, it eventually turns into "a tea party of the left."
Milbank concludes:
Whatever the cause — and it’s likely a combination of all of the above — the change brings welcome balance to the political system, but also risks. The rise of a more liberal ideology suggests Democrats could become just as uncompromising — and just as insistent on ideological purity — as Republicans have been. The hardening ideology also suggests the national polarization could endure even if gerrymandered districts are undone.
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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