Posted on: Sunday, July 25, 2004
COMMENTARY
Labels say little in politics today
| • | Democrats might try L-word for a change |
By John Griffin
Confused about the definitions of conservative and liberal? Fair enough.
As the adjoining column points out, both are shifting and blurring targets today. Furthermore, the right and left wings of political action and thought have degrees.
The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy put out by Houghton Mifflin gives these definitions:
Conservatism: "A general preference for the existing order of society, and an opposition to efforts to bring about sharp change." (Try that out against the activist Bush administration's record.) However, the so-called right wing includes moderates, traditional conservatives, the more radical and activist neo-conservatives, and good old reactionaries. I don't know where President Bush's "compassionate conservative" of the 2000 campaign went, but he may be back this season for political expediency.
(Libertarianism, with its stress on individual freedom, thought and action, is sometimes associated with conservatism but deserves to be seen as separate. It is more than just carefree conservatism.)
Liberalism: "In the 20th Century, a viewpoint or ideology associated with free political institutions and religious toleration, as well as support for a strong role of government in regulating capitalism and constructing a welfare state." The left wing includes almost-moderates, old- and new-fashioned liberals, radicals of various types, socialists, revolutionaries and I suppose what's left of communism.
As the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, and U.S. involvement in Bosnia and Kosovo show, liberals (like conservatives) apply situational ethics for different situations. Few of us today are total left- or right-wingers, dedicated liberals or conservatives.
One story on a personal level about this. I thought The Advertiser editorial pages were relatively liberal in the tumult of the 1960s. We took some heat for that, and then-editor George Chaplin was once called "a Fabian socialist." But obviously it depended on your viewpoint:
My own radicalized daughter once sputtered at me during an argument back then: "You're nothing but a ... a ... A LIBERAL!"
Then there was the veteran-turned-radical who sometimes came to the office to argue. He finally concluded "You're not a liberal. You're nothing but a moderate," as if that was the biggest sin of all.
Maybe he had a point, although even moderates should make a serious choice on election days. Correction: John Griffin was misidentified in the byline in a previous version of this commentary.
