did its utmost to turn the word "liberal" into something sinister and radical. And it worked -- the masses listened.
Because we allowed our most radical elements to also be the loudest elements, thus facilitating the ease with which 'liberal' became a negative word.
And so many people ran away from the label.
GOP did the same thing to Hillary Clinton, i.e. turned her into "something sinister"; the GOP was so successful, that the lefties themselves bought into it and promoted it all through the 08 primary season.
because technically I'm a leftie... however, I agree with your larger point.
technically, I'm a leftie too -- I don't see anything wrong with the word itself. What's shocking to me is how so many (so-called?) lefties fell for the right-wing smear of Hillary -- and then used it themselves in the Dem primary.
coming from the Left than it did from the Right.
btw, did you see this Guardian article from a couple days ago on same subject:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/ 2008/jul/01/hillaryclinton.uselections20 08
How a bitter primary campaign saw the right's discredited smears gleefully revived and reused by the left...
Ugh, so disturbing.
