lollardfish

I had taken to using progressive, but this post by Matthew Yglesias and this article by Eric Alterman have me reconsidering it. News outlets will continue to use liberal. Conservatives have a lot invested in their smear campaign against the word, so they'll keep using it as a weapon. The trick is to make it an ineffective weapon. I think that can only be done by owning the word, stating proudly and clearly the core values of liberalism (which are closer to what most people believe than I think they realize). It took a deliberate long-term campaign for the conservatives to tarnish the term. It'll take just as much care and effort to shine it up again. But it can and should be done.