The "L" Word

--Fuel, Mirko Ilic

Liberals got women the right to vote.
Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote.
Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of
elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation.
Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act.
Liberals created Medicare.
Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act.

What did Conservatives do?
They opposed them on every one of those things...every one!
So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, 'Liberal,'
as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty,
something to run away from, it won't work, Senator,
because I will pick up that label
and I will wear it as a badge of honor
--Matt Santos, The West Wing
__________

Where is Matt Santos when you need him?

Thus far in the '08 presidential race the words "gun control" have yet to surface. But they will. The same is true of the "L" word. Liberalism as a slam word and concept has not yet entered the national dialog this time 'round, but it will.

As the playing field has not yet been defined most of the rhetoric is intra-party, but once the winners are established the words liberal and gun control will appear regularly and loudly. The Democratic party is gun shy on both accounts.

On gun control, the National Rifle Association (NRA) is firmly in the Republican camp. The NRA probably helped Bush defeat Gore in 2000, as Gore was saddled with Clinton's anti-gun legacy. Presently, both parties package themselves as champions of hunting rights and sporting weapons ownership.

Both parties also forget that the Second Amendment makes no distinction as to the type of arms which may be borne. The Founding Fathers did not arm the citizenry and militias to kill squirrels and nuisance rodents, at least not specifically. The right to bear arms was based in English common law and was designed as a counterbalance to an oppressive government. The gun control issue is still up in the air, but it will soon be visited upon the campaign.

Presently, gun control is dwarfed by secret prisons, warrantless wiretaps, sub-prime mortgage defaults, endless wars, a sick U.S. dollar and the issue of national security, but should it be?

Without going out on the guts/guns/god limb, this is a central domestic constitutional issue and warrants full discussion among the candidates. Can the U.S. government provide millions of automatic assault rifles and machine guns to Iraqi and Afghani neighborhood watches to enhance their security and self defense, while denying this same right to the American citizen?

On liberalism, the Republican party, shepherded by the Machiavellian Karl Rove, saw success attacking liberals in the most malign manner. Mr. Rove may be long gone, but liberalism remains a slur for them, and the hatchet jobs will begin anew.

The assault will ignore the fact that America is a country founded by liberals. None of the Founders were conservative, for if they were we would still be an English colony. The greatest legislation in the history of this nation are all liberal in outlook.

There are no great, defining examples of conservative legislation that earmark our society. The U.S.A. is great because it is liberal. Yet in 2000 and 2004, the democratic candidates allowed themselves to be put on the run, assuming a defensive posture against a barrage maligning the very basis of U.S. excellence. This predictable mindless onslaught should be defused with realistic countermeasures.

The U.S. is great because of liberal land policies of the 19th century and liberal immigration policies. The only group which has a legitimate right to be anti-immigration would be the Native Americans, and at one point according to recent discoveries even they were immigrants.

Social Security, a liberal concept, defines our system. The Great Society, Voting and Equal Rights -- all liberal initiatives. There is no such conservative defining impulse; tax cuts for the rich do not qualify.

If the Democrats want to win the White House, they must embrace the concept of liberalism in the positive vein which has enhanced the health of this society from its inception.