Liberal =/= Left

Since Blind is full of people complaining about “those liberals” it might be useful to have a larger perspective on the term. Historically both what people in the US call liberalism and conservatism as well as libertarianism are all liberals, just ones to the right or left within liberalism. The more accurate description is “center-Left” and “center-right”. Essentially both agree on the importance of the market-based nation-state, trade of various levels of regulation or not, and do not believe in fixed social hierarchies. In a more practical description for the US, liberalism (also called social liberalism) believes things work fine but there need to be regulations to prevent abuses of power or corruption. Conservatives tend to believe that regulation is not as necessary but policing is needed to keep order. Libertarians tend to think the market by itself will sort it all out for the most part. The Left however believes that something more fundamental must change either through reforms or through social movements with the hard-left believing that this need to happen via peaceful or violent revolution. The right believes that society needs more hierarchy and order or that social hierarchy is inevitable and beneficial. The far-right believes that democracy is a barrier to this “natural/traditional/Divine” order. I think liberalism is conflated with leftism for a couple of reasons. One, there is some overlap in ideas just like conservatism will overlap with the right. Two, there has been no distinct left-wing party in the US, so the DNC “big tent” is about the left supporting liberal politicians (I think a large chunk of liberal supporters have views much further left than the official Liberals in politics and think tanks etc.) Third, until recently the left was popularly on the decline while official liberalism moved to the right in the mid-80s onward. Although Sanders calls himself a socialist and comes out of the last major period of popular leftism, his proposals would not have been unusual from middle-of-the-road Democrats in the 70s or 80s. But today he seems like a maverick on the left-edge of mainstream politics. This last point, I think is also why some conservatives and the right explode at even the most modest liberal policies or views - politics have shifted right for so long that they simply have not seen a popular left in their lifetime so a pro-wall Street warmonger like Clinton seems like a Left-wing commie feminazi yadda yadda yadda to them. To self-described liberals, unless you are really a “socially liberal, economically conservative” moderate type, I’d encourage you not to moderate your views to what politicians and the media tell us is reasonable and what liberals need to compromise on before even trying to pass legislation. Obama took single-payer healthcare “off the table” before even proposing anything because the Dems claimed that they need to “reach across” to conservatives - guess what, we all know they attacked a Mitt Romney pro-insurance plan from Obama as crazy left wing death panel madness. Who goes into any negotiation by offering the compromise version first? To self-described conservatives: the next time you want to rant about liberals, remember that the population who support liberalism are actually to the left of the DNC and US liberalism is essentially the largest barricade against a left-wing movement in the US - mainstream liberals are your friends. That is all - just a little perspective on a semantic pet-peeve. You can resume whining about “libtards” now.