In order for conservatives to broaden their national appeal (win more elections so as to impact policy), they need to scrutinize carefully the words they use to describe the political left. I would suggest conservatives use the word ‘liberal’ with great care. There are millions of people who consider themselves to be liberal that need to be distinguished from progressive leftists. The terms should not be interchangeable. Many self-described liberals are open to compromising in ways that move the nation in a rightward direction; even if that were not how they would describe the shift.
Please take a few moments to carefully read John F. Kennedy’s inauguration speech. (http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres56.html)
Next read the speech he gave before the Economic Club of New York. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkeconomicclubaddress.html.
Kennedy’s comments are filled with what would be deemed conservative political content today. Liberals lionize JFK. Smart conservatives can exploit those semtiments to move the country in a more conservative direction.
There exists a species of liberal, not yet extinct, far removed from Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. Maybe not in Party leadership positions but certainly among those who vote. The power in the Democratic Party today resides in the hands of doctrinaire leftists, not liberals. At the 1968 Democratic Party Convention riot (inside and outside of the convention hall) leftists in the mold of radicals like George McGovern (lost 49 states) demanded and cemented a firm foothold on the Party. The street radicals who rioted are older and grayer today. They dictate policy. The leftist takeover at the convention led to a delegate selection process based on gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity and union membership. It represents their effort to balkanized America based on exploiting envy, resentment and perceived victimhood. Traditional liberalism had not built its foundation on this kind of divisiveness. America’s basic premise, ‘from many, one’, was replaced by the primacy of divisiveness by way of multiculturalism.
Leftists wax nostalgic about those libertine days of sex, drugs and rock and roll. That seismic cultural wave washed away much of the traditional liberal influence in the Party. A strain of anti-American, anti-military, anti-authority and anti-God in the public square values secured a central role in the Party. The Party was contaminated with a virulent strain of progressivism that has spread like a pandemic under President Obama.
It’s past the time for conservatives to stop referring to progressive leftists as liberals. They are not liberal in the mold of JFK liberalism. The potency of free markets, individual initiative, property rights, federalism, America’s role as the world’s essential super power and Martin Luther King’s central theme concerning the content of ones character are among the liberal political values rejected by leftists. The Democratic Party has become almost indistinguishable from the European welfare state equality of outcome model.
Why unnecessarily alienate millions of liberals by categorizing them with leftists? Kennedy’s staunch anti-communist credentials can be analogized to a hawkish approach used to defeat radical Islam. Thirty-five years ago we defeated a global communist threat. Today we are faced with a global supremacists Islamic threat. Obama’s leftists approach only reluctantly and haltingly fights Islamists, without naming them. Kennedy fought for a military strong beyond any doubt. Obama leads a movement to shrink the military. Kennedy saw America as a liberator. Leftist progressives see America as an imperial power. Kennedy understood the efficacy of lowering taxes, as a stimulant for economic growth and increasing revenues. Obama and his cohorts raise taxes. These are the themes that smart conservatives can use to attract liberals.
Contrary to the leftist self-serving version of Kennedy’s probable abandonment of South Vietnam, had he lived, JFK repeatedly pledging to never let South Vietnam fall to the communists (Vietnam The Necessary War, Michael Lind). He was a hawk not a dove. He did not reach out to Castro in peacenik fashion. He did not do kumbaya with Khrushev. He demanded the removal of Russian missiles from Cuba. A communist, man of the left, assassinated JFK. Dallas conservatives had nothing to do with the assassination. A Palestinian assassinated Bobby Kennedy because he was deemed a friend of Israel.
Many on the left are masterful at crafting language to induce an emotional response, positive and negative, to benefit their agenda. Conservatives need to employ those same skills to broaden their base. A political fairytale called Camelot resides deep in the soul of millions of self-described liberals. Conservatives can retell that fairytale emphasizing conservative themes in order to craft a move to the right.
Many of America’s most articulate conservative figures were liberals in their youth. Reagan, Sowell, Prager, Medved and Kraudhammer to name a few.
The term Reagan Democrat described a particular constituency. Skillful leadership can ignite those liberal embers to generate heat for the right. Each of us in our own way and in our circles can do the same. But if conservatives use ‘liberal’ like a four-letter word, they will pass up a golden opportunity to expand the conservative movement.
http://conservativevideos.com/liberalism-becomes-infantilism/