I've been wondering off and on if there is any chance the word "liberal" could be reclaimed from the socialists/progressives who hijacked it in the 1960s and restore it to its classical glory as the label for those who favor individual rights and limited government.
Classical liberalism.The question comes up because, quite frankly, I find that there are no political labels in common usage that really seem to apply to where I stand politically: I am definitely not what currently passes under the label "liberal" - that is what I would call socialist/leftist/progressive - and yet I am also not really "conservative" - certainly I make common cause with those to whom that label fits on many issues, but I find on a number of issues - mostly social issues - that I do not.
It happens, however, that what the label "liberal" used to connote is much more consistent with the general run of my views. The socialists have plenty of other political epithets under which to identify themselves - "socialist" being but one - so they don't need the label "liberal" and, quite frankly, they do great disservice to the term by having hijacked it and create no end of confusion when political parties in other parts of the English-speaking world use for themselves the epithet "liberal" in its original sense. The Liberal Party in Australia is most definitely not "liberal" as that term means under socialist/leftist/prog domination.
Perhaps that was the intent all along: to squeeze out the vast middle - or to co-opt their political power - by taking the label "liberal" away from them and leaving them - us - isolated in the hinterland of politics, without a team name to rally 'round.
The simple fact of the matter is, I am a classical liberal and it is beginning to piss me off to no end that what belongs to me has been stolen by the left and twisted out of all recognition.
Your flameouts are most welcome!
