Theron Aiken

17February2005

Where Have All the Liberals Gone

            George Bush won the last election because he was perceived as a conservative and John Kerry as a liberal. In fact, the Republicans successfully demonized Kerry  by labeling him as a liberal and as being too liberal. Somehow, their campaign succeeded in convincing America that a “liberal” somehow spelled disaster for the country in the face of global terrorism and unrest.

Traditionally, the Republican party has been identified with conservatism and the Democratic party with liberalism, and, given the fact that there are more Democrats than Republicans, one has a right to wonder what went wrong. Those who call themselves Democrats and independents who lean toward the Democratic party represent 51% of the electorate, while those who call themselves Republicans and independents who lean toward the Republican party represent 37% of voters. The rest are strictly independent or apolitical.* If this is the case, why was it, all of a sudden, a liability to be a liberal? Why did democrats and independents vote for Bush? I don’t think it has anything to do with party affiliation any more; it has to do with whether you are a liberal or conservative, and I fear that liberals are disappearing from the political landscape.

            Time was, in this country, that liberals and conservatives were fairly evenly divided. Also, it was easier to differentiate between a liberal or a conservative. For example, bumper stickers told how we felt about the war in Vietnam. If you saw one that said: “My Country Right or Wrong,” or “America: Love It or Leave It,” you were probably following a conservative. On the other hand, stickers like, “Make Love Not War,” and “Better Red Than Dead” would suggest a liberal.

            In addition, we generally associated blue collar workers, minorities and the intelligentsia with being liberal, while white collar workers, millionaires (except those in entertainment) and pragmatic, business-oriented people were conservatives. Liberals favored social programs that benefited the underprivileged, and conservatives wanted to reduce social programs and decrease the size of the federal government. Liberals favored integration of schools, and conservatives favored “separate but equal” programs. Liberals wanted elimination of tax loop-holes for business, and conservatives wanted tax favored status for business. Liberals were anti-establishment, and conservatives were pro-establishment. On the war, we were doves and hawks.

            But in the last election, none of these things were issues except the war in Iraq. The weak issues put forth by liberals were abortion rights, gay marriage, stem-cell research, and the environment. Not much argument was put up against the war in Iraq other than the idea that Bush rushed us into it. Time was, liberals knew how to protest a war, mobilize opposition to it and bring pressure on Congress, but apparently not any more.

            And what happened to people who should have voted for a liberal candidate and who had something to gain from his election and very little to gain from a conservative president. People like blue collar workers, farmers, the unemployed and the underemployed, parents of children in under-funded schools, college students, minorities and intellectuals—where were they? Bush showed his disdain for them when he presented his proposed budget to Congress—cut social programs and increase the military budget.

            In the seventies people were not afraid to stand up for their convictions or to be an activist for social change, but since then a new generation has grown up concerned not with social issues but only with themselves. Just follow the development of magazines over the decades from Life to People to Us to Moi, and you have some idea of why this generation has come to be called the “me generation.” They are materialistic and concerned mainly with their own and their family’s welfare not the welfare of society. They have become the evangelical right and, unlike Jesus, are extremely conservative and intolerant. Also, would be liberals are afraid to express themselves in the climate in which we live today. Today, liberals are labeled as immoral, un-Christian, un-American and weak for being associated with anything liberal. Smug, arrogant conservatives have taken over the Washington mind-set.

            Will the liberal ever return to America? Will our society continue to become more arrogant, more intolerant and more conservative as a result of the reelection of George W. Bush? Or will the next generation wake up and realize that social change only comes about through passion—passion not for one narrow, myopic, social view but passion for tolerance, acceptance and compassion for everyone who calls himself an American.

* Source: The American National Election Study (ANES), conducted by the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research located at the University of Michigan