Liberal

The other thing we need to do is confront the red states.  We have to change some minds.  Self-identified conservatives out-number self-identified liberals by a little better than 3-2.  As long as that continues, we are going to start every election behind.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think it's time to reclaim the word "liberal."  

The fact is that, by and large, the Democrats are the liberal party and the Republicans are the conservative party.  For cryin' out loud, everybody already knows this.  We can run away from the word "liberal," but we're just fooling ourselves.  This is partly why people criticize us for not having a message or a vision or a clear program.  We actually do have such a message and a vision, but we don't want to say it out loud because people will start screaming "liberal" and that freaks us out.

Contra Franks, I'm not saying that we should "tilt left."  In fact, I don't think our specific policy proposals should move left at all.  (If anything, I'd tilt more toward the center.)  But we need to advance the idea that "liberal" is a good thing, that liberals have done a lot for our country, and that conservatives--because of their very conservatism--have served the nation poorly.  If we make that case, which is slam-dunk in my view, then people will see that we do have a vision and a program, and, more importantly, it's one that we are willing to defend and advance.  (Honestly, if we came right out and said, "Hey everybody, we're liberals," would we have done any worse in Kansas?)

We could talk about Roosevelt and Truman and Kennedy, and LBJ and HHH and RFK.  We could talk about the human rights of Jimmy Carter and the broad-based prosperity of Bill Clinton.  We could talk about Social Security and Medicare and the civil rights movement.  The New Deal and the Great Society worked, and it's long past time that we stood up and said so.  How about "national greatness liberalism"?  FDR and JFK believed it.  Why not us?