2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Hillary has spent most of her political career denying she's a liberal [View all]Buzz cook
(2,474 posts)To define the terms.
I remember not too long ago lots of people claiming to be progressive instead of liberal. To them liberal meant fuddy duddy 70s do gooder who were completely ineffective. Progressive at the time was ironically the more liberal of the two terms.
In my opinion they also were running away from the "L" word that had been so successfully demonized by the right and the media. By the late 80s and beyond to claim to be a liberal was the same as admitting your name was Poindexter.
But to be honest the tem started falling out of favor with the Kennedy administration who wanted to distance themseleves from the New Dealers and pointy headed intellectuals like Adlai Stevenson. Kennedy and his inner circle like to view themselves as pragmatists free from ideology.
I'm glad that Sanders supporters are trying to reclaim the word Liberal though I often disagree with how the demonstrate their liberalism.
I also wonder how they would respond to Steve Kangas' description of liberalism.
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/LiberalFAQ.htm
But back to the OP, I don't know if your definition of liberalism is the same as the popular definition in 2008 or even earlier. It's a good idea to define your terms.