[lbo-talk] "Liberal" (was yours truly in USA Today)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 9/21/06, Dennis Perrin <dperrin at comcast.net> wrote:
> > A statistical analysis by Doug Henwood, editor of the liberal
> > newsletter Left Business Observer, found that an "uncanny" 78% of the
> > movement in Bush's ratings could be correlated with changes in gas
> > prices. Based on trends in crude oil prices, Henwood predicted last
> > Thursday that it "wouldn't be surprising to see his approval numbers
> > rise into the mid-40s."
>
> "Liberal"? Ouch.

The way the term "liberal" is used in the USA makes it difficult for
Americans to understand the rest of the world.  In many parts of the
world, "liberal" seems to be practically synonymous with the
(economic) Right opposed to socialism _and_ social democracy.  Here,
it means either the Center or all who don't go as far to the Right as
Bush.  It's a way for the ruling class here to say that there can't
be, and shouldn't be, anything to the Left of bipartisan consensus on
economics (sadly, it also is an index of the virtual absence of an
organized mass political force to the Left of Democratic Party), and
the only line we are allowed to draw is a cultural one: you are either
culturally liberal or conservative.
-- 
Yoshie
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