In my fantasyland, public figures attached to progressive causes would not run away from certain adjectives just because the Republicans have been very good at saying them with a sneer. (source)
I wouldn’t mind living in that fantasy land. They turned “liberal” into a bad word. Does this sound like a label from which anyone should flee?
If by a “Liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal,” then I’m proud to say I’m a “Liberal.”
– John F. Kennedy (source)
