My name John and I am a liberal.
I refuse to submit a 12-step program, such as a fictitious program like “Liberals Anonymous.” I am not an addict, although I admit to being addicted to “liberalism.” Too often, politicians like to say, “I don’t want to be labeled.”
Several years ago, December of 2002, George McGovern wrote a piece in Harper’s Magazine called “The case for liberalism: A defense of the future against the past.” Here’s a quote from the McGovern Harper’s article article.
Virtually every step forward in our history has been a liberal initiative taken over conservative opposition: civil rights, Social Security, Medicare, rural electrification, the establishment of a minimum wage, collective bargaining, the Pure Food and Drug Act, and federal aid to education, including the land-grant colleges, to name just a few.*
And here are a few more liberal initiatives that are now Standard Operating Procedure.
*Here are a few more: guaranteed bank deposits, the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Park Service, the National School Lunch Program, the Voting Rights Act, and the graduated income tax.
McGovern further declares himself a liberal in the tradition of:
I am an American patriot and a liberal in the tradition of Jefferson, Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt.
That is a nice group of people to be associated with. So to all you liberals: proudly proclaim yourself and make no apology. It is a badge of honor. Reading on Walden Bookstore.