Words don’t cast votes. They don’t contribute to campaigns or make phone calls on behalf of a candidate. But they matter. Our language may not control reality, but it goes along way in shaping it. Most of the fabric of our political reality is woven of words. That’s what makes a recent Pew Center Poll interesting.
We’ve known for a long time that “liberal” is a dirty word among many. According to a Pew Center Poll, most people–Republican or Democrat or independent–view the label “progressive” most favorably. “Conservative” is a close second. “Liberal,” is much less popular than either, though much of the skew comes from Republicans.
Republicans see the terms conservative and liberal in particularly stark terms. By an 89% to 8% margin they view the former positively, and by a 70% to 20% margin they view the latter negatively. Democrats are not as universal in their views. By a 68% to 22% margin they have a positive reaction to the word liberal, and at the same time they are equally likely to have a positive as a negative reaction to the word conservative (47% vs. 44%).
There is a sharp difference by age when it comes to the word liberal – while 61% of people under age 30 react positively, just 34% of those age 65 and older say the same. By contrast, reactions to the word conservative are almost identical across all age groups.
Public reactions to the word progressive are far more favorable than to the word liberal; two-thirds have a positive reaction to the former compared with just half for the latter. There is very little difference among Democrats – who view both terms favorably. The largest difference is among Republicans most (55%) of whom have a positive reaction to the word progressive, and a negative (70%) reaction to the word liberal.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is how many people view “capitalism” negatively. To me, reactions to the word suggest that it is a label worth applying to the big business gone wild world we we live in today.
The term capitalism elicits more positive (50%) than negative (40%) reactions from the American public, but not by much. And while Americans of different incomes and ideological perspectives offer different opinions on capitalism, the divides are not as wide as on other terms measured.
More affluent Americans, as well as conservative Republicans, are more likely to offer positive than negative reactions to capitalism by two-to-one. And among people who agree with the Tea Party movement, 71% view capitalism positively. Yet within each of these groups, a quarter or more say they have a negative reaction to capitalism.
Notably, liberal Democrats and supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement are not overtly critical of capitalism. In fact, as many offer positive as negative reactions in each of these groups.
Liberal has a (fairly) specific meaning. Progressive can mean anything the speaker wants it to mean.
campaign to make it a dirty word.
Conservative is also a nebulous term. It’s probably a good idea to oppose one indefinable term with another, especially since liberals have allowed their name to be sullied.
What were we supposed to do?
He didn’t.
Just throw everything into your argument, kirth, that’s effective.
Your premise that liberals allowed the word liberal to be sullied is flawed. Granted, conservatives have lobbied hard to make conservative a positive word, but their results are mixed at best.
I would argue that it’s part of liberalism to allow others to think what they want. If there’s a failure, it’s a failure of our standard bearers (including Dukakis, yes, but also including many others, right on down to so-called progressive voters).
You must feel this very deeply, because you aren’t making sense. I responded to your cry of “what were we supposed to do?” with ONE example where a liberal could have done something, and you think that’s me “throwing everything into my argument,” and saying “it’s all his fault.”
If liberals don’t like they way the term is used, it’s up to them to defend their meaning of it. If they are too invested in “allowing others to think what they want” to do that, then it’s really too bad.
I’m not making sense. You’ve touched a nerve.
And you are not making strawman arguments or responding to things I haven’t said. Happy New Year.
It can’t be rehabilitated. We should actually start applying it to conservative policies treating business liberally.
has been working very hard to make “progressive” not just a dirty word but a frightening one.