As spoken by Matt Santos on “The Debate” episode of “The West Wing” as written by Boston’s own Lawrence O’Donnell :
I’ll tell you what they did: Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act.
What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things, every one. So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, ‘Liberal’, as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won’t work. Because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor.
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15 years later that whole exchange is still scarily relevant:
Santos Defends Liberals – YouTube