Liberalness, in its essence, is a matter of respecting the freedoms of others; it comes, after all, from the word liber which (contrary to some cherished right-wing fantasies) does not come from the Latin word for a dull tome, but from the Latin word for free.

Of late, freedom has been a much-abused term by the Bush administration; they speak about it frequently while in fact they believe the Federal government ought to make it is business to deny people the right to (for example) marry each other if their preferences don't match the Bushite template of correctitude; nor should they be free to opt out of reproduction once pregant; nor should they be free to speak freely against the current administration at events it holds, except in carefully walled off "free speech zones". These are a few examples. There are others.

Thanks to the current administration, Americans are now free to go hunt other human beings overseas with a license from the government, kill them in gore and possibly even get killed themselves. We are doing this in order to bring freedom to the people of Iraq, a significant per centage of whom are ferociously dedicated to taking that freedom away from the other half, creating an atmosphere in which the citizens of Bagthdad are now free to tread cautiously everywhere they go for fear of being blown up, shot down, arrested by American GIs and held without process or decapitated by fanatics with religious slogans tatooed on their chests. I grant you, Bush did not create the undercurrents of religous zealotry which informs this half of Iraq, but he sure as hell managed it incompetently. As a result, the theatre has become a magnet and proving ground for every adolescent for thousands of miles around with a bent world-view and a back-pack to stuff gelignite into.

This is not a liberal solution. I am quite sure that there are some occasions when treating others with dignity and respect is an unavailable option, as when confronted with unprovoked violence, and forcing the issue is the sole option of last resort... But even liberals know that. And their counterparts wake up relishing the use of that option before breakfast, as though it were an intelligent choice rather than a desperate one.

Liberals are not pinkos, socialist, dweebs, commies, gays, or whiners in their nature, although any of these types may well show up in their ranks, just as conservatives by definition are not greedy money-loving insensitive brutes and reactionaries by their nature.

Liberals are those who prefer to build better solutions than the solution of tooth and claw where possible. They are those who believe in an honest dialogue rather than the mechanism of political manipulation, by and large (I can already think of exceptions, though! :)) They alos, for the most part, believe in open information and the right and duty of the citizen to think for himself rather than goose-step to someone else's drum. At least in my Book of Liberal Tenets that is right near the top. Finally, they believe that improving the processes of society can improve the well-being of that society across the boards. ANyone who has seen good process-improvement in a large company knows this really works; while anyone who has seen it done badly, in large government for example, knows it is too ridiculous to even think about.


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