Liberals

The other day I wrote that it was wrong for liberals to demonize the word 'conservative' and vice versa, but didn't say much about the efficacy of the Bush campaign's attempt to do just that in this election. Peter Beinart (Unfortunately only available to subscribers. Lucky for me I have LexisNexis through the UI.) weighs in on why it hasn't been particularly stinging to call Kerry a liberal arguing that it's about race, taxes, cultural elitism, and the war on terror.

Liberalism used to be tied to racial politics and taxes because of the perception that liberals would dole out money to racial minorities and be soft on crime. This changed with Clinton who reformed welfare and was tough on crime. Also,"Today, it's a different story. When Bush says Kerry can't pay for his health care plan without raising taxes, he's implicitly conceding that Kerry will spend tax dollars on health care, something swing voters support." And the critique of liberals as cultural elites is no longer potent because it doesn't motivate swing voters. Now to verbatim Beinart:

That leaves terrorism. It is possible that September 11 gives the L word a salience it lacked in the '90s. And Bush is trying to update it to mean someone who would require a "permission slip" from other countries to defend America. But the danger of attacking Kerry as a liberal, rather than as a flip-flopper, is that it focuses the national security debate away from character and toward policy. A liberal, unlike a flip-flopper, is someone with clear views about national security. Those views may not be particularly popular--voters may indeed suspect Kerry would be too deferential to other countries. But, given voter dissatisfaction over Iraq, it is no longer clear that Bush's views are very popular, either. The flip-flop attack worked in part by appealing to a slice of the electorate that didn't like Bush's foreign policy but liked his steadfastness in carrying it out. By reframing the national security debate in ideological--rather than characterological--terms, Bush risks losing them.

I hope he does not only because of my electoral preferences in this particular election but also in the hope that 'liberal' as a term of contempt will be permanently deflated and its proper place within the moderate range of politics can be properly solidified. That rightful place includes a policy on terrorism which is an evil that must be, will be, and is being fought by Democrats and Republicans alike.