I do want to distance myself from the word "liberal" since it has become a pejorative term for the left, just as "fundamentalist" has for the right. Witness the amount of time Kerry & Edwards spent trying to convince people they weren't "liberal," or at least "too liberal." Of course the Ludwig von Mises "classic liberalism" crowd (today we call them libertarian - look 'em up at Mises.org, they're fascinatingly and intelligently wrong-headed) tries to argue that this isn't what "liberal" used to mean - it simply mean "individual freedom, pursuit of life, liberty, and property" Declaration of Independence-type stuff. But they're arguing against centuries of usage. The meaning has shifted and now I would argue that the use of such terms is unhelpful, at best. Connotation has swallowed up denotation.
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