Post-Schna-ulations

You LIBERAL!!

Which is a more negative term, liberal or conservative? According to this article from the New York Times (in which Rudy Giuliani wholeheartedly endorses Bush):
"The word 'liberal' is used as a term of abuse in America." (This was in response to Giuliani calling John Kerry "the most liberal senator in the Senate").

Thoughts on this?
There are times, when referring to the uber-conservatives, that I use less than loving terms like Fundies, or even more extreme fascists...however, it seems that what the Telegraph of Britain (who made the claim stated above)was saying is that liberal in and of itself, in American, carries the same sorts of negative connotations I'm invoking my calling someone a Fundie or fascist.

So, I went to Thesaurus.com and came up with the following synonyms for conservative and liberal:

Conservative:

Definition: moderate
Synonyms: bourgeois, cautious, constant, controlled, conventional, die-hard, fearful, firm, fogyish, fuddy-duddy, guarded, hard hat, hidebound, holding to, illiberal, inflexible, middle-of-the-road, not extreme, obstinate, old guard, old-line, orthodox, quiet, red-neck, right, right-wing, sober, stable, steady, timid, traditional, traditionalistic, unchangeable, unchanging, uncreative, undaring, unimaginative, unprogressive, white bread

Liberal:

Definition: progressive
Synonyms: advanced, avant-garde, big, broad, broad-minded, catholic, detached, disinterested, dispassionate, enlightened, flexible, free, general, high-minded, humanistic, humanitarian, impartial, indulgent, inexact, intelligent, interested, latitudinarian, left, lenient, libertarian, loose, magnanimous, not close, not literal, not strict, permissive, pink, radical, rational, reasonable, receiving, receptive, reformist, tolerant, unbiased, unbigoted, unconventional, understanding, unorthodox, unprejudiced

Oddly enough, it seems to ME that I would much rather be called just about ANY of the synonyms for liberal before being called the synonyms for conservative. Woo hoo, I'm advanced! I'm tolerant! I'm high-minded and intelligent!! And I'm NOT a red-neck, a fuddy-duddy, FEARFUL, or unprogressive. I can live with that.

posted by Schna @ 12:01 PM