Contrary to what you might hear from conservatives, a clear majority in this country do not self-identify as "liberals." To hear the knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing paranoid delusions of the average conservative, liberals are everywhere--EVERYWHERE!--banging on your door to collect your guns and 90% of your most recent check.
However, liberals continue to trail around 20-25% or so. So our views are regularly disregarded, even by many in the Democratic Party. You won't see an accurate representation of liberal views on CNN, and the People's Budget has been virtually ignored outside of the liberal blogosphere and perhaps a snipet here and there on MSNBC.
More below.
Now, bearing in mind the egregious and thoughtless republican lie that the mainstream media is somehow "liberal" and that liberals are a mob of tax hungry beasts out to drown puppies, what about our ideas? It's fine if nearly eighty-percent of folks don't want to admit that they're "teh eviiiiil libruls", but what do they think of most liberal ideas?
Well... it turns out, a clear majority of Americans agrees that taxing the rich is preferable to cutting Medicare, a beloved liberal program. In fact, most people that are on Medicare are very satisfied. I know I am.
So we know now that there appears to be a disconnect between what Americans believe is a "liberal" and liberal programs and ideas. Which begs the question...how did we get here?
Well.....
We got here because for thirty or forty years corporate powers have pooled their money to buy a government that did not previously work entirely for them.
We got here because for thirty or forty years liberals listened to republicans and their owners malign them as "tax and spend" democrats.
We got here because for thirty or forty years no one walked right up to a republican during a debate and said--big and loud--"Of course I'm a tax and spend liberal, you fool! A government provides services by spending, and it generates revenue from TAXES! Every government operates that way, you mindless buffoon!
We got here because for thirty or forty years republicans and their owners have played on the racist fears of a subset of their mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging supporters.
We got here because for thirty or forty years Democratic politicians have allowed themselves to be maligned by running away from the greatness that has come from their party in the decades previous.
We got here because for thirty or forty years liberals let "taxes" become a bad word, and "entitlement" become an acceptable source of spending cuts.
And we got here because for thirty or forty years, we let republicans get away with huge deficits. FOR FUCK'S SAKE, PEOPLE, EISENHOWER WAS THE LAST REPUBLICAN TO BALANCE THE BUDGET!
It's time to reverse that trend.