"Progressive" vs. "Liberal"

From Steve Benen at Talking Points Memo:

In every national poll in recent memory, "liberal" always polls below "moderate" and "conservative." It's reinforced the notion that center-right politics have been in ascendance for quite some time.

But Rasmussen Reports had an interesting survey this week, which showed that when "liberal" is replaced with "progressive," the broader dynamic changes significantly. According to the poll, 35% consider "progressive" a positive description of a candidate, whereas 32% consider "conservative" a positive label. In other words, the left's label is now more popular than the right's. . . .

Read the rest here. Bill O'Reilly is already going after the "secular progressives," as he calls them. A while back, I made some remarks here.

Saturday Morning

Up early today, a rarity for me. Went to bed early last night (also a rarity) since I'm on call at work today. I've already had my two cans of V-8 and am raring to go.

In the household in which I was raised, the word "liberal" was a dirty word. So I rarely use it. I even wince at the expression "liberal education." I prefer not to get hung up on labels, but if I were to put a label on my political leanings, it would be "progressive."

Here's an article for unabashed liberals, however. But didn't Clinton say, "It's the economy, stupid"? What's “It’s more than the economy, stupid"?!