this post was submitted on 13 May 2025
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Did you not know that "liberal" is literally a synonym of "progressive". Moderate Dems (there are not moderate Republicans) are not liberals and don't call themselves liberals.
You should learn what the word liberal actually means. Liberalism is a center-center right ideology and has both historically and now been at odds with progressive politics, up to and including aligning with fascists over leftists. It's been marketed as "everyone left of center" these days, but that's just not what the word means as a term. Think of the word "neoliberal ", and remember that neoliberalism is explicitly a return of the laissez-faire ideas of classical liberalism. Regardless, I said "aka democrats" specifically so people who aren't neck-deep in leftwing politics know what I'm talking about.
I mean they don't call themselves liberals, but according to what the term actually means in political science they're liberals (well, sort of, some are conservatives).
Yes you should.
[Used politically, it means "a person who believes that government should be active in supporting social and political change."]
https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/liberal-meaning-origin-history
Okay so, given complicated the differences between variations of liberalism are, Merriam Webster is really not a good source here. That's not what liberalism means in most of the world. That said, the Democratic Party is definitely classical liberal (also known as neoliberal), rather than social liberal, which is what you're talking about, and that also exists so I wasn't 100% correct either, but either way "liberal" is absolutely not a synonym with "progressive".