What's In A Label

You know, just because a person identifies themselves as a conservative doesn't mean they are. After almost 3 or more decades of having Liberals (and progressives) vilified by not just the conservatives, but their willing co-conspirators, the corporate media, to call one self liberal was to be set up for ridicule, derision, and all around abuse. As Ed Kilgore so aptly points out, when you get passed the basic "Are you xxx?" and into the meat and potatoes policy questions, suddenly there is a different prospective.

The CAP survey also found that when you probe deeper in terms of more specific statements of values and beliefs, there's a reasonably solid progressive majority when it comes to most matters of international and domestic policy. The conservative "brand" may still be relatively strong, but it doesn't always translate into issue positions, much less voting behavior.

I honestly thought I was a moderate/centerist until I begain to pay more attention to my positions on policies. Then I learned I was liberal. Since I am late to actually following politics, I suspect many others are still going by the simple label and not really looking at their policy positions.