I am an intelligent man who does not wish to stagnate in the past or the present, but challenge humanity for the future. In other words, damn right I'm a liberal, in every possible aspect. To me it is an obnoxious insult for anyone to be so self absorbed, so self serving, as to have much and mock those who have less. Such behavior is to be expected from the ruling oligarchical few (now called the one percent); however, for these people who make a few hundred thousand dollars a year, it is inexcusable. The same lot are receiving the proverbial drippings from the table of the lords of America, e.g., making $120,000 a year while the CEO makes 68 million dollars in the same year. Therefore, those who make a mere $28,000 a year are the scourge of the earth - they want food stamps, and they cheat on their taxes, and they don't have insurance, and their houses just don't look well kept, and we have to educate their kids, and most don't know who their daddy is, etc., ad nauseum. I'll leave your imagination to expand that altruism into the unemployed, disabled, elderly, homeless ... .
The land of the free!? Yes, you're free: to believe in the same god I do; to be as frugal with your money as I; to hungrily absorb the fluffy propagandized graphics of talking head nonsensical media; you're free as well to purchase licenses, pay an assortment of taxes, vote for whomever your nonpolitical pastor tells you God wants to win; dress "appropriately"; be harassed and brutalized by those paid to protect and serve; and, certainly not least of all freedoms, to go to jail in a most degrading manner should you choose to assemble and protest any government- or oligarchy-sponsored injustice.
The home of the brave!? Sure, brave enough to hide behind the mortal threat of owning a gun instead of striving to educate those a rung or two down the ladder that pacifism is not a thing of the 60's, but a peaceful way to coexist. As well, most everyone I see these days is brave enough to do as they're told when it comes to elections, seek approval from an Association prior to painting your home, and brave enough to call the police if you see a motorist on the side of the road with the car hood raised (I don't have time or am too scared to actually help someone I don't know). Modern day bravery in America is tantamount to the duck-and-cover-under-your-desk which those of my generation learned to avoid a nuclear holocaust. Sorry, but it is, quite frankly, laughable.
Very few of us think, any more. We are so overwhelmed with information that our minds are not capable of filtering truth from fantasy or opinions from facts. The last vestige of reliable information slipped away in 1981 when Walter Cronkite retired. Prior to that woeful moment, people heard the facts and were then free to form their own opinion, without guidance from the fact-giver. Of course, the sheep were still lead by those highly opinionated acquaintances; however, with commingling among cliques and social contacts, there was an objectivity that also slipped away in 1981 with Walter. Now we are overwhelmed with opinions, rarely contrasting to any noticeable merit, which may have been formed by the informer based upon a fact. The aggressiveness of the opinions espoused by polished anchor/sales people make life easier if accepted, for then we never have to stretch our minds' capability to filter facts from bullshit or opinions from facts.
So, am I to be considered a "Liberal"? Oh hell yes! Every person who has accomplished great things for humanity was called, wait for it, a "Liberal"; to wit: Mohandas Gandhi, Dr. Martin King, Jr., Jesus Christ, John F. Kennedy, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Marie Curie, Mother Theresa, Pope Francis, Robert F. Kennedy, Emperor Constantine, General George Patton, Alexander the Great, Elvis Presley, and, not to be forgotten, the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Damn fine company, I'd say. These are icons who moved society forward, strove to bring about change that each hoped would improve because of their influence over other people. "We're not going to hold anything. We're going to advance, always", in the similar words of General Patton. If you feel the need to contribute one-tenth of your income to a building with a steeple so as to claim and define your morality, then you are simply shading your immorality within a group of sheep.
But hell, a recliner and 246 channels on a 56 inch HDTV with a remote is, for Nixon's silent majority and present-day media zombies, much easier, Perhaps I'll even take a nap now since it's world news time - nothing to do with me, anyway.