Liberal = Left?

[Anne Gilbert]

David:

>For anyone who remembers 1950s Republicans hating the
national debt, asking
>themselves "Who Lost China?" and isolationist, it's a
real surprise to meet
>debt-is-irrelevant, internationalist (or if you
prefer, globalizationist)
>Republicans; likewise, now that the largest union
membership in the country
>is government workers (incl. teachers), the Democrats
aren't "Labor" anymore
>either, in the steel & mineworkers sense.  We have to
upgrade our political
>vocabulary.  If "left" is defined as anti-
globalizationist (as a
>continuation of distrust of Business < a Labor past,
even though most of the
>college-educated leftists don't do labor in the
traditional sense) and
>activist government and supportive of people who are
conceived of being
>powerless (women, minorities and gays), and "right"
as devolutionist (to the
>extent of being states-righters again and anti-
federalist), and believers in
>limited-govt. (except when it wants to keep an eye in
your bedroom).
>Clinton, however, and his "New Federalism," is
clearly "right" socially and
>"left" for his support of minorities.  Which is just
to say the old terms
>get reanalyzed each political generation and what
once guarenteed one to be
>sitting on the left side of the French Assembly and
opposing the crown, or
>sitting on the right supporting state power, no
longer holds...

You're right, I think.  There are always "lefts"
and "rights", but the "flahspoints" of division get
redefined periodically.  This is absolutely nothing
new.
Anne G