"If by a 'Liberal' they mean..."

[WilliamPitt]

"If by a 'Liberal' they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people - their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties - someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a 'Liberal,' then I'm proud to say I'm a 'Liberal.'"

― John F. Kennedy, "Profiles in Courage."

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I'm proud to say I'm a Liberal too.

And the teapartiers are trying to claim he would be one of THEM?



or




Take your choice........or both.

[Half-Century Man]

2. Tea Party's post mortem baptism of ideology.

They have done it with a lot of past political figures.

Just a slimy as the mormons claiming that people dead for thousands of years before they existed, are now baptized into their sect/cult/thingy; whatever they are. .

[WowSeriously]

13. Many of my friends who grew up despising Kennedy and the Kennedy name

Suddenly love to invoke JFK while simultaneously claiming the Teabaggery mantel.

I call them out on it as they do it.

[calimary]

30. So am I, CaliforniaPeggy!

And when they say try to claim that JFK was one of them, they blaspheme!

[DissidentVoice]

32. Kennedy would have been disgusted at the TP

Their selfish, "it's all about me" attitude flies in the face of pretty much everything Kennedy stood for.

[avaistheone1]

3. Proud to be a part of THAT.

[Lugnut]

4. That's one of my favorite quotes.

I'm proud to say I'm a Liberal, too.

[Scuba]

5. Excellent. Thanks WilliamPitt.

[Borchkins]

6. I'm proud to say I'm a Liberal!

[lark]

7. Me too, JFK

and proud to join you in that designation.

[antigop]

8. proud liberal here. Thanks, William. k&r nt

[blue14u]

9. Liberal and loving it!!!

Thanks Will!!!

[Owl]

10. I'm also proud to say I'm a Liberal!

[NealK]

11. Liberal Kick.

[saidsimplesimon]

12. Mr. Pitt thank you, even though I question labels. n/t

[Lamonte]

14. Liberals

How many liberals are racists?
How many liberals are sexist?
How many liberals have killed someone working at or guarding an legal abortion clinic?
How many liberals have blown up a building?
How many liberals are against helping the needy?
How many liberals are against Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid?
How many liberals are against minimum wage laws?
How many liberals are against unions?
How many liberals are against the ERA?
How many liberals are against women’s right to manage their health care?

[jazzimov]

15. LOVE that quote!

Yes, President Kennedy, I'm proud to be a Liberal, also.

[napkinz]

16. great quote

[hfojvt]

17. uh oh

I keep looking behind - to the days before Reagan when income taxes were far more progressive and income distribution was far more equal

I tend to be cautious about new ideas, prepared to reject them in favor of the "tried and true" - Reaganomics, after all, was a NEW idea back in 1979 and the Ryan budget has been promoted as a "bold" "new" idea.

It seems to me that some people are ready to drop everything and flit over to the latest fad or jump on the latest bandwagon without reasonable prudence or due diligence.

I just reminded myself of George H.W. Bush. "Wouldn't be ... prudent".

But he was right about "voodoo economics".

[Curmudgeoness]

24. You can look behind and look forward as well.

Those who will not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Change the future by learning from the past, both what worked in the past and what didn't.

[colsohlibgal]

18. If Only

Lately I've used that phrase mostly in response to right wing types calling Obama a socialist.

But today if only is for JFK. The man seems to have had an epiphany post Cuban Missile Crisis, resulting in him questioning the domino theory, etc. We weren't the total force for good we are taught, the other side often not as evil as we were constantly told they were. He was going to deny the MI complex, the war machine, their war in SE Asia. I believe that was a big reason he got murdered, JFK rejecting his learned cold warrior mentality.

The impact of this murder, along with shortly thereafter the murders on his brother and MLK, is enormous, those acts changed our course profoundly.

What could have been.

[Berlum]

19. k and r

excellent

[SoapBox]

20. Count me in!

[butterfly77]

21. K&R!

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

22. Yeah,

count me in.

[CFLDem]

23. A-freakin-men!

[GeoWilliam750]

25. Call me a "Proud Liberal" any day

[lastlib]

26. "...and so, my fellow citizens, Ask not...

...what your country can do for you; Ask what you can do for your country."

[Nanjing to Seoul]

27. My sig line is correct too. Adlai Stevenson - "When Republicans stole lying about us, we'll

stop telling the truth about them."

[Mnemosyne]

28. Hear, hear! nt

[mountain grammy]

29. Always have been always will be, a proud, bleeding heart liberal.

[RoccoR5955]

31. Here are some good links

Here's one to the text of the entire speech:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=74012

Here's a YouTube video of the entire speech:

So many great thoughts in this speech, not just the one quoted by the OP.
Well worth the read and listen.

[DissidentVoice]

33. I have never rejected the term, unlike some

Some who have wrongly allowed Rush Limbaugh and his ilk to demonise the word have tried to cloak it in something else.

Even we on DU tend now to say "progressive." I don't have a problem with that if it's used in the context of Teddy Roosevelt, but if it's used to avoid using "liberal," I do have a problem with it.

I am a a Christian, an American, a veteran and a liberal. Those who don't like that have the problem - not me.

[Enthusiast]

34. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch.....nt

[ctsnowman]

35. K & R