What is your definition of liberal?

[OmahaBlueDog]

64. I would assert that Randian Objectivists believe that they make decisions based on evidence.

...the human happiness part, not so much.

I like John Rawls theory of the "Veil of Ignorance". One makes decisions with blindness to one's actual place or position in life. I this scenario, one might actually be a rich white male, but would decide issues based on the possibility they could actually be a poor Native American woman. That is a gross oversimplification of what Rawls wrote, but many brain cells have died since those Poli Sci lectures. Dumbed way down, I think the first quality of a Liberal would be that they would put the interests of others before their own.

When considering the interests of others, I see Liberals believing the following:

Liberals believe that the government has a role in protecting the governed. Generally, that means defending the weak from the strong. Specifically, it means protecting the poor from the disproportionate power of the moneyed; protecting the employee from the disproportionate power of the employer; and protecting minorities from the disproportionate power of majorities -- whether those majorities are racial, spiritual, or ethnic.