Carl Mumpower's lament about our City Council ["Raise a Glass of Kool-Aid for Our Current City Council," Jan. 4 Xpress] is surely misplaced. To say, as he does, that they are all liberal is a compliment, not any sort of criticism. That's because the several definitions of the word “liberal” include favoring political reform, advocating representative government and permitting freedom of action with respect to personal belief or expression. Mumpower's mistake is to conflate being liberal with being a socialist. This is what philosophers call a "persuasive definition," one that is at odds with what a term really means.
Mumpower wants to persuade us that the only alternative to his brand of conservatism is socialism. He fails to see that being a liberal means being able to evaluate all political views on their merits and not by misusing words.
— Leonard S. Carrier
Asheville
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"Mumpower wants to persuade us that the only alternative to his brand of conservatism is socialism."
Actually, what he wants is to be the center of attention which Mountain Xpress, the Citizen-Times and their readers see all to happy to give him.
By RHS
01/10/2012
I'd agree with you if you were referring to the liberalism of the 1960s. The liberalism of today has little relation to that. Today's liberalism is what--back then--was well-known as Socialism and it's kissing cousin--Marxism. The word has remained the same, but it's reality has changed. And for the worse I will add.
By john5
01/20/2012