Opinion: The “L” word: Rarely uttered

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Search the transcripts of the three Republican presidential debates conducted so far this year, and the noun ‘conservative’ appears repeatedly. As in, from Mitt Romney during the most recent forum: ‘I know I’ve got conservative credentials.’

Perform the same search for the word ‘liberal’ in the two debates among Democratic White House contenders, and you’ll come up with ... zero hits.

The Democratic Party, in general, and its left wing, in particular, may be filled with optimism these days that they’re riding the prevailing political tides, but Republicans remain far more comfortable using a terse, succinct term to label their beliefs.

That difference was driven home during this week’s ‘Take Back America’ conference in Washington. News accounts routinely referred to it as a gathering of ‘liberal’ activists. But over three days of speeches, panel discussions and confabs, ‘liberal’ --- while perhaps not the word that dare not speak its name --- was hardly heard.

Filmmaker Robert Greenwald, whose works include scathing attacks on the Fox New channel and the Bush adminsitration’s Iraq policy, was at the ‘Take Back America’ conference and noted to The Times’ Robin Abcarian that there’s an ongoing dispute on the left over terminology.

‘There’s a substantive argument ... about ‘liberal’ vs. ‘progressive’,’ he said.

Greenwald has been describing himself as a progressive for a decade, saying it ‘represents a way of looking at the world in a strong, uncompromising way and standing up for social values.’

But is it catching on? Let’s turn to that pesky search function again. In the two Democratic debates, ‘progressive’ turns up once (used by Barack Obama).

-- Don Frederick