What Being a Liberal Is About

Earlier this month, Ken Broughton over at Resurgence wrote a post about President Obama’s tax deal called Hunger is Not Sexy. It starts off as such:

Hunger is not sexy. Hunger is not the new black. Hunger is not in style, this season or any other. President Obama knows instinctively that the most important issue is this week is whether or not millions of Americans, Americans who won’t be hired anywhere in the next six to twelve months because there are no jobs to be had, will have anything to eat.

Sometimes being a liberal means feeding people by any means necessary. Sometimes being white and privileged doesn’t give you the knowledge that there are millions of people going hungry from day to day. Sometimes being a liberal means dealing with other rich white folks so that you can feed and cloth those that need it. Sometimes being a liberal is not to look at the floor of the Senate as being the end of liberalism. Sometimes being a liberal is taking care of your neighbor while the rich get richer.

Broughton continues:

I watched the entire press conference the president gave yesterday to talk about the deal he struck with the GOP caucus in the senate that among a long list of other things extends unemployment benefits by one year to eligible citizens who may need to apply for help over the coming months. I saw a fighter – a president who was struggling mightily to stay true to himself, despite the intense and relentless pressure from all sides for him to abandon his identity and assume another, more overtly macho image. But the world we live in is too complex for machismo to really matter much, unless you believe that political theater is more important than actually getting something accomplished.

So as you sit with your family during the holidays, maybe it’s time for you to remember what it means to be a liberal.