Don't call me a liberal, please

Let's say you are at the beach. You ask your significant other to put some suntan lotion on your back. How much do you want to be squirted on your skin?

If you are liberal and too much is used, you are left with an icky mess and a waste of suntan lotion.

Use just enough -- conservatively -- and the job has been done well enough, and more lotion is left over for future applications or for others who need it.

This is why when political discourse is expressed as conservative versus liberal, the left loses traction. When Democrats allow the battle to be described in those terms, they immediately cede voters to the GOP. (Remember George H.W. Bush, who once simply used the refined argument of "Liberal, Liberal, Liberal!")

From the point of view of a social conscious, liberal means being open to new ideas, seeing injustices and fighting to correct them and using the government to help those who need help the most. "Favorable to progress or reform," as dictionary.com describes it. It goes on to say the word means: "Favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom possible ... free from prejudice or bigotry; tolerant: a liberal attitude toward foreigners. ... open-minded."

These are fine values, and they are rooted in those ideals that made this country great. But still, the term comes with political handicaps. From a fiscal standpoint, liberal means wasteful, excessive and blind to the realities of how much something costs.

Now, the Democrats are overwhelmingly in charge, but it is not because somehow the liberal philosophy has overwhelmed the conservative side. Part of the reason that the Democrats won was because the Republicans lost sight of their core values of fiscal conservatism. George W. Bush lost the backing of many conservatives because he made government larger, more complex and more wasteful by throwing resources into a war effort that was corrupted by greed and cronyism.

What also happened is a rise of Blue Dog Democrats, who are fiscally conservative but liberal on social issues. The Democrats have stolen a key pillar from the Republican party.

And yet, liberal remains a problematic term for the left. It needs to be retired.

So, I would prefer to be called progressive, defined by dictionary.com as "favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are, esp. in political matters."

This is a great country, but it is unfinished. It is always being improved. That is what makes it great.

I like the way President Obama put it in his inaugural address: "The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works, whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified."