Glenn Beck can have it.

When this blog started the word "liberal" had broad, inclusive and positive meaning to me. It carried with it much that I believed in - a vigorous, open and compassionate government, strength, justice, hand up-not hand out, egalitarianism...It felt good to be on a "team" that included, in my mind, forward thinkers of all parties and labels. I liked being called a liberal - even when it was meant as an insult. Even when liberalism's blind spots and misguided side trips were taken into account - the "fighting liberals" were still people to be admired whether they be Hubert Humphrey, Bobby Kennedy, Bella Abzug, or - recently - Dennis Kucinich and Anthony Wiener.

But I can't sustain the word anymore. I can't fight for the word "liberal" - actually I do not want to. The apparatus that - even recently - at least gave lip service to the values stated above has been overrun by the worst kind of corrupt buffoons. To be sure, my views have not stagnated. I questioned much last year. Still, by any traditional measure, I'm still a liberal in the American scheme of things. I just do not want to feel obligated to the word. It hangs over me every time I sit down to write and I'm tired of it.

This is all a lead up to saying I'll be double posting here and here for a while as I figure out how Liberal Rapture should move forward - or if it should move forward at all. The other blog is just my name and whatever title finally suits me....which seems so much simpler...the baggage attached is all mine.

American liberalism has gone off the rails in the age of Obama and Pelosi. The battle for the word 'liberal' is not one I wish to expend energy on. Glenn Beck can have it.