Proud to be a Liberal: Number Five

I am not certain that this is the fifth article I have written about why I am proud to be a liberal, or the fourth or the sixth. I only know that on occasion I find it necessary to explain how I learned right from wrong, and how I became aware that the past is only good for one thing: it is a place where the most important things I learned were from my mistakes, and the mistakes of my government.  

As an original “baby boomer,” born in July of 1946, I began my life in an atmosphere of patriotism, and rebirth. The war to defeat fascism had been won, and America was changing quickly, attempting to leave the horrors of war behind us and move our nation forward with changes which no one could have imagined just a few years ago.

Millions of women who had become workers in our factories in support of the need to create weapons of mass destruction stepped aside, allowing America’s returning heroes to secure employment in the private sector. Factories were re-tooled, manufacturing everything other than killing machines. Initially, it was an era of both joy and sorrow: joy for the families who were reunited, and sadness for those whose loved ones did not return. As we always have, the American people found ways to make it all work. For younger Americans, we believed in the “American Dream.” Everything we dreamed of was waiting for us in the future.

I grew up in Los Angeles, California, in the 1950’s and 1960’s. As I look back at my formative years, I know that I was lucky to live in a part of America which embraced change and accepted new ideas with excitement and a positive attitude. My real education began in 1962, when I left private, parochial school, and began my junior year in a public high school. I was no longer existing in an atmosphere of “white privilege.” I was surrounded by what America was meant to be: a nation of people who embraced the differences between us and learned from each other.

In my first year of high school, 1960, I wished I could have voted. The Senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy, somehow knew how I felt and could see my dreams as he spoke so eloquently during his campaign and at the first televised debates. JFK immediately became my image of what a President of the United States should be. That has never changed. There have been no “great” presidents since we lost him too early in my senior year on November 22, 1963.

It was JFK who was an important factor in how my character, and my beliefs would shape my thoughts and ideas for the next 65 years. It was because of the words and ideas offered by one man that in 1967 when I turned 21, I knew that when I could finally vote in the 1968 elections, I would always be a Liberal Independent. I embraced the concept of moving forward and accepting change, learning from the past but leaving it behind. I was aware that political parties were a huge obstacle, placing one party’s philosophies against the other. I decided that I would always vote for the candidate whose ideas were closest to my own beliefs, regardless of which political party he or she claimed to represent.

“If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties-someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal", then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal.”

― John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage

Sadly, for me and all Independent voters, the Republican Party no longer exists in 2025. Those who call themselves “Republicans” in Washington today are pretenders. They possess none of the morals, principles, or ideals of the former Grand Old Party.

Their leader, Donald Trump, is destroying the progress of his predecessors, moving America backwards into its darkest days when the American people were divided by prejudice and bigotry. When white men had all of the power and all of the wealth. When the working class was expected to be subservient to the one percent of our nation’s citizens who controlled more than 90 percent of the wealth. When women were second-class citizens, and minorities were considered as less than human by the majority. When gay and lesbian Americans were forced to remain in the closet or be shunned by a pseudo-Chrisitan-dominated society.

I am a proud liberal American. The truth is undeniable: like the fact that there are no Republicans in Washington today, there are no conservatives. All that is left are pretenders whose true ambitions are the re-creation of America into a fascist society.

For me, to be liberal is to be an American. If you are not, you do not respect and cherish the Constitution and most certainly not the dreams and hopes of our Founding Fathers.

Op-ed by James Turnage

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Source: https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/mineola-ny-19470518