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Hello and welcome back to the 
Tiny Pod. 

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This week I want to talk about 
liberal. 

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The word liberal comes from the 
Latin word liba, meaning free. 

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It entered into politics in the 
17th century in England with 

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free thinkers like John Locke, 
known as the father of 

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liberalism, advocating 
principles such as individual 

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liberty, self ownership of 
property, and a government based

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on consent. 
His philosophy that the 

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government's purpose was to 
protect individual rights of 

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life, liberty, happiness, and 
estate ownership was fundamental

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to the Revolution of 1688 that 
fought to limit inherited power 

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of the monarchy and redistribute
power into a government based on

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public consent. 
His philosophy became 

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fundamental to modern democracy 
and influence future revolutions

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and constitutions, most notably 
in France and America in the 

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18th century. 
Thomas Jefferson credited Locke 

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as foundational to the American 
Declaration of Independence and 

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considered him one of the three 
greatest men that have ever 

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lived. 
Jefferson wrote Locke's 

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Principles of Life, Liberty, and
Property into the Declaration, 

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proclaiming life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness as 

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unalienable rights endowed to 
all, and that when any form of 

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government becomes destructive, 
it is the right of the people to

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alter or abolish it. 
It is therefore particularly 

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ironic when American politicians
use liberal to insult and 

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divide. 
The American Constitution and 

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Bill of Rights was founded on 
securing the blessings of 

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liberty and freedom for all. 
American conservatism benefits 

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from liberal freedoms while 
mocking the very word that 

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created them. 
It is historical amnesia mixed 

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with authoritarian nostalgia. 
Liberal entered into French 

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politics at a similar time in 
the 18th century during the 

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French Revolution. 
The word left originated in the 

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French National Assembly. 
People who sat on the left, the 

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innovators and the independents 
supported ending absolute power 

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in monarchy, equal rights for 
all people, while people who sat

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on the right supported inherited
power, monarchy, aristocracy and

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church state power. 
Left meant power should not 

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belong to the elite and French 
democracy was founded on liberal

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principles, Liberty, equality, 
fraternity. 

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Liberalism holds authority, 
accountable, advocates for 

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individual dignity, and is the 
reason you can openly oppose 

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government policy, worship 
freely, speak freely, leave 

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abusive structures, and not be 
owned by the strongest man in 

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the room. 
Calling it weak is only possible

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because it works so well that 
people stopped noticing the cage

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it removed. 
It is about protecting 

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individual rights, social 
reform, fraternity and progress.

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Yet progressive is also feared 
as if to move forward is a 

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threat. 
Change and evolution are all 

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that is constant, and yet being 
forward thinking is framed as 

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dangerous even though to stand 
still in a frozen snapshot of 

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history is impossible. 
Jesus would have been called 

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left liberal, radical, 
progressive, dangerous, woke 

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Antifa because he fed people, 
healed and challenged religious 

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elites. 
He walked straight into the 

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temple, saw the commercial 
exploitation wrapped in 

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religion, and overturned the 
tables. 

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Jesus was liberal with 
conviction and clarity. 

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He didn't ask permission from 
power. 

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He didn't negotiate with 
corruption. 

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He was radically liberal with 
conviction, anti hypocrisy, and 

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hoarded power and devoted to 
freeing people internally and 

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externally. 
Liberal got poisoned because it 

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threatens power. 
Liberal means free. 

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Free conscience, free movement, 
free bodies. 

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And freedom is intolerable to 
any system that survives by 

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control, hierarchy, obedience, 
or fear. 

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So the word had to be sabotaged 
to protect power because a truly

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free, educated, compassionate 
population is much harder to 

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control. 
Those in power know that 

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equality threatens hoarded 
wealth, workers rights threaten 

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profit, and dignity threatens 
domination. 

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It isn't about policy, it's 
about discouraging empathy. 

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If you poison a word, you poison
the values behind it. 

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Justice becomes wokeness, 
compassion becomes weakness, and

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fairness is reframed as danger. 
When liberal stops meaning 

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liberty and starts meaning 
chaotic, immoral people will 

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police themselves and submit to 
authority. 

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It is language doing what 
language always does for power, 

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laundering force into 
righteousness. 

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What poisons these words is 
fear. 

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Fear of accountability, fear of 
losing unearned dominance, fear 

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of a world where you actually 
have to justify yourself 

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ethically. 
Capitalism wants consumers, not 

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freethinkers. 
Authoritarianism wants subjects,

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not sovereigns. 
All forms of absolutism kill, 

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but democracy in its true state 
exists for all people, not the 

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few in power. 
Every individual matters. 

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The human comes first. 
Politicians who lack moral 

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values frame liberal as naive, 
when in truth it's the hardest 

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stance to hold because 
responsibility comes with 

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freedom. 
It requires moral courage. 

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It requires faith in humans 
without needing to dominate 

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them. 
It requires letting people 

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choose. 
And it requires strength without

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cruelty. 
And that is unimaginable and 

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terrifying for those hungry for 
power and control, untethered 

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from conscience. 
The loudest people mocking 

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liberals exercise liberal 
freedoms all day long to do it. 

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Speech, platforms, dissent, 
choice. 

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They despise the foundations 
they are standing on. 

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Woke is not moral performance. 
It is moral attentiveness. 

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Woke means to stay awake when 
power needs us asleep. 

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It is vigilance, discernment, 
spiritual and nervous system 

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awareness of harm, oppression 
and injustice. 

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It is knowing that injustice 
anywhere is a threat to justice 

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everywhere. 
Woke got hijacked by 

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corporations realising that 
compassion and social justice 

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threaten obedience and profit. 
Liberty threatens people who 

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benefit from chains, so they 
pretend the chains are 

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tradition, order or God. 
Antifa has become an insult in 

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America. 
Anti fascist action that 

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originated in Nazi Germany in 
the 1930s against Hitler. 

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Donald Trump now labels them a 
domestic terrorist organisation,

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writing they use illegal means 
to organise and execute a 

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campaign of violence and 
terrorism nationwide, which 

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reads as an accurate description
of his enforcers ICE. 

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It lands as a personal 
confession from Trump himself. 

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When Vance says ICE will be 
going door to door much like the

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Gestapo, it is clear to see why 
Trump has criminalised anyone 

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identifying as anti fascist and 
Lib Tard. 

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A made-up word that combines the
Latin words liba free and TARDIS

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slow. 
Free and slow is a compliment 

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the Bible writes. 
Everyone should be quick to 

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listen, slow to speak, and slow 
to become angry. 

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Slow is self-control, 
reflective, regulated, non 

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reactive, and time to think 
critically. 

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Free means unowned, unbought, 
unafraid, enslaved, and quick is

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perfect for systems that need 
obedience, speed, and no 

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thought. 
People don't hate the left, 

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liberalism, or being awake. 
They hate what those words 

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imply, that no one is coming to 
think for them. 

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Anyone who uses libtard as an 
insult is terrified of freedom 

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because freedom requires 
responsibility. 

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True liberalism is 
accountability. 

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If you're free, you can't blame 
the government, God, immigrants,

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women, or them. 
A lot of people don't actually 

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want freedom, they want someone 
to blame. 

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So they resent liberals because 
liberals reveal their own 

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limitations. 
Free people always look 

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dangerous to those who need 
control, so they try to mock it,

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poison the words, tear down the 
symbols, because they can't 

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actually defeat the truth 
underneath. 

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Truth is undeniable. 
Truth stands and illuminates, 

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just like the Statue of Liberty,
a sovereign feminine holding a 

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torch of illumination, welcoming
the tired, the poor, the masses.

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The Statue of Liberty isn't 
masculine conquest, it's 

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feminine sanctuary, a place to 
breathe. 

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Authoritarians must hate her 
because she stands there 

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silently exposing their lies. 
Freedom doesn't need permission 

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or cruelty to exist, and that 
threatens systems built on fear,

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speed, obedience, and 
extraction. 

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When people scorn at liberal or 
left, what they're really 

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mocking is conscience with 
courage, awakening with action, 

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and love that refuses to stay 
quiet when dignity is being 

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dominated. 
And that is exactly what the 

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first days of 2026 have been all
about. 

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People rising, asserting their 
rights, refusing oppression, and

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demanding that power actually 
serves them. 

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It is humans everywhere saying 
enough, we matter. 

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I am forever thankful for my 
freedom, all my freedoms. 

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Freedom of speech of expression,
freedom to think, Freedom from 

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tyranny, freedom from 
oppression. 

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I'm thankful also for my freedom
to support equality for all 

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people and stand against 
injustice and oppression 

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everywhere. 
May all free people use their 

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privilege of freedom to free all
oppressed people. 

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And may those who try and 
reframe left and liberal as 

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insults educate themselves, 
study history, and maybe even 

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buy a dictionary. 
I will end with a quote John F 

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Kennedy said. 
If by a liberal, they mean 

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someone who looks ahead and not 
behind. 

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Someone who welcomes new ideas 
without rigid reactions. 

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Someone who cares about the 
welfare of the people, their 

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health, their housing, their 
schools, their jobs, their civil

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rights and their civil 
liberties. 

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Someone who believes we can 
breakthrough the stalemate and 

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suspicions that grip us in our 
policies abroad. 

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If that is what they mean by a 
liberal, then I'm proud to say 

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I'm a liberal. 
Compassion is not weakness, 

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authority is not lawful when it 
crushes human dignity, and 

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humanity is only radical for 
those who harm. 

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I'll see you next week.
