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#101453 04/23/03 12:21 AM
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Way back when the term limosine liberal was applied to well-off Vietnam War protesters, particularly those from the arts and moneyed backgrounds. I seem to recall that Leonard Bernstein was stuck with this label for a while. This may be the term your friend was thinking of, maahey. Obviously this was the pre-Lexus era. This term still crops up, as witness these quite recent citations:

The dust cover says Mr. Katz owns a home in Pennsylvania and a home in Maine. Another hypocritical limosine liberal!!

While it is generally known that Limosine Liberal Paul Martin owns Canada Steamship Lines, a great shroud of secrecy surrounds the details of his company.

If Barbara Streisand wants to look like an ass in front of her limosine liberal friends, more power to her. I just would like the media to not tell me about it.



#101454 04/23/03 02:44 AM
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Yup, slithy...Limosine Liberal is the term I'm familiar with, and hear often even nowadays. Sounds like somebody was giving it the "designer" treatment with Lexus.


#101455 04/23/03 03:16 AM
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Ah, yes...I remember Lexus well...she never let me take any "liberties" with her though.


#101456 04/23/03 11:48 AM
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In the UK, the term used to be "a Socialite Socialist."
"Liberal" has a totally different political flavour over here than on the other side of the pond. Used to be a very central-ish, very minority party. Now, many of their policies are, indeed, to the left of soi-disant "New Labour" (pardon me whilst I wash my mouth out.)

But in the good-old bad old days, Labour was a fairly "socialist" (i.e., left wing) party, and there were (and are) a number of even further left organisations, inhabited by many real working-class activists, but also quite a lot of middle-class types (much like Tony Blair, indeed) who preached socialism but most certainly did not practice it. These were scathingly referred to aas "Socialite socialists," especially when they had to leave political meetings early in order to go to a "society" party or couldn't join the picket line because they were going hunting that day.



#101457 04/23/03 03:53 PM
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Ah, yes!, Rhuby. I completely agree with the phrase 'Socialite Socialist'. Socialist can be both an adjective (I prefer socialistic) and a noun, and mean the same thing with either usage.

Not the case with liberal (to my mind). wwh's usage above would apply to the adjective, liberal. In the phrase, a Lexus Liberal, the word, liberal is used as a noun. And as a noun, it alludes ONLY to one meaning, which is, that of one wiht liberal views (free thinker or the like). Whilst, the adjective liberal might apply, to either this meaning or to the allusion to a generous nature.

And that is why the phrase sounds and reads wrong. It is referring to the free thinker meaning of liberal not to the eleemosynary liberal. In other words, it is referring to the adjective liberal but using the noun instead. And so, instead of conveying the sarcasm that it wants to, it is creating confusion (in my mind only, it seems ).

What do you all think?

Liberal" has a totally different political flavour over here than on the other side of the pond.
Will somebody on any side of the pond, please clue me in on the difference? Maybe, this will solve my problem with the way I am reading this word/phrase.


#101458 04/23/03 06:35 PM
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My understanding is that anyone to the left of centre, in the US, is said to have Liberal views (there - you can use it ajectivally![smile[)
Liberals, over here, seem sort-of similar to Democrats over there, whereas our Socialists are called "Liberals" over there.

[waiting to be shot down in flames-e]


#101459 04/23/03 06:59 PM
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Sounds good to me, Rhuby.

[joining you in waiting to be shot down in flames]



#101460 04/23/03 07:01 PM
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makes sense to me, too, which is why I'm struggling with maahey's confusion.



formerly known as etaoin...
#101461 04/24/03 12:27 AM
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I agree with the meaning; I just think they coined the phrase badly, even though it sounds nice.

Huh?

If you understand what it means, and everyone else understands what it means, what else is there to understand?

A label is not a political tract. It's a label.

If you get the message, its a good label. If you don't, it isn't.


#101462 04/24/03 01:47 AM
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If you understand what it means, and everyone else understands what it means, what else is there to understand?

As I understand and as I have made amply clear, this thread is not to do with the meaning of the phrase and whether anyone of us here agrees with the meaning. It is to do with the way the phrase is coined. I am having difficulties with the word liberal which to my mind, is all about being broad minded and non judgmental.

If you get the message, its a good label. If you don't, it isn't.

One could always look at it that way, I suppose. AWAD, I thought, was a place of refuge for those that liked to dissect words.






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