In my experience, FWIW, Lexus owners are Mercedes wannabes. That's the basis of my post above!

maahey,

A Lexus is a very expensive car. My brother is a car mechanic for Lexus in Atlanta, GA. He won a full-year's lease on one for his outstanding performance and had to turn it down; he couldn't pay the taxes and insurance.

So a person who drives a Lexus and proclaims him(her)self a Liberal (by UK or US standards?) is probably very comfortable, and unconcerned..

As I said, I never heard the term before but it sounds perfect to me. Hondas are cheaper cars. Faldage and I share a little Subaru becuase it has the all-wheel drive needed in this snowy hilly terrain. Having lived in big cities all my life, I never (co-)owned a car before now.

A liberal is a person eager to give away your money.

But, but, but [scratching head e],... who is a liberal?
A liberal is not a socialist and does nor profess to be. Is there a luxury car with a name that starts with the letter S? Is the Subaru like a Lexus? If so, then, a Subaru Socialist is a better term, no? Or a Corvette Communist? To convey this meaning at least.....

I agree with the meaning; I just think they coined the phrase badly, even though it sounds nice. To my mind, the phrase should focus on the MEANING it wants to convey and match a luxury car accordingly for the irony effect. Here, they seem to have found a luxury car first and thrown in any old word that sounded nice with it to convey their intent of rich, do-nothing hypocrites. Do you agree?

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.

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.

Ah, yes...I remember Lexus well...she never let me take any "liberties" with her though.

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.

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.

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]

Sounds good to me, Rhuby.

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

makes sense to me, too, which is why I'm struggling with maahey's confusion.

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.

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.

I am having difficulties with the word liberal which to my mind, is all about being broad minded and non judgmental.

ah, there's the rub. in this case, they are using the term in its' political meaning, which, yes, for the most part means broad-minded and non-judgemental, and so, also means standing up for the little guy; social concerns, environmental issues, etc., which are seen as contrary to owning a fancy, very expensive automobile. so the term "Lexus Liberal" can be a very apt one.

hope that helps.

A lot, etaoin! Thanks!

I might also ask if the friend from whom you heard this is an USn. If so, you should consider that the term Liberal in the US has taken on something of a bad flavor due to its conversion into a word of invective by those who refer to themselves as Conservatives. And its main meaning among USns takes the idea of broad-minded and non-judgemental to mean lax in morals and willing to let society go to pot in the name of moral relativism. This under the influence of those who have twisted the derfinition to their own ends.

Well, as I think I've said elsewhere, I don't really think you can equate the shades of political standing transpondially. A liberal in the US and a liberal in the UK (or, indeed, in Australia and NZ) are two very different kettles of fish. To my way of thinking, US party-political "left-wing" attitudes are pretty much somewhere out to the right of Genghiz Khan.

I'm talking here about the parties, you should note, not about individuals. In my view, the Democrats are very conservative, judged on their actions when in power. The GOP is ultra-conservative, judged on theirs. The neocons are fascists, pure and simple.

So the notion of a political "liberal" will have very different connotations in the US and in the UK, I would have thought!

thank you for that perspective, Cap. as much as I cringe at the thought that those definitions are correct, I would agree with you.
the world is a fascinating place, I hope we'll get to enjoy it.

[blergh][oy][shrug]

The Conservatives' stereotype of the Liberal in the US is "tax and spend". Presumably, a Lexus Liberal would be one who supports tax relief for people who can afford to buy a Lexus. This would be one reason for the accusations of hypocrisy.

now that's a spin I hadn't thought of.
innerestin'...

On the other hand, a friend of mine in college in the '70s, who claimed to be a trotskyist (he recanted when he became an actual Worker), when asked the difference between a trotskyist and a trotskyite, responded that it was the same as the difference between a socialist and a socialite.

Right you are Faldgae, she is a born and bred American, all right. I finally comprehend that I was approaching the word with a somewhat blinkered perspective. I had absolutely no idea that this was the sense of the word on this side of the pond! I also now see the title of a new book, 'What liberal media' in a new light. Hmmm....

And I agree with eta, that the 'tax and spend' angle is both interesting and plausible. Delectable tongue- twister too ...trotskyite torsky....never mind!

And so, trophies and applause to: 'lexus liberal'(Amy); limousine liberal (slithy), socialist socialite (rhuby), trotskyist trotskyite (Faldage) (whew!)

Thanks all!

Of course, the conservative alternative seems to be borrow and spend.

Thinking back to my (more) judgemental, opinionated and intolerant youth I recall my mental picture of members of what was then the Liberal Party in British politics; the two major parties, in terms of numbers, being the Conservative and Labour Parties. To me, at that age, a typical Liberal, if male¹, smoked a pipe (particularly when driving his pre-war Morris), had a beard, wore sandals over his socks and a tweed sports jacket with leather patches on the elbows, was probably a teacher² and drank rosé wine or cider.

For my own protection I must stress that I no longer hold that opinion. The Liberal Party no longer exists of course, it has become the Lib Dems, and the ‘type’ I have described has vanished.

1 - I suspect they nearly all *were male. We have a secret ballot after all; what you said to please your husband or father and what you did could be different.

2 – A few teachers at that time could not bring themselves to vote for a socialist party but could not naturally support a party of capitalists. The Liberal Party was the answer for them; radical without being too far left.

Then there was the brief news item the other day about the woman who had gone to Iraq to be a human shield. I didn't catch whether they said this was her choice or if she had been assigned to it, but she ended up shielding an oil refinery. Talk about your Lexus Liberal.

I'm back after a while away, and noticed this quote used in the Liberal discussion:

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.

The thing is, Paul Martin is a member of the Liberal Party [of Canada]. So in this quote, the person was seeking to make a pun on the phrase "limousine liberal". Just wanted to clarify. I mean, the guy literally is a Liberal. Card-carrying and everything!

So, what so you call somebody who dislikes, say, WalMart for political reasons but shops there anyway for economic reasons?

Besides poor, that is.