#theprogressive

I'm confused. I thought people on the "Left" were smarter than this. How many times can someone draw a false equivalency without realizing it?

How hard it is to figure out that:

1) Not everyone who calls him/herself by a certain label exemplifies that label. The RW calls itself "patriotic." So what? It isn't by any rationale, contextualized definition of the term. Many people may call themselves "liberal" who are just as reactionary as anyone on the Right, which, by definition, makes them reactionaries, not liberals. Yes, The Progressive, a person who is pro-drone strikes cannot rationally call him or herself a "liberal" on that issue. The article also seems to completely ignore  the distinction between "liberals" and "Democrats." Not all liberals are Democrats and not all (or most) Democrats are liberals. It also seems to presume that Bill Maher fans are: 1) all liberals, and 2) all agree with whatever he says.  

2) Not every individual can be neatly categorized on every issue. Yes. Bill Maher has a problem with Muslims. Bill Maher does overgeneralize on that issue and can be criticized for his views on that issue in numerous ways. However, to generalize that criticism into an ad hominem attack on "liberals" (the "Evangelical Left") is not only intellectually dishonest but seems to be an act guilty of the charge being leveled; a strain of the "libertarian" trend to pretend to be aloof and objective in order to develop a straw man argument and/or false equivalency. Context matters and the article indiscriminately changes contexts.  

3) Obama is not and never was a liberal. The Progressive is now propagating an insidious distortion of reality. What today would be called "liberal" (PBO, most MSNBC programming, Elizabeth Warren, etc.) would have been called "centrist" (or even center-right) yesterday. The Right Wing and its media flunkies have, once again, managed to define the frame, in this case where the "center" lies. Today anything even resembling a moderate, common-sense approach is deemed "liberal." While I imagine most liberals would agree with the characterization of liberal ideas as commonsensical ideas, the ideas being posited, as stated in the article, are decidedly devoid of any leftist idealism. Even Elizabeth Warren, who may be a far left liberal isn't pushing anything "liberal," but rationale, moderate, and centrist (even conservative by the true meaning of the word). It merely sounds extremist because Washington is dominated by Right Wing memes. When the Progressive classifies all Obama supporters as the "Left," it stretches credulity. It's like calling Alan Grayson a fascist.