Liberalism

I thoroughly appreciated David Savage's excellent article about U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan (Oct. 1). Too seldom do we have the opportunity to read about the "giants" of our time. However, there was one sentence which I most hotly must contest. He stated that, "Brennan's style of liberalism had gone out of fashion." Never! for the pursuit of freedom and justice for all should never and will never go out of fashion. Witness China, Hungary, Poland, South Korea, etc. "Liberalism" may at times suffer at the hands of bigots, fools and tyrants but it will always be alive in the minds and hearts of those who love their fellow man, no matter who they may be. Remember " Liberte!

We have once again entered the college commencement season, which means we'll soon be reading about uplifting graduation speeches delivered by prominent Americans. Or at least by prominent liberal Americans. It's becoming increasingly apparent that conservative speakers aren't welcome on college and university campuses. Last month, in the span of a few days, student protests disrupted a presentation by Karl Rove at the University of Massachusetts and one by Rand Paul at Howard University.

Contemporary liberalism redefined: The frightening thought that somebody, somewhere may be enjoying himself. HARVEY KRAGER South Pasadena

WASHINGTON - An influential network of some of the country's wealthiest liberal political donors is steering resources to an advocacy group backing President Obama's agenda and to organizations working to pass immigration reform, providing a surge of money that could boost the president's legislative goals. Democracy Alliance, an invitation-only group that makes funding recommendations to its members, selected the pro-Obama Organizing for Action and immigration reform groups such as the National Immigration Forum as some of its top 2013 priorities at its spring conference in Laguna Beach last week, according to leaders of the organization.

William Schneider perpetuates a myth when he blames past Democratic election defeats on liberalism ("Democrats: Nobody Here but Us Moderates," Opinion, July 24). He concludes from this false premise that the Democrats have a good chance to capture the White House in 1988 only because they have finally moved away from those alleged failed liberal policies of yesteryear. This is a narrow view that turns history on its head. Liberalism did not cause the Democratic Party to self-destruct.

Enough! Let's nip the Republicans' red-baiting in the bud right now. Reviving through demagogic excess a shameful period in this nation's history, Bush and Dan Quayle have been attacking political liberals as extremists, far outside the mainstream of American political thought. Not only is this nasty, it is nonsense. As any political scientist can tell you, the overriding political tradition of this country is liberal. In the "Dictionary of American Politics," Edward C. Smith and Arnold J. Zurcher define liberalism as "a form of government and . . . a governmental policy judged most favorable to individual liberty.

Liberalism's failure to be heard is due not to corporate ownership but to elitist views like those expressed by James D. Squires in his review of "A Matter of Opinion" by Victor S. Navasky [Book Review, July 10]. As long as liberals continue to characterize those who disagree with them with words like "moronization," blame their impotence on "the dominance of multinational corporations" (as opposed to multinational anti-democratic, anti-capitalist movements?) and believe that politicians need journals of opinion to "know what to think or say," they will continue their self-marginalization.

Re "Christian Conservatives Must Not Compromise," Commentary, Nov. 5: This piece is extremist. It is also representative of a cancer that is growing in America. Religion is being co-opted for the worst kind of demagoguery. Forty-eight percent the country is not "evil" for voting against George W. Bush, and did not "vomit" on "God, family and country." Leonard Wayne La Crescenta I know that you're all concerned about giving equal time to alternate viewpoints. But printing Pastore's rant is really going overboard.

The candidate for President talked about spending most of the Fourth of July weekend, "that most American of holidays," with his family in the back yard. He told of his joy at learning he will be a grandfather. He said that China and the Soviet Union have seen the error of their ways and are becoming more democratic. And he talked about making sure "our fighting men and women" have the best equipment to do their jobs. This was not Republican George Bush talking. It was Democrat Michael S.

A key part of President Bush's message for the final weeks of the campaign is starting to sound like a schoolyard taunt: Kerry is a liberal! Kerry is a liberal! Democrat John F. Kerry's response at the final presidential debate Wednesday sometimes sounded like the political equivalent of: So? You wanna make something of it?

The stage lights rise, and Michelle Bachelet - former political prisoner, torture victim and socialist president of Chile from 2006 to 2010 - braces herself to deliver a dramatic farewell speech. "Pardon me if I offend the fascists," she tells her audience in Spanish, "or if I offend those that want a happy ending. But I prefer bittersweet endings. " In the compromise-seeking world of contemporary Chilean politics, such a declaration might be tantamount to career suicide. But when Bachelet's fiery language is spoken by three young women in Guillermo Calderón's play "Discurso," the actors tell us, "it's as if someone were putting words in my mouth.

If any line item in the state or federal budgets cries out for more resources, or even just a little more respect, it's the arts and humanities. Never mind that many writers, artists and scholars have the fresh ideas that our times so desperately need. When politicians and columnists call for increased spending on STEM projects - that's science, technology, engineering and mathematics - don't they know they're alienating at least half the country? Let's reckon with the extent of the neglect.

Gifford Phillips, a gentlemanly patron of cultural institutions and passionate advocate of contemporary art who played a leading role at museums on both coasts of the United States, has died. He was 94. Phillips died Wednesday of natural causes at a hospice in Palm Desert, said his daughter Marjorie Elliott. A member of a wealthy family - including his uncle, art collector Duncan Phillips, who founded the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. - Gifford Phillips was a partner in Pardee Phillips, a real estate developer of residential and commercial property in California and Nevada.

They hail from New York, the Silicon Valley, Arkansas, Los Angeles and elsewhere. They are a rich and diverse lot, including Republicans, liberals, Hollywood notables and international corporate executives. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, L.A. philanthropist Eli Broad, Netflix founder Reed Hastings, pomegranate juice titan Lynda Resnick, anti-Obama mega-donor A. Jerrold Perenchio and the widow of Steve Jobs. Together, they smashed records for spending by outside groups in last month's L.A. Board of Education elections.

The Republican National Committee's Spring gathering is taking place this week at Loews Hollywood. That is not Hollywood, Fla., or Hollywood, S.C., or Hollywood, Ala. - all real towns in really red states - but Hollywood, Calif., the place where Sean Penn, Ben Affleck, Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon, Barbra Streisand, Jane Fonda, Martin Sheen, George Clooney and the rest of the entertainment industry's liberal horde earn their keep. Like Nixon going to China, the Republicans have entered hostile territory.

President Obama won't release his proposed budget for 2014 until Wednesday, but liberals and AARP have been howling all week about something they expect to be in it. What has our president done to provoke such outrage among his supporters? He's chained CPI. In an attempt to meet Republicans halfway in the battle over taxes and spending, Obama has offered to change the formula for calculating Social Security's annual cost-of-living increase - an "entitlement reform" GOP leaders have long asked for. The result would not change current Social Security benefits, but it would reduce future raises by an estimated three-tenths of 1% in the first year, or about $42 for the average beneficiary.

Of the 700 Churches of Christ in California, more than 100 show little or no interest in Pepperdine University's annual Bible lectures because of the school's perceived liberal direction, according to a campus administrator.

Reporting from deep within the steaming fetid cesspool of the Liberal Establishment, this is your depraved correspondent, shamelessly spewing his anti-family, anti-American garbage all over the decent people. Enough already. I don't know about my fellow pinko, flag-burning colleagues, but I'm tired of ceding the moral high ground to the Dan Quayles and Pat Buchanans of the world.

In 1975, when asked to explain why Margaret Thatcher was poised to take over the Tory Party, the irascible British satirist Malcolm Muggeridge replied that it was all due to television and the fact that the telegenic Thatcher had a "certain imbecile charm. " That was one of the nicer things said about an "imbecile" who earned a degree in chemistry from Oxford and passed the bar while studying law at home. The lesson here is that being underestimated is a great gift in politics.

Mari Edelman called upstairs to the caretaker, asking if her husband was awake and in good enough shape to handle a visitor. As we ascended the stairs of their Westwood home, Mari explained that her husband's cruel condition - an advancing neurological disease - has left him sharp mentally but withered physically, and barely able to speak. Edmund D. Edelman, who put in 29 years as an elected official in Los Angeles, first as a City Councilman and then as a member of the county Board of Supervisors, lay on his back against a window, a blanket draped over him. He squeezed out an acknowledgment, barely audible, and I sat down to talk to him, with Mari doing her best to interpret his responses.